The dependence on Iago Aspas has been a common currency in recent seasons. When the results have not accompanied, the moañés has been in charge of carrying the responsibility of getting Celta out of the quagmire. It happened more than a decade ago in the season of the return to Primera and it has been repeated too often in recent years. When Celta has not carbureted, Iago has appeared there to throw the team on his back and avoid his fall from grace. During a season and a half, with Coudet at the helm, the dependence on Aspas was somewhat mitigated. Brais, Denis and Mina partly assumed the burden, but the problems returned again this course, leading to the dismissal of the Argentine coach and the arrival of Carlos Carvalhal. With the Portuguese in charge, after a time in which Aspas almost fully assumed responsibility for the goal, the trend has changed. The man from Moaña continues to be vital for Celta, his influence on the game and leadership is decisive, but other players have taken over and the team is capable of winning games without their goals. In the first third of the competition, Iago contributed almost half of the team’s goals (46%); Since Carvalhal took over the reins on matchday 13, Iago’s scoring dependency has been reduced to 34 percent, not to mention that in the first five league games Aspas contributed five of the six goals scored by Celta (83%).
The Morracense striker has contributed goals in four of the seven victories achieved this season and has been decisive, scoring the winning goal in three of them, as well as providing four key assists in the draws signed against Getafe, Sevilla and La Real society. His latest decisive contributions have been the winning goal in the last match in January, against Athletic in Balaídos and the cross-assist in Le Normad’s own goal at the Reale Arena.
The month of February has been a turning point when it comes to mitigating dependence on Aspas. The overwhelming irruption of Gabri Veiga explains it to a large extent.
The man from Porriño, who had astonished in his first matches as a celestial player, progressed meteorically in the competition, attracting the attention of the great teams on the continent thanks to his goals and assists. He already has 8, an unusually high figure for a midfielder, who he accompanies with three goal passes. Half of these eight goals have been signed by Gabri in the last month, with his doubles against Betis and Valladolid, which he accompanied with an assist for Seferovic.
But it has not been Veiga, the only one who has joined the goal cake. Larsen has provided a goal and an assist, Aidoo has also contributed a key goal in the herd victory at the Benito Villamarín and Seferovic, despite having joined the winter market on the last day, has also just opened his account. Without contributing goals yet, Carles Pérez adds another assist in February (there are already 3) to his scoreboard with a growing improvement in his performance and Luca de la Torre has established himself in the eleven with very good performances and decisive assists to Iago and Gabri in the victories signed against Athletic and Betis. Both have voraciously pursued the goal, so far without much luck.
Gabri Veiga, best LaLiga player in February
February has been a magical month for Gabri Veiga, pearl of the Celta youth academy and a new sensation in LaLiga. The man from Porriño has entered the life of the first team like an earthquake, has won awards and praise and is already the object of desire of the great teams on the continent with a growing feeling that the 40 million stipulated in the termination clause of his contract will not be enough to keep it this summer. The last recognition came to him early yesterday afternoon. LaLiga communicated on its social networks that the young Celtic talent has been chosen as the best player in LaLiga in the last month of February. Four spectacular goals (doubles against Betis and Valladolid) and a headed assist mark four immense league performances by the youth squad, whose football ceiling now seems undetectable. One guesses, as Luis Campos and Carlos Carvalhal have already highlighted, a different footballer, a midfielder with a goal, capable of deciding games by himself, who combines an imposing physique with enormous talent and combines all this with a maturity and modesty unlike any other. his 20 years and an unwavering capacity and sense of work. A combination, in short, unbeatable, with a single drawback: the enormous difficulties that Celta will have to retain him before he faces the next level in a career that is still in its infancy, but that is intuited to be great. Celta is resigned to enjoying it while they can and Gabri responds to each new game with something new, even the leading game, his weak point, has improved thanks, in this case, to the efforts of Carvalhal, who is determined to get the most out of it as long as you have it at your command. The celestial player accumulates, in any case, recognitions in a month to frame. The fans have named him the best Celta player in February (an award he already won in October, November and December), he appears in the Whoscored’s ideal eleven of the last day in the five major leagues and recently it has been known that he is in the Luis de la Fuente’s prelist for the senior team, his next step.
