Gernika Club: The Journey Continues

If you missed my first post, I’d definitely recommend checking it out first (LINK) — it sets the stage for how I ended up in the dugout at Gernika and what my early development as a coach looked like.

The story picks up in the heart of the Basque Country — the streets of Gernika, where history lingers in the mist and every training session feels like a test of belief. My journey as Gernika’s new manager is still in its infancy, but the challenges are already mounting. A fractured squad, a looming relegation battle, and a club searching for its identity in a world that moves faster than it can follow.

The first few weeks have been about discovery — of players, of philosophy, and of self. Can an idea survive the realities of the Spanish lower leagues? Can structure and style coexist with survival? These are the questions shaping every decision, every tactic, every half-time team talk.

In this chapter, I begin to truly understand the scale of the task ahead. The numbers tell one story, but the pitch tells another. The lessons come fast, the progress comes slow, and yet… there’s something stirring here in Gernika.

Let’s get into it — Gernika are growing, one match at a time.

Prologue: Part Seven

2nd January 2026, Gernika

Thanks, Koldo.

I told the players straight what I expected – that I’ll nurture them and give them opportunities but, with that, we must do our best to stave off relegation. To say that they were unsure is potentially an underestimation. Never the less, we start as we mean to go on. I had one additional face to meet, too. The board, in the three days since my arrival, had been working to secure the loan deal of Emilio Tame, a midfielder plying his trade in Mexico. Emilio is the only player within the squad without Basque heritage, but, when asked, just six members of the squad retain the core Basque principal of speaking fluent Euskara.

“Defentsan gehiago estutu eta talde gisa lan egin nahi dut.”

Was my first instruction. Let’s work on defensive compactness. Or words to that nature. Confused faces. My Basque fuelled team-talks, when given at home fell on deaf ears. How can we create this identity without the core principle of a shared language?

“Quiero que trabajemos en la compactación defensiva.”

Of course, I am fluent in Spanish, too. But, still. This was not part of my master plan.

CD Los Rios,a local side from down the road, are visiting tomorrow and it is my first chance to ascertain some kind of tactical direction, albeit against a weaker opponent. Our focuses hastily setup, my eyes on the training groud to see who will make my first XI as a senior manager.

Prologue: Part Eight

Saturday 3rd January 2026 – Gernika.

Problems can be solved best when they are approached one at a time. I’ve always found this to be true – from my times working in Switzerland to my every day life. We’ve conceded twenty-five times this season, with thirteen of the goals coming from around the penalty spot. What is more of a concern is that twenty of them were placed shots – indicating, to me, that the team have been giving up too much time and space around the penalty area. The correlation between this, deep, stressed defending and the player stats that indicate high numbers of blocks, tackles and headers and a worryingly low number of interceptions and possessions won – particularly when compared to pressures attempted – means that we are defending in the wrong way.

In the sessions since I took over, we’ve done one thing: Disegnaged defending. We need to hammer home my ideology: the shape and style that I want in order to prevent the ball from being able to come into our box. To do that, a 4-2-2-1-1 defensive shape has been created. A solid back four – nothing silly with pressing instructions from them but, along with a team culture to push players wide and defend narrow and compact – like the great Basque teams before them – I want the midfielders to make the difference. In our mid-block the forwards will sit back, make a 4-4-2 shape and close off all passing lanes, except to the wide players. Agirre, wide on the left, will sit deeper, in case the full back, Kortazar, is caught upfield. Emilio Tame, as a basis, will be tasked with covering wider areas to allow for our outlet, Izan Gutierrez, to stay higher up the pitch, whilst Unai Velez will shuttle.

In build up, we’ll look to create a 3-2-5, my favoured approach, and go direct, through their lines with central overloads. Izan, on the right, will stay high and wide, forming a second striker, morphing the 4-2-3-1 into a 4-2-2-2 with two 10s – Agirre and Morales. We need to become more creative, build on a poor return of final third entries to goals – 41 passes in the final third per goal this season, correlating to just over – 1.04 – goals per game. That, however, is secondary.

Nail our defensive shape: cut down the 92 final third passes against per 90 (2.1x what our offensive stats are) which lead to 13 shots faced per game, four on target, 1.27 goals conceded per game, and I think we’ll be in a better position. Defend more cleverly and we will be in better positions to spring vertical counter attacks, break through presses and create spaces to secure high quality chances.

It’s going to be a long old slog to get this right. Time is what we don’t have. In five months, we’ll either be in this level or out of it. We are four points off safety but, statistically, in the bottom three across most offensive and defensive stats.

There are shoots of promise, but I need to turn them into flowering plants.

Prologue: Part Nine

Saturday 3rd January, 3pm – Urbieta, Gernika.

Rows of colourful chairs line one edge of the Urbieta – the only side with cover from the elements. January in northern Spain is mild but wet and the covers are protecting the fans from the elements. It is my first opportunity to show what I can do. Yes, our opponents are far from illustrious but, with a heart full of Basque passion, I must admit to feeling some nerves. We must start somewhere, but, what if my shape doesn’t work? What if, against this lot, we are still pourous defensively?

Los Rios aren’t a prestigous team but we have no time to waste in learning our shape and, with just eighteen senior players at the club, I had to trust them all and throw them in from the start. Here, there is no room for a slow integration. We have eight days before returning to league action and we must get it right.

At the back, the false full back of captain Koldo Berasaluce, slow in pace but not in thought, partners Xabi Aerberas, an old school centre back and Ander Lorente as we look to master early transitions, moving from a four into a three, with Kortazar’s pace and intelligent overlap being the out-ball. I know nothing of Los Rios, I thought to myself, so I am going to learn about these players in their ideal states for us. Ascertain knowledge now, develop that game by game at a later date. Plus, we need to build some sharpness after a period of time away from the training ground and the Christmas break.

Our opponents came in a 3-4-1-2 shape – interesting for us and completely out of the blue. Wide men Moreno and Santiago were told be shown inside. Give them no choice but to play to them then only allow them to come back into the congested middle. But it did spark some concern for me- their shape, with four men centrally, mirrored ours and they were man for man with their two strikers against our two centre backs. Yes, I’d asked left winger Agirre to track back and create a back five when we are in our lowest block, but I instigated an early shift, moving Tame to a dropping centre back, forming a 5-4-1 shape at our deepest points. Yes, it demands more of us to commit men forwards to counter but my first aim is to be defensively solid.

Within ten minutes, Izan Gutierrez opened the scoring for us, cutting in onto his left foot and bending it into the corner and a set piece goal, finishing by Okolo doubled that in the twenty-third minute. Our 3-box-3 with intentional space occupation on the left hand side, allowing for 1v1 opportunties for Izan Gutierrez on the right brought about our third goal, where he was, once again, able to cut inside before feing felled in the box. Again, isolation and a clear passing lane through to Gutierrez gave him really good opportunties to score.

We found some issues when we created 3-1-6 against a settled low block – unable to pick enough space to break through; a common problem for teams that focus on such central progression. We need the width of Kortazar and Gutierrez to give us the outball and it’s something we need to explore. That being said, with our position in the league – I have to question how many teams will be sat back in a compact low block against us. Against a three-man defence, our press has to be different: eventually, we’ll try and go man-for-man, at the right times but, with four against five, they have a spare man. That, though, can play into our hands even when our press is breached because we have numerical advantage in our mid and low block shape and few players, at this level, can accurately pick a seventy-yard pass ten times from ten.

Five nil winners with over six xG created, including the penalty. Some match sharpness gained. But, the bigger questions around my biggest problem – the leaky defence – have not been answered from this game. Was it ninety minutes to learn about our defensive shapes or ninety minutes to learn about our potential attacking patterns?

Prologue: Part Ten

Sunday 11th January 2026, Urbieta – Gernika.

A hard week at work. We’ve spent lots of time training our defensive shapes again. Working to solidify styles in our mid and low block. I need to rely on knowledge of my staff to support in the early times and Dani Fernandez, our assistant with a playing career stretching across the Netherlands, Belgium and Greece, comes with a competent understanding of tactics but, importantly, playing and working at this level since 2015. His advice was noted – compact the pitch both vertically and horizontally – acknowledging that their style isn’t conducive to long-ball play, which can be corroborated with a high ball share and pass completion, especially in deeper areas. Their threat, from key passes alone, comes from the high and wide areas, so we’ll look to double up and push them back into the crowded inside area. Team-wise, we’ll look to exploit the poor form of Asier Sansi but be wary of striker Eizaguirre – who leads the scoring charts from them, scoring most from our weak point, the centre of the penalty area. They also score early, so we’ll step back, be cautious, keep the ball and keep nice and compact to grow into the game.

Our base instructions reflected the necessity to keep tight but our starting XI had changes enforced by injuries – Manex Agirre in for Okolo, who misses out with injury. It’s an unusual front four, with only Morales playing in his natural position but my intentions are clear – build play down the left, spring surprises and isolate their right back with the quality of a wide forward – Gutierrez – on the right. We struck first when Gorka Agirre netted from a Kortazar pull back in what was essentially the first attacking move of the game. A 0.28xG shot, deflected on it’s way into the net. Our OOP transition was quick, inside eight seconds – following a turnover, we are back into some semblance of our defensive shape. Our high line and doubling up on their wide outlets led directly to our second, whereby possession was won and a long ball through led to Morales being one on one,

I was able to highly motivate the side at the break – a sign that, with good morale in the camp, we should be capable of more than we are showing right now. That morale was further lifted on sixty-eight minutes when Kortazar’s header was met by Gorka Agirre, who finished into the top corner. The former has matched his assist tally for the season inside seventy minutes and the latter doubled his goal tally in that time.

To support the team, short on playing staff and lower on fitness than intended, I made a concerted effort to slow the pace down, waste some time, save our legs and – ultimately – reduce the risk of us losing our clean sheet. Three late changes – Okolo, Fruniz and Agirrezabala further slowed the pace and disrupted the rhythm of the last ten minutes.

The final score: Gernika 3-0 Beasain. An incredible start. Seventeen shots, nine more than our average before this game, nine of which on target, with an xG total of 2.04. Beasain mustered twelve shots, but nine were from distance with their sixty-one passes into the final third accounting for 0,71xG. Standout men were Kortazar, with five key passes, three chances and two assists from his berth high and wide on the left but, more than just offensively, his two interceptions and three clearances were important for us at the back, too.

We are far from safe but the team are happy and happiness breeds success. Every game will have a different game plan and we will need to adapt, move, react to and work with the limitations that the club has. But, for a first ninety minutes for Gernika and in senior football, it couldn’t have gone much better.

Prologue: Part Eleven

Sunday 18th January, 2026 – Logrono

Buoyed by the win last time out, I instructed the team to not rest on their laurels and, instead, continue to work hard on defensive and early transitional shapes. Once again, I sought the advice of the backroom, and – largely – agreed with their thoughts about a team who aren’t strong aerially. Dani Santafe is the outlier but his overall dataset doesn’t present too much in the way of a true overachiever, more a bit part player. However, I do not feel that ignoring crossing opportunities would be the right. Whilst Logrones have scored often from deep, I don’t want to invite crosses and, as such, allow the ball into that key area just by our penalty spot – our kryptonite zone. Our opponents are in decent form but there are two things that the team noticed – nearly half of goals scored come just before half time, but over a half conceded come in the minutes directly after half time.

A game plan was building in my head: we need to compact the middle and stop those hopeful long balls to Dani Fernandez – who, with five goals, an xG underperformance and a conversion rate of just 13% – looks a bit hit and miss, although we cannot allow him the chance to hit.  Aguinaga and Moha are the only two players in their side, both wingers, with an OPKP/90 total over over two per game, so I want to ensure we double up on them. Our initial out of play shape took form: both wingers would track back, doubling up on their wide men, whilst Tame would step forward to press their central threats, stopping the long balls, and, behind him Arberas would step forward, with a numerical advantage being gained here by the wingers.

I named an XI as strong as I could – wanting to make few changes from the line-up that did so well just seven days ago. Manex Agirre moved to the left to replace his namesake, but not relation, Gorka, and Okolo returned from injury as the channel forward.

Facing a team who defended deep, we had to move the ball quickly and, from this position, we moved the ball out right to Gutierrez in just three passes. His clever footwork saw him cut inside and bend a left footed strike into the bottom corner. We, once again, take the lead with our first shot of the game. Moralescracked the post just before the half hour mark but our 3-3-4 shape felt strong and comfortable. We left it late but Moralesturned creator this time, laying in Manex Agirre to finish the game off at the death.

Final score: SD Logrones 0-2 Gernika. This felt like a highly polished display. The hosts managed eight shots, five from distance and one blocked, recorded a total of nearly 50% of our final third passes. We stifled their creativity as Moha and Aguinaga recorded just three key passes between them, before both being pulled off before the end. For us, Iker Morales pulled the strings – 0.42xG and two assists with five key passes thrown in for good measure.

The win is massive for us – puling us up out of the drop zone and in sight of the mid-table places that we hope to finish in when the season comes to an end in fourteen games time. Despite sitting twelfth, our opponents still occupy second in the xG table and this shows just the level of performance that we’ve put in here.

Prologue: Part Twelve

The board announced that Monchu would be joining my backroom staff this week and I must admit to being pleasantly surprised by a man of his calibre and experience and look forward to working with him, both within the first team setup and what he can do with our much younger players. His perfectionistpersonality speaks to me in a way that I am sure he will demand the best from anyone he works with and instil a strong and determined work ethic.

His presence was notable on the training ground and, despite going two-for-two, I felt cautious in the run up to this tie. For the first time, we were entering a match that we were expected to do well in. Alfaro are in a poor run of form and lie fifteenth in the league, with us sat above them. They’ve lost their last four and manager Oscar Gurria has a 25% win ratio across this season. They’re also expected to go wide with the ball and put us under pressure without it, so those quick transitional moments will be absolutely key for us. However, they are prone to conceding early and from central positions – seven of twenty-two are deep assists but eleven come from central areas, meaning that our narrow, compact interplay going forward might play into our hands naturally. They’re not necessarily a possession oriented team – 12th with an average of 47% – and sit dead last with 63 crosses completed, 3.15 per game, showing that they’re not a wing play side who get to the byline and put in high floated balls. They’re level with us in terms of shot accuracy, with 33% of all shots hitting the target but, interesting, all offensive players who are getting regular minutes sit below that.

For me, there is a very clear focus here. Get them inside, crowd them out and stop them getting a sniff of goal. Not too dissimilar from our core principles. With that in mind, I wanted to take my first foray into looking at some attacking play, in particular how we build down the left. Three of the four left sided players are, unfortunately, right footed: Lorente, Velez andAgirre with the natural left-footed widthcoming from Kortazar. My intention is to play down the left, overlapping and bringing the central box – our positional overload – into play. Either that will work or they’ll have to drop another man into that area. If, or when, they do that, we need to react by moving the ball quickly to Gutierrez, who will likely be the output in our overload-to-isolate style; I just need to be aware that we may not have the technical prowess to pull off those quick switches and changes in direction of play.

We lined up in an unchanged XI – why would I want to to change our winning formula? Immediately, I felt that there was an opportunity down the right – given that their left side pressed much more aggressively. We got away with it here – as Beralsaluce was dispossessed but their shot was easily saved by San Nicolas. We had our opener on eight minutes – Gutierrez was given too much space and, given their heavier pressing, pulled two men towards him. His lofted ball was met by Morales who put a cross in for Okolo to nod into the goal. The plan was working wonderfully: the central four virtually always had a numerical overload, meaning that Alfaro were constantly pulling players from place to place, leading to isolated areas for us to expose. A set piece – not in my remit at present – led to a handball, to which Moralesconverted the penalty, giving him a goal and an assist inside seventeen minutes. Our plan to attack early on was complete and I instructed the players to play slightly less aggressively at this point: a more balancedapproach. But the goals kept coming! Another central overload, where Agirre has pulled the right back out, leaving space for Kortazar to exploit turned into a magical ball through the middle for Morales to double his tally with.

Ten minutes into the second half came my first concession as Gernika manager – a ball down our left-hand channel wasn’t dealt with or stopped at it’s origin and that led to a cross and a simple headed finish. Alfaro had accrued 0.21xG from ten shots in the first half but this was was worth nearly 0.9, by itself. But, in an excellent showing of mental fortitude, we went down the other end and restored our three goal cushion as Gutierrez’s header was parried and Okolo reacted first, tucking in his second of the game. Three turned to four as Morales completed his hattrick with a right footed shot from just inside the box. Three changes preceded our first real defensive lapse of my tenure: our high line caught out and the sluggish defenders unable to chase the attacker back. Fortunately, the shot went wide thanks to a good intervention by San Nicolas. Iker (left) has shown a marked increase in his outputs since I’ve been at the club, registering three assists and four goals in that time.

Full time: Gernika 5-1 Alfaro. Positives – massive win, 3.74 (with one penalty) xG created. Morales in the free role is unplayable. Areas to consider – twenty shots, of which eleven were from distance, allowed and 1.62xGA, including one huge 0.89xG goal. 69 passes allowed in our final third – a slight concern and, despite us conceded just once in three, makes me firmly realise that we are still a team at risk. We have a positive goal difference and now have a three point cushion to the relegation zone but there will be much harder tests of our defensive shape. One game whereby we are focused less on this has led to – yes – a great offensive showing but also one of our most vulnerable defensive performances. I cannot allow our standards to slip.

Prologue: Part Thirteen

Sunday 1st February 2026 – Gernika

A month in.

Three league games, yet the hard work does not ever stop. I’ve met all nineteen players that the club currently contracts, met all the staff including the groundsmen and the tea-ladies, seen – first hand – the financial perils that a club of this size face yet I approach each day with a smile and a passion that is burning brighter than it ever has before.

At St Gallen and Zurich, metrics rarely mattered. My job was about bringing through groups of players and given them a footing in order to see whether they could make the first team, or not. The managers I worked under cared for the stats. Of course, I listened and I learned and I annotated documents to try and fathom out what good looks like but the saying is true, you learn best by doing.

In our regular analyst meeting, I was presented with our newest data captures, profiling our in and out of possession play. It’s easy to jump to conclusions here, absolutely, but, just comparing percentage changes across these simple metrics shows that things are moving in the way that I want them to:

• 4.3% reduction in passes into our final third means we are more resolute defensively, holding our shape out of possession.
• We are winning the ball back 1.4% less than before but our pressing is less chaotic, allowing our opponents 7.7% more passings before we intervene.
• We are conceding 7.1% less xGA than before with just one goal across two hundred and seventy minutes.
• We’ve had a 19% increase in shots taken, with 19.1% more of them hitting the target, leading toa 27.3% increase in goals scored per game. We won’t keep scoring three or five a game, but we’re looking more threatening!
• 9.4% more dribbles with just a 0.7% pass completion increase. We’re not possession hungry but want to do the right things with it.

Each day we must get a little bit better. That is how we make progress.