Apart from the flashes and the performance of Sergi Darder, general captain of Espanyol, the great appearance in the first 14 days of the championship has been Joselu Mato, the globetrotting striker (he played in Germany and England) who arrived free and who, in just a few months, has become one of the most loved on and off the field by fans. Diego Martínez has insisted on valuing the player for his work more than for his targets. He has recalled that he “is not Van Basten’s cousin” and that “Joselu adds to the team, we are delighted with himbut for all that it generates beyond the goals”.
The 32-year-old forward is the player in the championship who has won the most aerial duels, apart from being the most used by the coach because he has played everything. But his goals leave their mark and summarize that Joseludependencia in attack as happened last year with Raúl de Tomás. Espanyol is a team of forwards, that is how they have been writing their history, and the Galician, trained at Celta and Real Madrid, is still one more link in the chain of great parakeet finishers. If RdT achieved 42% of the parakeet goals last year (17 of 40), Joselu has so far scored 44% (7 of 16) and is the fourth most decisive for his team in the championship.
In first position is the Mallorca player Vedat Muriqui, who has scored eight of the 13 goals for the team trained by the former parakeet Javier Aguirre, representing 61%. He is closely followed by Iago Aspas, from Celta, author of 50% of the goals scored by the Vigo team (seven of 14), while just ahead of Joselu is another former Espanyol player. Borja Iglesias has scored eight of Betis’ 15, which translates into 47%.
Despite this, the footballer has gone five games without seeing the goal in LaLiga. His last goal dates from matchday 9 against Valladolid (1-0). Afterwards, he has not been able to score against Osasuna, Elche, Atlético de Madrid, Mallorca and Villarreal, Curiously, games in which Espanyol were unable to win and scored four goals, below their average per game up to that point, which stood at 1.33 and in that stretch it dropped to 0.8. The striker is looking for new partners so as not to carry the weight of the attack.
Apart from Sergi Darder, who has scored two goals, the last one coincidentally after an assist from Joselu’s header, Espanyol has the three goals from an intermittent Martin Braithwaite, who started fine in the shots but has been losing prominence in the area in recent games in which he has played more hooked on the band, and the two of Edu Expósito, who has seen his minutes reduced in the last four games. Javi Puado adds a goal and should contribute more goals. He is one of the players with the most shots, but his aim has not accompanied him. Improve the figures so as not to depend on Joselu, Espanyol’s Van Basten for his numbers.