Man, I gotta tell you, the reason I even started digging into RCD Espanyol versus Athletic Club stats was totally accidental. I was arguing with my buddy, Tom, last week about why Espanyol always seems to just fold in the second half, especially when they play teams that press hard like Athletic. He swore it was fitness; I swore it was tactics—specifically, where the hell they were standing when they didn’t have the ball.
So, I decided to prove him wrong. But I didn’t want to just watch tape. I wanted numbers. Real, messy, raw numbers that showed exactly where every player was positioned when the ball was turned over, and how quickly they recovered their defensive shape.
The Messy Start: Grabbing the Data
The first thing I did was grab every single positional data point I could find from the major stats sites covering their matchups this season. I didn’t go for the easy stuff like ‘possession percentage’—that’s just noise. I hunted for metrics related to physical space: stuff like average defensive line height, field tilt, and successful pressure applications by zone. I swear, I must have pulled data from three different sites just to make sure I had enough overlap. I basically threw everything into one giant Excel sheet. It was a complete disaster.
My spreadsheet nearly blew up. We’re talking thousands of rows, all with weird acronyms and numbers that didn’t immediately make sense. I spent a good four hours just cleaning the data. I had to manually go through and standardize the metrics. For example, one site measured defensive line height in meters, another used percentages of the field. I had to convert all that junk into a common denominator—let’s just call it “field quadrants”—so I could actually compare apples to apples.
Filtering the Noise to Find Positioning Gems
The real practice started when I had to filter out the garbage. I was looking specifically for positional deficiencies in Espanyol when facing Athletic’s aggressive style. That means I had to ignore all attacking metrics and focus solely on defensive posture and transition points. I ran a bunch of basic correlation tests—nothing fancy, just standard Excel functions—to see which metrics seemed to shift dramatically between the first half (when Espanyol is usually decent) and the second half (when they collapse).
After a full day of staring at spreadsheets and drinking way too much coffee, I started to see patterns. The simple stats were useless. I had to dig into derived metrics—the stuff that tells you where the action happened, not just that it happened.
I finally isolated five specific metrics that scream ‘positional failure’ for Espanyol when Athletic turns up the heat. These five stats perfectly captured the physical space issues I was trying to prove to Tom. This is what I found:
- Stat One: Average Defensive Line Depth (Second Half vs. Athletic).
- Stat Two: Central Zone Entry Success Rate Allowed.
- Stat Three: Average Position of Defensive Midfielder (When Pressed).
- Stat Four: Opposition Field Tilt Percentage (Post-60th Minute).
- Stat Five: Pressed Ball Recoveries in Attacking Third.
Breaking Down the Best Five Stats
Stat One: Average Defensive Line Depth. This one was huge. I calculated the average position of Espanyol’s back four during periods when Athletic was building up play slowly. In the first half, they stood about 40 yards out. By the second half, that number dropped to 25 yards. They were getting pushed way back, cramping their midfield, which leads right to Stat Two.
Stat Two: Central Zone Entry Success Rate Allowed. This measures how easily Athletic got the ball into the dangerous center channel. I compared this rate for all games Espanyol played versus just the Athletic matches. Against Athletic, their success rate allowed was 20% higher than their season average. They just couldn’t keep the middle locked down because everyone was too deep.
Stat Three: Average Position of Defensive Midfielder (When Pressed). I focused on Sergi Darder’s average position. When Athletic started applying heavy pressure, Darder, who should be holding that central pivot position, dropped back almost into the backline. This totally broke the connection with the forward line and meant they couldn’t relieve pressure by passing forward.
Stat Four: Opposition Field Tilt Percentage (Post-60th Minute). Field tilt is a simple measure of where most of the passes happen. Anything over 60% for the opposition means they are essentially playing entirely in your half. After the 60th minute in their last match, Athletic’s field tilt was 72%! This wasn’t fitness, Tom. This was Espanyol getting tactically pinned and having nowhere to stand but inside their own box.
Stat Five: Pressed Ball Recoveries in Attacking Third. This is the key to Athletic’s strength. They press high. I counted how many times Athletic recovered the ball in Espanyol’s attacking third—a number that doubled in the second half compared to the first. This proved that Espanyol’s deep positioning made it impossible to break out; the moment they tried to push up, they lost the ball immediately in dangerous areas.
The Final Realization
After meticulously plotting these five stats, the picture was crystal clear. It wasn’t just that Espanyol were tired; it was that the tactical decision to drop their line so deep when under pressure allowed Athletic to completely dominate the geographical space of the pitch. They conceded the center and the high press zones, and the numbers absolutely screamed it.
I finally sent the compiled data and the five charts to Tom, along with a voice note that basically said, “See? Positional failure, not just running out of breath.” The beauty of this kind of data digging isn’t the data itself, but the journey of wrestling with the raw numbers until they finally tell you the real story. And the real story is that Athletic forced Espanyol into five terrible positional habits this season, and the numbers don’t lie.