The key to Granada's almost immaculate La Liga start

Granada coach, Diego Martinez, authentic leader and the reason for their success, has managed to create a brave Granada that already shone last season in the Second Division and that, after their promotion, are giving everybody a lot to talk in the top league for their footballing skills and their results.

The competitiveness showed by the Granada team against Barcelona, which they managed to the point that the Catalans only had one shot on target, is what the team has shown since the summer of last year when Diego Martinez took over.

Last season, Granada did not go more than two games without winning, while the current season began with a draw in Villarreal (4-4) and a defeat against Sevilla (0-1) to achieving three victories without conceding a goal: 0-3 against Espanyol, 0-2 against Celta and 2-0 against Barcelona.

To add to the impressiveness of what they have achieved this season, the majority of the team is the same as the ones who played in the Second Division last season, with the coach keeping the same values and the same sense of identity that they had last year. 

Nine of the players who started against Barcelona, all of them except Roberto Soldado and the Venezuelan Yangel Herrera, played in the Second Division last season, and seven doing so with Granada.

Another fact is that continuity is more important than experience. Salvo Soldado has played 250 games in the top league, none of the other 22 players in the squad have played more than 50 goals in the First Division.

Of those who started in the match against Barcelona, for 5 of them, it is their first time playing in the top league of La Liga.

Between them, Carlos Neva, who debuted this Saturday after having only played in the Second Division and the same for German Sanchez and Antonio Puertas, players who barely counted a couple of campaigns in Second and are now key to Diego Martinez's team and perform, like all their teammates, at a spectacular level.

The coach, more and more idolised in the city, and his players do not deviate from the moto of "step by step" and "we do not look at the classification", that all red and white fans looked at this Sunday rubbing their eyes because, if only for a few hours, Granada was at the top of the table.