The interview that Patxi Salinas gave to our colleagues from MD Gizpukoa about Mikel Goti caused a stir yesterday in the Athletic environment. The former Bilbao first team player and coach of the first and second rojiblanco affiliates showed his surprise at the departure of the fine left-handed footballer from Gorliz to Real.
“As a footballer he is a different person, which is not so lavished. You see him and you realize that he does things that others do not. He is left-handed, but he plays with a changed leg, which has a fantastic inside game. When he plays on the right wing and gets inside, his hitting and finishing are amazing. He has a glove on the left. One-on-one, too, it’s very good. Without having a good speed, because it’s not fast, but it’s very good,” Salinas said of Goti.
The truth is that the new Real player hardly had opportunities to train even with the first team. Neither during Marcelino’s stay, nor later with Valverde in the season that just ended. The quality, true, is not lacking in Gorliz, but in Lezama they had more confidence in two other puppies who are also left-handed, know how to play with the other leg and can even play behind the striker: Nico Serrano and Luis Bilbao.
In the first team dynamics
The first of them already has experience in the First Division, although this last season he was loaned to Joseba Etxeberria’s Mirandés. The 20-year-old from Navarre alternated between Athletic and Bilbao Athletic two seasons ago. As a lion, he accumulated a total of 14 games in the League, two in the Cup and one in the Super Cup. In Vallecas, he started his account under Marcelino, a goal that served to beat Iraola’s men 0-1.
Serrano, a footballer with arrival and purpose, formed a dangerous tandem with the youngest Williams during his time in the lower categories of Athletic. The Nicos gradually went their separate ways, although they both split up in this final campaign.
Luis Bilbao is also one of the players from the Lezama academy that Marcelino noticed when he arrived at the rojiblanco club. Another left-footed striker with quality and arrival who, however, was not at the level expected of him last season. Something logical up to a certain point considering the bad overall year of relegated Bilbao Athletic.
The Berango footballer is also 20 years old and, in the way of Nico Serrano, he already knows what it is to train and do the preseason with the first team, although in his case he has not yet made his debut as a lion.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
