The Pride of Vallekas

Linares coach Pedro Pablo Braojos once told him that he didn't have what it took to succeed in the Segunda B. He would turn out to be right. Mohamed Diamé was born in the Paris suburb of Créteil and he was selected to attend the Clairefontaine academy between 2000 and 2003. He would then move to Lens, beginning his professional career in 2005 with the club's reserves, but left two years later after facing health problems. He was told playing again would be risky. But he took that risk - as well as the risk of playing in another country - by recovering and immediately signing for Segunda B side Linares in July 2007. He played 31 games for the club - starting just 14 of them - and clocked 1292 minutes. Linares coach Pedro Pablo Braojos once told him that he didn't have what it took to succeed in the division. He would turn out to be right - Rayo Vallecano, a team not in the Segunda B but in the Segunda, saw a player with raw potential. A dynamic midfielder with ...

Rayo Vallecano vs Barcelona B. Initial lineups. Míchel made two changes to the side that lost 3-2 at Zaragoza - Raúl de Tomás was replaced by Diego Aguirre in attack, and Abdoulaye Ba was replaced by José Antonio Dorado in defense. Gerard López also made a couple of changes to the side that lost 2-0 against Huesca - Jorge Cuenca was replaced by José Antonio Martínez in defense, Vitinho Carvalho was replaced by Ferrán Sarsanedas in midfield and Marc Cardona was replaced by Abel Ruiz in attack. Barcelona B more or less dominated possession in their own half but struggled to create chances in the final third. In contrast, Rayo Vallecano were quick in their play during transitions, switching the ball from one end of the field to another with deadly one-touch passing. However, Rayo struggled to get past a resilient Barcelona B defense. If there is a TL;DR for this game, it is this: in the end, Rayo brought on a striker, and within two minutes Barcelona B's defense let out a lit...

Real Zaragoza vs Rayo Vallecano. Starting lineups. Míchel reverted to a 4-3-3 formation from three at the back that drew 1-1 against Albacete, and dropped Dorado in place for buccaneering right back Baiano. Natxo González made wholesale changes from the side that lost 3-1 at Huesca - in defense Alain Oyarzun was replaced at left back by Ángel Martínez, Mikel González was replaced at right center-back by Simone Grippo and Alberto Benito was replaced at right back by Julián Delmás. And in midfield and attack there was a complete shake-up tactically - Oliver Buff and Javi Ros was replaced by Aleix Febas and Íñigo Eguaras. This was a game that summed up both teams perfectly - defensively lacking, strong in attack and a hardworking yet technically astute midfield. Zaragoza were actually quite poor going forward, and didn't create many chances. But they took the ones they had, and the sheer versatility of their players allowed Zaragoza to change systems quickly and seal the win. ...

Rayo Vallecano vs Sporting Gijón. Starting lineups. Míchel made several changes to the rotated side that won 2-0 at Reus Deportiu, reverting to the lineup that won 1-0 against Almería the jornada before - the only change compared to that game was Sergio Akieme being replaced by regular left-back Álex Moreno. Paco Herrera made one change to the side that drew 1-1 against Huesca, with Michael Santos came on as the lone striker for Carlos Castro. This was a frantic, hectic, evenly matched game - a 1-1 draw was a fair result - but it was also characterized by another Míchel experiment. First half setups Míchel's tactic was clear here - overload the left wing. Unai López, Adrián Embarba, Óscar Trejo, and Raúl de Tomás all played on the left side of the pitch, with Santi Comesaña asked to cover the entire right side. This was puzzling for two reasons - firstly, because Sporting Gijón are an incredibly balanced side and putting out an imbalanced team was defensively comprom...

Rayo Vallecano vs Albacete. Starting lineups Míchel made one change, and it was in defense - Abdoulaye Ba came in for Baiano, with Emiliano Velázquez shifting over to the right side. Enrique Martín made several rotations in his 3-4-2-1 formation compared to the 0-0 draw against Huesca. At left wing-back, Mariano Bíttolo was replaced by David Morillas. In central midfield César de la Hoz was replaced by Rafa Gálvez. And in attack Fabián Espíndola and Roman Zozulya were replaced by Dani Rodríguez and Jérémie Bela respectively. Albacete ceded possession this game as they have all season, clocking just 29%. Rayo had more chances but Albacete certainly had the better chances. First half setups It was clear that Míchel's change to a back three was an attempt to neutralize Albacete's front three. In practice, however, Velázquez's role also included covering for Abdoulaye Ba who routinely stepped out of the back three to cut out passes or apply pressure on players. In t...

This game's Rayo Report format is different simply because the game was, barring some fleeting chances, quite dull and marked by both teams being guarded. Cádiz vs Rayo. Starting lineups. Míchel made no changes from the side that drew 1-1 against Sporting Gijón. In contrast, Álvaro Cervera made three changes to the Cádiz lineup compared to the 2-1 loss to Betis in the Copa del Rey just four days before - goalkeeper Rubén Yáñez was replaced by Alberto Cifuentes, and wingers Dani Romera and Moha Traoré were replaced by Álvaro García and Salvi Sánchez respectively. Before this game, Rayo Vallecano were undefeated in their last 4 matches, and Cádiz had failed to win any of their last 7 matches; however, the game started with Rayo Vallecano looking shaky defensively, and Rayo were terrible throughout the game at keeping possession. Nevertheless, as the game progressed, both teams were cautious going forward and played to protect a point. Rayo's system was similar to pre...

My first tactical analysis piece for this blog wasn't actually The Rayo Report. It was a piece I did in July 2017, entitled Rayo Tactics - the delicately perfect balance of Míchel's team . It was a look back at Rayo's tactics over the final third of the season. It was hastily assembled, and it was ugly. The tactical boards to represent the players were ugly. The structure of the post was ugly. I cringed when reading it back - it made no sense. But I loved it. And so a new series was born... The Rayo Report was a brand new tactical analysis series - for the first time on this blog I challenged myself to tactically analyse each and every Rayo league game, and have so far missed just one. But I've enjoyed doing it so much that I asked you guys whether I should extend the series to include games that have already happened in the past, and you guys (overwhelmingly) said... Enjoy doing #TheRayoReport - thanks to y'all for the support! Would you like to r...

Edit: in the pictures below I have mixed up former Llagostera player Tito with current Llagostera player Pitu.  Apologies for that. Mixing up two (admittedly very similar) players is a first for this blog. Hopefully it will be the last too. Reus Deportiu vs Rayo Vallecano. Starting lineups. Míchel and Aritz López Garai both made major changes to their squad from their previous games - a 1-0 win against Almería and a 1-1 draw at Huesca respectively. This was understandable, given that for Rayo and Reus this was their third game in eight and nine days respectively. Rayo's defense was completely reshuffled. Right to left, Baiano, Emiliano Velázquez, José Antonio Dorado and Sergio Akieme became Baiano, Antonio Amaya, Abdoulaye Ba and Álex Moreno - that's three changes. Moreover, in midfield, Francisco Cerro replaced Unai López for his first start in a Rayo shirt, or indeed in Spanish football. There was also a fifth change that Míchel was forced to make after the starti...

Huesca vs Rayo Vallecano. Starting lineups. Both managers made no changes - and on paper that made sense. Míchel's side had won 3-1 against Cultural Leonesa and Rubi's side had won 1-0 against Valladolid. This was an evenly fought game - one could even argue that Rayo were on top - but Huesca won for two reasons: an 18-year-old's excellent performance, and a Rayo substitution that hurt themselves. Huesca and Rayo first half set ups Huesca lined up in a 4-2-3-1 hybrid. Up front, 6'3" striker Ezequiel Rescaldani played almost a man-marking game against Dorado, largely winning that battle and keeping him occupied in the air. Similarly, Cucho Hernández played a man-marking game against Moreno on the right - and was perhaps Huesca's man of the match. Not only did he work extremely hard when not in possession, he kept making runs between Moreno and Dorado and gave Rayo a torrid night. On the left David Ferreiro actively dribbled towards the center areas...

Rayo Vallecano vs Almería. Starting lineups. Míchel went with a largely unchanged lineup from the one that won 4-1 against Valladolid, with Sergio Akieme getting a run in ahead of Álex Moreno. Luis Miguel Ramis made several changes from their 3-0 loss against Huesca - Joaquín Moreno was replaced by Jorge Morcillo at centre-back, Rubén Alcaraz was replaced by Pervis Estupiñán, Fidel was replaced by Nauzet Alemán and Juan Muñoz was replaced by Pablo Caballero. Interestingly, the first three players that were replaced were also the three substitutions Almería made in this game. Rayo had the edge in the first half but couldn't find their finishing boots - Morcillo's red card before half-time meant that, even though it was 0-0, the game was over. Rayo and Almería set ups Rayo stuck to their typical lopsided 4-3-3, with Unai López on the left and Óscar Trejo playing his diagonal role. What was interesting was Almería changing from their usual, traditional 4-3-3 to a l...

Rayo Vallecano vs Real Valladolid. Starting lineups. Both managers went with similar lineups as the week before. Míchel made no changes from the side that lost 2-1 at Huesca. And Luis César Sampedro made a solitary change, bringing in Toni Villa for Pablo Hervías on the right wing. This was a comprehensive victory for Rayo, who ended the game with just 36% possession (40% in the first half and 32% in the second). More importantly, it was characterized by both managers making multiple changes, both tactical and personnel-wise, throughout the game. First half set up Real Valladolid went with a very Rayo-esque 4-2-3-1 formation - and they played very much like Rayo too. Borja Fernández sat in the "Trashorras" role, dropping deep into the defense and (trying to) dictating play. Luismi sat further forward trying to break up play. Óscar Plano sat on the left wing, occasionally trying to dictate Valladolid's attacking game but very much ended up hugging the touc...