Is Eibar thinking of relegation back to La Liga? Reinforcements don’t suggest so

On Saturday, Eibar will play their third consecutive season in the second highest Spanish league. Last season ended in the first round of the playoffs for the players of coach Etxeberria’s selection, where Eibar advanced after finishing the season in 5th place. Eibar fell short to Deportivo Alaves after 1-1 home and 0-2 away results, who eventually advanced to the elite.

As it happens, the teams from the lower competitions have mainly experienced player losses after a failed comeback attempt. Imanol Garcia, Peru Nolaskoain, Álvaro Vadillo (all returning from loan), Javier Muñoz (end of contract), all players on whom they had built last season, have left Eibar.

Apart from the players returning from loan, Etxeberria can count on two new faces. The central defender or winger Cristian Guttiérez, who arrives for €300,000 from Málaga, and the winger Konrad de la Fuente.

American-born de la Fuente arrives on a one-year loan from French side Marseille, where he transferred from Barcelona for €3 million in 2021. He managed to win the Copa del Rey with Barcelona in the 2020/21 season, although he contributed just nineteen minutes to the triumph.

However, the last 2 years must have been difficult for Konrad, especially in finishing he struggled and still struggles. During the 2021/22 season, he registered a single goal and 3 assists! It is true that he played only 1077 minutes, but three points is very bad for a footballer who played mainly from the left or right wing.

Last season, he was a guest at Olympiacos in Greece, where he was supposed to somehow get some playing time before returning to Marseille. However, he only played 197 minutes in the 5 games he intervened in all season. Was he productive in them? He didn’t score a single goal or assist.

The bottom line is that Konrad de la Fuente has scored a single goal in his last 2 seasons. A bad statistic that should scare Eibar fans. Maybe the coach will ask him to prepare chances for the team’s top scorer last season Stoichkov, but 3 assists in 2 seasons doesn’t make a much better impression.

Finally, it must be said that even the other summer signing Guttierrez scored 2 goals last season from the left-back position. Maybe the American winger will wake up in Eibar and remember his goal scoring years in the Barcelona reserve where he was quite successful. In his last season before leaving for Marseille, he registered 6 goals and 4 assists in 21 games.

Eibar would like to return to the Spanish elite, but is a signing like this a suitable addition or reinforcement to the squad? Perhaps the next six months will tell, after which it will be clear whether they will be playing for promotion or just quietly in the middle of the table. The management would like to see promotion, but maybe it is the management that will be behind the unsuccessful season.

Source: Tranfermarkt