The move is the characteristic of Nico Melamed. Lying on the left of the attack, he receives inside, well outlined, traces a diagonal towards the goal in search of a space to hit the door. And he always finds the small youth squad, whose lower body helps him avoid opponents and find cracks. This time, his throw was accurate. Violent, to the square of the Navarrese short stick. 1-1. rage in celebration. “I just couldn’t find that goal,” said Melamed after the game, on the pitch at the RCDE Stadium.
The one from Castelldefels is not without reason in what is being his first season in the highest category after the volcanic eruption of the previous year in Second. Melamed started out as the 12th player on Vicente Moreno’s team. A resource in attack that came to play up to five starting games in the first round, but in this second, coinciding with the fall of the team, he had barely participated 190 minutes. Until Sunday against Osasuna, when in the 27 minutes he enjoyed he scored a goal, constantly created danger and his electricity lit up Espanyol.
“We came from a few difficult weeks because we didn’t find good results, I think we recovered the sensations but we lacked a goal to materialize and win”, explained the youth squad. “We knew that Osasuna pressed up front, he is demanding and he was going to cause us to be fine with the ball. In the second half we improved”, he underlined. The tie leaves the Blue and Whites with 40 points and prevents further heating in the environment surrounding the entity, after this bland final stretch of the course.
The most profitable and the expected step forward
Melamed, number 21, is right now the winger who averages the best effectiveness in accurate shots per time played. Javi Puado is the one who has played the most matches, a total of one goal every 505 minutes, Adrián Embarba has not yet been able to make his debut in the championship as a striker and Aleix Vidal, who has alternated the winger with the side, adds two goals like Melamed but with an average of 885 minutes. The one from Castelldefels, on the other hand, adds a goal every 455 minutes of play, most of them entering the second half.
After this first campaign in the top flight, and pending the decisions made by the sports management and the coaching staff, the player is called to gain prominence next season. With the renewal of Óscar Melendo increasingly complicatedhis presence seems to be a priority to maintain the homegrown roots of a Espanyol that will face a (another) renovation.