This summer at the Euros, Oyarzabal and Nico Williams performed exceptionally well, helping their team secure the championship. However, since the start of the new season, these two players have not met the expectations of the fans.
Oyarzabal scored the winning goal in the Euro 2024 final, helping his team defeat the English side 2-1 to lift the trophy. But since entering the 2024/25 season, this 27-year-old player has failed to score or assist in a total of 179 minutes on the pitch.
In the third round of La Liga matches that took place in the early hours of August 29, Oyarzabal had a poor performance against Alaves and was directly shown a red card in the 29th minute for fouling an opponent.
Royal Society, one man down, eventually lost 1-2 to Alaves. This loss caused the team to drop to 12th place in the La Liga standings, with only three points accumulated over the first three rounds.
On the other hand, the situation with Nico Williams is also concerning. This 22-year-old Spanish international has already played 140 minutes in the new La Liga season but still hasn’t managed to score or assist.
In this round of matches, Athletic Bilbao defeated Valencia 1-0. Nico Williams came off the bench in the second half and completed three shots in 32 minutes, with a pass success rate of 71%, and attempted two dribbles.
However, as a forward, the most important contributions are goals and assists, areas where Nico Williams has yet to make any impact. In the second round of La Liga, Athletic Bilbao lost 1-2 to Barcelona. In this match, Nico Williams’ performance was mediocre, being tightly marked by the opposing defender Koundé.