Team Focus: Sticking to Principal Paying off for Paco Jémez at Rayo

There is no club in Spain’s top flight that has battled against the odds – and continues to do so – like Rayo Vallecano in recent years. With the smallest budget in La Liga (around €18m) the Vallecas outfit take the field every week 30 times worse off than Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Free transfers, loans, journeymen, cantera products, and players who, frankly, nobody else want make up Rayo’s squad. They really shouldn’t be very good. However, last season they finished in a Europa League place only to be denied it due to financial irregularities. It was their best ever finish. This season too, they’ve offered a late surge in the upper half of the table. The constant over the course of both seasons, despite the permanent state of upheaval, has been Paco Jémez.

On May 3rd, with two games remaining, Rayo became mathematically safe. Their status as a La Liga team was preserved, and amongst some fantastic collective performances over the course of the season, it’s Jémez who comes away as the standout individual. This week the 44-year-old coach picked up his manager of the month trophy for April, in which Rayo took 10 points from a possible 12. A month prior people were questioning Jémez’s methods and his ability to keep Rayo afloat. The stubbornness and loyalty to style that people questioned saved Rayo in the end. Adjustments and minor tweaks were made, but the general style remained. 

There was a suggestion Rayo and their possession-based game was hindering them, but despite this Jémez persevered with what had brought the team success in 2012/2013. Then, only four teams bettered them in terms of possession in Europe’s top 5 leagues (58%). Their current total this season stands at 59.2%, and of the 98 sides in Europe’s top 5 leagues, only Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain have had more.

“I have never wanted to die with my ideas; I have always wanted to win with my ideas, to live with them. I don't do this to die.” Said Jémez dramatically earlier this campaign, as Rayo showed the earliest signs of turning a corner in March. The coach believes he has a duty to entertain, and make his players aspire to heights they aren’t meant to reach. That has without doubt, been achieved.

Rayo are one of the most attractive teams in the league, neither predictable nor simplistic. They push the boundaries, and they try new things. There is variation, and over the course of mid-March to April, definition. Rayo play the most long balls in the league, with 75 on average per game. They balance it out though by hitting 407 short passes per game, 3rd in La Liga behind Barcelona and Madrid. They can also cross it too, with their 25 on average per game the 3rd most in the Spanish top flight. Rayo may not possess the level of talent of the aforementioned two sides, but that doesn’t matter to Jémez. As he’s said before, if he were coaching Madrid, he’d approach his football in the same away: the same philosophy as Rayo, except on a bigger scale. Instead of Alberto Bueno, he’d have Cristiano Ronaldo. Instead of Raúl Baena, he’d have Luka Modric. Imagine that, just for a moment.

Rayo do, however, possess some talent, take La Masia product Roberto Trashorras for example. The midfielder’s numbers in terms of passing have been astounding since his arrival at the club. Perhaps no other player, carries the flag for Jémez’s work quite like Trashorras, and he offers us the best glimpse of what the coach would do with a higher calibre of player. The 31-year-old’s 78.5 passes per game are second only to Xavi in La Liga, while his pass success ratio of 86.1% is 23rd overall. Trashorras’ long balls per game too, an extraordinary 12.7, is the highest in La Liga by some distance. He plays it long, but also short – championing the values of Jémez’s approach.

The work of Jémez doesn’t stop with veterans however, and as has been shown, young players can flourish. Leo Baptistao earned a move off the back of a fine spell at the club, and this season Saúl Ñíguez has seen his status increase while on loan from Atlético Madrid. Jémez has shaped Saúl to better understand the defensive side of the game, alternating his role between centre-back and defensive midfield. His 7.03 rating is the highest overall at Rayo this season, and in terms of tackles and interceptions (2.8 per game in each), only one player is experiencing better numbers of those to play two games or more.

That no player spoke out, nor questioned the approach of Rayo, was testament to their belief in Jémez’s work. It would in a matter of time, turn around. They stuck together, focused, and eventually the results came. The fans were of the same mentality too, and even after the 1-0 defeat to Sevilla they applauded their team off and stayed behind after the whistle to serenade them. They liked what they had seen, no, they loved what they had seen. In March, as Rayo beat Almería, Jémez recorded his 25th win as coach and surpassed the previous total of 24 set by Juande Ramos. Since then a further four victories followed, and it has become apparent that he is indeed the best coach Rayo have had in their history. Not only are the tactical and technically qualities there, but Jémez has also shown mentally that he is able to stir something inside an average player.

12 players arrived at the club last summer and 11 departed – it will be business as usual in the upcoming window too. Jémez has run his course at Rayo and taken them as far as he can - not that he’d ever say “enough is enough”.

What do you make of Paco Jémez's approach at Rayo Vallecano? Let us know in the comments below