Team Focus: Real Betis

In a league dogged by inconsistency most sides in La Liga this season haven't known whether they’re fighting relegation or challenging for a place in Europe. No team has personified that lack of regularity more than Real Betis.

In the first throes of Autumn the good times were back on the green side of Seville, four games in to their return to the Primera after two years away and they were yet to drop a point, they led Barcelona by four, Real Madrid by five, and even better they had left Sevilla in their wake.

Yet that early optimism soon turned to reality striking despair. Ten games further down the line and Los Verdiblancos were closing in on Christmas without registering another victory, moreover they had taken just one point from a possible 30.

Hosting Valencia on December 10, the game was headed for stoppage time with the visitors leading 1-0. Another defeat was on the cards, Pepe Mel's job all but lost. Then remarkably they scored not once, but twice to record their first victory since September 22.

Their bounce continued either side of the winter break as two more wins followed, yet the rollercoaster pattern continued; four games without a win, seven points from nine, three consecutive defeats and finally - following their first away draw of the season at Real Sociedad - another five-game unbeaten run.

The most obvious factor for this mixture of highs and lows is something that is apparent in most sides who fail to find a regular level. Inconsistency on the team sheet equals inconsistency on the pitch. Betis have used the joint-highest number of players in the league this season with 30.

However, despite using as many players as anyone else, Betis’ real problem has been a dependency on a couple of key players.

In almost all of the of the good periods mentioned above, Ruben Castro features prominently. It was he who scored the winner in both 1-0 wins over Granada and Mallorca to start the season, he who scored both late goals against Valencia, he who scored in wins against Athletic Bilbao and Real Zaragoza in February and in this latest run he has scored four in five games.
 
In total he has scored 13 of Betis' 39 goals, 33% of their total, only behind Radamel Falcao (48%), Lionel Messi (41%), Cristiano Ronaldo (37%) and Roberto Soldado (35%) for percentage of his team’s goals, and has been on target in seven of their 11 wins.

Yet, despite those figures, Castro isn’t even the most highly rated Betis player according to WhoScored’s average player ratings. Instead it is Beñat Etxebarria, whose influence from a deeper role has been just as important.

The former Athletic Bilbao trainee has contributed four goals and four assists, but more than that he is the team’s creative hub. He has completed the most passes (51.7 per game) and key passes (1.5 per game) as well as being the leading outfield player for accurate long balls (5.1).

Defensively he has also proved his worth with an average of 2 tackles and 2.7 interceptions per game, however, Beñat’s most impressive stat is probably what happens when he isn’t there.

The 25-year-old has only missed two games entirely and both were defeats, at home to Rayo Vallecano and away at Barcelona. Moreover, Betis have also not won any of the four other games in which he hasn’t started, but their performances greatly improved after his introduction when already trailing at Sociedad, Mallorca, Osasuna and Getafe.

Another final factor which may help to explain why Betis are a bookies nightmare is that a huge number of their games have been decided by late goals at either end.

Osasuna, Espanyol and Real Sociedad have all won games in the final stages of stoppage time against Mel’s side, whilst Espanyol also snatched a point at the Benito Villamarín last month with a 93rd minute equaliser.

Whilst, on a positive note on top of the Valencia turnaround, games against Granada, Mallorca and Athletic Bilbao have all been won in the final five minutes.

The fact that goals have both been scored for and against late in games means that there isn’t particularly a mental or physical issue but rather that Betis continue to go for the win until the end and sometimes as a consequence they will also lose games.

Tuesday night’s draw against Sociedad was a case in point. Whilst it did break an incredible streak of not having drawn away all season, both sides came agonisingly close to winning the game in stoppage time.

The good news for all fans of La Liga is that their latest turnaround in fortunes should guarantee another season in the top-flight for one of Spain’s biggest clubs. Unpredictable they may be, but that’s what makes them so endearing.