Thought of the Day: Spoiled for Choice

By: Anthony | March 25th, 2009

Wing play is so important, especially in Spanish football. At Sevilla we’re so lucky to have some of the best wingers not only in the country, but some of the most sought after in the world.

Over the past few years all of Spain and Europe have seen the rise of Jesús Navas, a product of the Sevilla cantera. The local kid has impressed with his quick feet and dashing runs down the right flank always causing defenders to be on their toes. Because of Navas’ rise to prominence on the right side, Belgian International Tom de Mul who was a highly sought after youth prospect coming out of the ever-famous Ajax youth system, saw very limited playing time causing him to go out on loan this past January.

On the opposite flank we have Bazilian born Adriano and Spanish capped Diego Capel, both whom which are youth and ambitious. Adriano was with us during our back-to-back UEFA Cups as well as the other three trophies we won a couple years ago but over the past couple years the Almería born Capel has burst onto the scene. Diego is known to be a quick dribbler with tremendous pace but also quite the simulator to say the least. He never fails to cause problems for defenders and has been linked in rumours to some of the biggest clubs in Europe including Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur. Both wingers have done an amazing job for us over the past couple years but over the past month they have found their minutes hard to come by.

Diego Perotti, another product of the Sevilla Atlético academy got his call-up to the first team due to the numerous injuries within the squad. What started as a call-up now is cemented as a permanent spot with the young Argentine impressing week in and week out with his determination and sheer class.

This is a problem that many managers would love to have, so much talent on both flanks. Surely this is an awesome predicament to be in right? Wrong.

My concern is this – Adriano has found himself playing either right or left back now, a position he played in for Brazil and where he is rather comfortable. He showed his ability this past weekend against Valladolid where he was rock solid and never made any major errors. Jesús Navas of course is a regular starter down the right side and since Tom de Mul is on loan there is no other real competition in that spot. Last game at home to Valladolid though both Perotti and Capel were started on the bench with the latter seeing no playing time at all. Since Diego Capel is a young upcoming star surely he would like to see as much playing time as possible and not getting many minutes every week would cause someone of his ability to become frustrated. It does worry me that Jiménez calls on Perotti to come into the game before Capel who was once our go-to guy when we needed a bit of a boost down the left flank.

I can’t say that I’m disappointed with Perotti’s performances at all, he’s been absolute class, but I would definitely be disappointed if Capel did become unsettled in the squad and eventually wanted to leave. He’s so young with so much potential and it would be a real shame to lose him and probably see him flourish at one of the biggest European clubs.

I really can’t think of a solution for this problem, with so much talent in one squad I guess these are the things you have to expect.