Espanyol begin a new stage today when Deportivo visit at 16.15 hours, with Eder Sarabia taking charge of the bench for the first time in this phase. It is the kind of game that tells you quickly whether a change has settled the team or only changed the name in the dugout.
That is why the spotlight falls so sharply on Ángel Fortuño. He has already made four starts after taking the goalkeeper job from Marko Dmitrović, a shift that says as much about the present as any pre-match speech. Fortuño debuted last season in the final league match, earned his chance in the eighth round against Málaga, and then held his place by keeping his first clean sheet against Villarreal.
Espanyol also arrive with several players carrying weight into the match. Roberto Fernández has six goals, while Javi Hernández is the competition’s second-highest assist provider. Edu Expósito, in his fifth season at the club and the captain now, remains one of the league’s sharper carriers into dangerous areas, with 160 Primera División matches behind him. Those numbers matter because a new coach rarely walks into a settled picture; he walks into habits, and Sarabia will have to decide which of them he wants to keep.
There is also a problem he cannot ignore. Marko Dmitrović was an important player last season, but the 34-year-old has lost the starting job. Around him, the back line is still taking shape: Leandro Cabrera has started the eight matches in which he has been available and even scored the winner against Villarreal, Clemens Riedel has started six matches after a pair of substitute appearances, and Vanja Drkušić arrived on loan from Zenit with an option to buy. Roger Hinojo, meanwhile, will miss the Deportivo match because of suspension after appearing in nine of the eleven matchdays and logging 726 minutes.
That leaves Sarabia’s first real call in charge hanging over the afternoon: whether he stays with Fortuño and how much of Espanyol’s recent order he is willing to preserve. Today is less about introducing a new era than about showing whether this one starts with trust or with another adjustment.
