Mirandés are not following the plan

Mirandés is not where legacies are cemented, it's where they begin but Alessio Lisci's side are currently writing themselves into the history books.

Mirandés are pushing for automatic promotion to LaLiga. This was not the plan.

When discussing the favourites for relegation from the Segunda División to Primera RFEF during the summer, the conversation generally started with: "Mirandés and who else?"

So bad was their situation that they had to cancel preseason friendlies and even their own jersey presentation. They simply didn’t have the players.

Mirandés has long been a club built on the back of loan signings. They pride themselves on being a club where players are developed, a safe house for young prospects from bigger teams who are guaranteed minutes in an environment that forces them to learn fast. Mirandés is a place where dreams start, not where they are fulfilled. But Alessio Lisci has them closing in on one of the most incredible stories in football.

Based in Miranda de Ebro, they leverage their proximity to four LaLiga clubs. Alavés and Osasuna are a wayward corner away, while Athletic Club and Real Sociedad are within reach, sending a steady flow of young players who need seasoning.

This is a club that, until 2012-13, had never played higher than Segunda B. Over their 97-year history, they’ve spent 11 seasons as high as Spain's second division.

But in those 11 years, they have been the springboard for many very successful players and managers. Andoni Iraola, of course, is the big name. The Basque manager is currently leading Bournemouth into unchartered territory as they fight for European football in the Premier League. Borja Jiménez is managing Leganés (although he didn’t coach them in the second division) in LaLiga and José Alberto López is in charge of one of the most exciting teams in Spain in Racing Santander.

Lisci’s Beginnings

Alessio Lisci first appeared on the scene as the manager of Levante. He took over the team in November 2021, with the club bottom of the table with just 7 points from 15 games. He had 23 games to save them.

Lisci’s 1.22 points per game as Levante’s third coach of the season would have given then 46 points over a 38-game span, which would have been enough for a midtable position—if not for the damage already done. Despite his efforts, relegation was inevitable. But not before he made a mark, picking up big wins against Atlético Madrid, Villarreal, and Real Sociedad.

It’s difficult to overstate their achievement this season. There are 13 games left in the slog that is Spain’s second division, and somehow, this team—assembled on a shoestring, built on borrowed talent—is in contention for an automatic promotion spot. The sheer unlikeliness of that sentence alone is enough of an achievement.

Seventeen of their squad are new arrivals.

Only five players in their squad played football in Miranda de Ebro last season. The turnover is the same every year for Mirandés. They have to wait to do the majority of their business after other clubs have ironed out all creases in their own squad. That's when the dominoes start to fall and they can start to build theirs.

Here’s a look at some of their most notable loan signings. We’ll have to revisit and adjust this in the summer because the current crop are building solid resumes for themselves.

Style Of Play

Lisci’s team is not about elaborate build-up. They don’t string passes together for the sake of control. In fact, they have recorded the fewest 10-plus-pass sequences in Segunda this season—just 119 total, or roughly four per game. No team has fewer passes inside their own half and they have the fewest passes per sequence (2.58).

They only have 30 build-ups so far this season. Only five teams have fewer and three of those look locked on for relegation in Racing Ferrol, Eldense and Cartagena. The other two are Cádiz and Albacete, who have both struggled this season. Only Racing Santander attack faster than them.

Lisci is from the pool of managers who favour a slightly more chaotic approach as opposed to Pep Guardiola's positional play. Iraola and Iñigo Pérez of Rayo Vallecano think along similar lines.

Their PPDA of 12.9 isn't particularly low either. Only teams like FC Cartagena, Albacete, Huesca, Levante and Eldense put less pressure on the ball. What Lisci does do, however, is press at the right times. When they do press, they refuse to let the receiving player get turned and this forces teams long or into coughing the ball up easily as we can see in the clip below.

In a video for El Magistral, he gives a breakdown of how he deals with opposition pressure. He pushes his wing-backs up the field and the two wide players into the middle to create numerical superiorities for when the second ball falls.

They have the most flick-ons of any team (257). Once the ball goes long, Joaquín Panichelli makes sure he is on the winning end of the subsequent duels and the momentum carries them towards goal at break-neck speed.

In that video for El Magistral, the main takeaway is that everything hinges on how the opposition defend against the second player in the double pivot, a player who has to be an interior but also play in a two at the base of midfield and in this case beside Jon Gorrotxategi. The wing-backs play a vital role but the interiors hold a special place in Lisci's tactical plans.

One of those is Mathis Lachuer. Essentially, he is a box to box midfielder but Lisci asks a lot of his interiors along with his wing-backs. The 24-year-old is tall, physical and one of the rare players who has been in the squad for over a year. He plays a multi-faceted role as a wide interior at times but can also drop deep and player in a central midfield position too.

A lot of what Lisci is trying to do revolves around having players who can play fast and win duels without going over the edge. It's chaos with limits. They have won more duels than any other team in the division (1,614).

Another reason they don't produce high turnovers is because teams just don't try to play through them. They bank on teams getting flustered and going long rather than having the temerity to play through them. They are uncompromising in making sure they have their back five in place. Once a team goes long, the midfielders have to drop and do battle for the second ball on the defensive side too.

The result is one of the stingiest defenses in Spain’s second tier. Only Elche and Burgos have conceded fewer expected goals (28.6). They have conceded the fewest goals in the league alongside both Elche and Huesca with 23.

Here's another example of Lisci's mid-block 5-3-2. The spaces between the players is noticeable but Lisci trusts them to cover this ground.

There's around 10 seconds between these two screenshots and there is a lot of ground covered in that time. Against better opposition, they might try to pick you apart but in the Spanish second division there aren't too many teams willing to take those chances.

And even if they do, we’re back to the point that Mirandés are ferocious in duels and coached well to both press with precision and to do it in a co-ordinated manner. Their energy acts as much as a preventative as an actual remedy.

Mirandés don't let teams counter them. They have juts 23 direct attacks against them this season, that's the lowest in the Segunda. And It's probably the main reason why they are where they are. Teams just never feel comfortable once the ball enters those areas where Mirandés are willing to do combat. It’s very rare to see a player receive between the lines and turn to play forward against them.

They don't typically try to jump passes and don't rank highly for interceptions in the Segunda, which is over 50 more than Castellón. They’re willing to gamble in their press but never enough to go broke.

Key Players

Mirandés are currently reaping the rewards of having a good relationship with Alavés, who have sent them Joaquín Panichelli. The 22-year-old has scored 13 goals this season and is the focal point of their attack. Only two players have won more duels than Panichelli across Europe's top five leagues and second divisions this season (Jimmy Dunne from QPR and Ebou Adams from Derby County).

Eneresto Valverde must be licking his lips at the prospect of adding Hugo Rincón to his squad next season, too. Only Alberto Jiménez and Jérémy Mellot of Castellón and Tenerife have won more duels among all defenders in the Segunda this season than Rincón.

If they do fall short this season, it will only reinforce the idea that Mirandés is the best place to send players on loan in Spain. The players currently on loan from Gorrotxategi to Rincón and Panichelli are all destined for bigger things and their parent clubs will be delighted that they’re getting a taste of a title challenge against all the odds.

In one sense, you would love nothing more than for Mirandés to come good on the promise they have shown so far. On the other hand, you wonder what it would do to their current model of sustainability. Would they come straight back down? Would it even matter?

They have turned a squad that wasn't big enough to hold full training sessions to becoming one of the hardest-working and united teams in Spain. They have played with the handbrake off all season as a team with nothing to lose. But can they keep playing that way once the pressure hits?