Gorka Guruzeta He is currently the only Athletic signing for the 2022-23 season. The striker from San Sebastian has arrived free from Amorebieta to reinforce the position of center forward, somewhat lame in recent years with a single pure striker in the squad, Asier Villalibre.
Guruas it is familiarly known in Lezama, came to Bilbao from Antiguoko -as has happened in the case of some other high level lions, such as Aduriz and Iraola– to play for Basconia and later promote to Bilbao Athletic. His good numbers in the subsidiary in the 2017-18 season (he scored 18 goals) allowed him to move up to the first team, where he played six league games and three Cup games.
The following season, he returned to play with the subsidiary and at the end of the season he suffered a very serious injury. He tore the cruciate ligament in his right knee in a match against Sporting B. The following year he played again with the second team and as happens so often, he was forced to pack his bags to sign for Sabadell Second. There he began to make a name for himself to return to Bizkaia. The Amorebieta was his destiny. His good role as a blue footballer -he scored thirteen goals- has served him to return to Athletic, already with stripes to try to win a position under the command of Ernest Valverde.
Iñigo Vélez de Mendizabal, Guruzeta’s former coach at Amorebieta
Mundo Deportivo has sought the opinion of two men who know him well. Inigo Velez de Mendizabal trained him in the first part of last season at Amore and Michael San Jose It was his wardrobe partner. The Gasteiz coach could not elaborate much because he was out, but he did give him time to ensure that the forward “has very good conditions and a perfect age to exploit” and “as a person he is a 10”.
Together in Bilbao and Amorebieta
The Navarran midfielder, who has not yet decided on his future for next season, carried out a detailed analysis of the new rojiblanco footballer. He knows him well, first as a teammate at Athletic and last year at Urritxe, although they played at home on pitch 2 in Lezama. “He is a very different footballer because of everything he has improved and learned compared to what many people will remember about him when he debuted with us years ago. He is a footballer who has taken giant steps forward. Having continuity and playing after the injury he had has helped him to have much more confidence, to dare to do things”.
Guruzeta you can play reference above and even further back. “It is a very different profile to what it can be Inaki (Williams), villalibre either sancetwho also acted as a striker with Marcellin. He does not stop being a scorer. Both with his right leg and with his left and with his head, he has ease facing the opposite goal, bridging the gap a bit, in the style of Raul (Garcia). He handles times very well and has the ability to score goals in any situation. With us at Amorebieta he has grown a lot in the game. He has been a player who played midfielder, striker, broke into space and went down to receive. We have had him as a reference player for everything, he has helped us play when we have been able to play more and he has helped us stretch when the team has needed it ”, explains the man from Villava.
Mikel San José was a teammate of Guruzeta at Athletic and Amorebieta
Saint Joseph He was in the Sevilla area when Guruzeta headed his only goal as a lion in a Cup match played on January 16, 2019. “I see it on the front page. It was a great goal. I have noticed a lot of improvement in him, especially in personal maturity, in confidence, in enjoying himself, in taking off the pressure that moving up with the reserves meant for Athletic, having scored many goals and playing with the first team. People expect a lot from you and the striker was Aduriz. Everyone compares you to him. Over time and especially after the injury, the fact of playing, going out and watching other football outside of Lezama has helped him mature a lot. He plays with a confidence that is nice to watch. He may fail, but he keeps going, he always tries and has enjoyed it. Last season I saw him enjoy himself a lot. When he enjoys himself he is a differential footballer”, he adds.
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The rojiblanca fans will not find a player style of the last great scorer. “It’s not a style. Aduriz, is not a totally reference nine, he is a player who handles the ball very well with his feet, who tries to do things that are not usual for a striker, protect the ball, turn, dribble. He also has midpoint gestures. With us at Amorebieta he has played on the wing with a 4-3-3, with the ability to sacrifice, he can do anything”.
With Villalibre
It is also different from villalibre, the purest battering ram: “We are talking about different profiles. Asier is the purest profile of a striker, but it is also true that he is not having the continuity that many of us believe he should have for him to finish starting and show everything he has inside. I’m sure he’ll get it out. Guru is a different style. Although he is fast and handles defenses and the offside line very well, but he is not as fast as Iñaki or Villa, but he can go into space perfectly”.
The lack of a goal is Athletic’s great handicap since the withdrawal of Aritz Aduriz. Can it be a solution? “He has scored goals all his life and he has also scored them with us at Amore. What I can say is that he has a knack for scoring, it is something that is not only seen in games but is seen every day in training. That I have seen, as I have seen in Aduriz or in Raul. I think that the problem of Athletic’s goal is more global, of all the lines of the team, hopefully he can help that”, he concludes Saint Joseph.
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