Levante 1 Real Sociedad 3 - La Liga Week 12 (9th November 2018)

Real Sociedad produced an amazing turnaround at the Ciutat de Valencia Stadium. Levante were dominant in the first half and seemed to be well in control of the match, after taking an early lead and controlling the first half.

Asier Garitano's second half changes swung the game Real Sociedad's way.

Both teams began with a three-man defence and wing backs. For Levante they've been using this system successfully since Week 7. With Antonio Luna injured and Tono Garcia omitted from the squad (caught drink driving 5 days ago) Jose Luis Morales played left wing back and was doing a great job.

In attack it was a surprise that Paco Lopez left top scorer Roger Marti on the bench. He'd scored 4 out of 6 goals at home, and had hit the target in each of his last 3 home games. In any case Borja Mayoral and Emmanuel Boateng played well in the first half so there seemed to be no sense of regret.

Real Sociedad's experiment of 5-4-1 didn't seem to work at all in the first half so at half time Garitano withdrew right wing back Andoni Gorosabel and sent on David Zurutuza - a central midfielder. La Real moved to a back four (Aritz Elustondo moved across to right back) with left back Theo Hernandez getting forward often.

Soon Juanmi came on for Igor Zubeldia which meant that La Real were playing something like a 4-2-3-1 with left back Theo marauding forwards. Asier Illaramendi and Zurutuza were holding. And Adnan Januzaj, Willian Jose and Mikel Oyarzabal were drifting in the space behind Juanmi up front. These 4 attacking players were very fluid and changed position a lot, and almost always had Theo getting forward to help them.

A second goal for Levante might have killed the game off but it never arrived, and although Miguel Angel Moya made some saves, none were particularly difficult. With 20 minutes remaining there was a strong sense that the scoring wasn't over.

In the 73rd minute La Real finally broke through - after 5 hours and 59 minutes without a goal! It was a sublime team move involving Theo, Januzaj and Oyarzabal. Theo finished delightfully after Oyarzabal's assist and Real suddenly had the momentum.

Four minutes later Januzaj threaded a pass into the box, Juanmi got there before Sergio Postigo and neatly rolled it beyond Oier.

And then six minutes later La Real broke superbly: Oyarzabal drove forward and found Juanmi who returned the pass to the 21 year old who applied a delightful chipped finish - this was his first goal from open play all season. La Real had suddenly scored three times in 10 minutes and were on course for a fourth away victory of the season.

Lopez threw on Roger and also Moses Simon but the damage was done. I think that Lopez had failed to react quick enough to Garitano's change of tactics (going from 5-4-1 to 4-2-3-1). The objective should have been to pin Theo Hernandez back but instead Theo pinned right wing back Jason back (and if Jason didn't get back then Rober was dragged out of position).

The floating forward trio of Oyarzabal, Januzaj and Willian Jose had too much space and Levante, having not scored a second goal, were vulnerable to the increasing pressure from La Real.

On the bench Lopez had players like Erick Cabaco (centre back) and Cheick Doukoure (holding midfielder) but he waited until his team had conceded until reacting to La Real's growing influence on the game.

He brought on Coke for Mayoral and played him at left wing back but in truth Boateng and Mayoral had been practically invisible throughout the second half and that was a clear indication that the pattern of the game had changed and it wasn't suiting Levante.

Garitano clearly isn't happy with his system yet, hence trying out the 5-4-1. Credit to him for recognising that it wasn't working and making such effective changes from half time onwards. This win will give a lot of belief to La Real who have won 13 out of 16 points away from home.

All images taken from Mundo Deportivo