COLUMN: How to interpret Girona’s three-game skid and a crackdown on the underdogs

Barcelona and Real Madrid have been at the summit for years – allowing for brief flag-planting authored by Diego Simeone. Ultimately, it feels inevitable that they will win it, and even with Atletico Madrid’s interruptions, since Simeone arrived the big two have succeeded 82% of the time. Fans are tired of it, and it shows. The fans want, well, something different.

One would assume that a majority of the fandom in La Liga is composed of Barcelona and Real Madrid. And to some extent, that is true. Particularly abroad, clubs below the stature of the ordinary giants do not get much love. But La Liga has shown that its fans have arrived in an era where they would welcome with open arms a new leader. For many, this year’s highlight has been CFG-owned Girona, under the guidance of Michel Sanchez. Other underdogs have been getting some love, despite not heading the leaderboard – this is the case of Athletic Club and Las Palmas.

These newcomers play differently. Gone are the days of the old-fashioned block, La Liga is now full of teams that vary, according to the players, in terms of style. Ernesto Valverde’s Athletic are not the typical underdog. They have been around longer than anyone else in La Liga, save the big three they have more titles than anyone else, and a stadium that houses over 53,000 fans, but nobody expected them to be temporarily third or fourth with their squad. A squad that is not mediocre by any means, but the critique that they cannot compete with their Basque-only policy continues to be thrown at them. The reality is, they can. On Monday they put the breaks on a Girona (3-2) side that until that point had only been beaten by Real Madrid in La Liga with a press that is characteristic of exceptional