Despite league struggles, Rayados are team with most National Team call-ups

Antonio Mohamed’s Rayados march 6th overall in the league table with 20 points (5W, 5D, 3L), tied with Pachuca. It’s been an overall disappointing season, considering the only difficult matchup they’ve managed to win was their Estadio Azteca visit vs. América. Other than that, this version of Toluca, FC Juárez, San Luis, and Querétaro aren’t exactly your Liga MX powerhouses. When confonted with tougher matchups, Rayados have mostly bent. They’ve been unable to sustain two consecutive acceptable performances, lacking effort in most areas of the pitch, as well as defensive focus, committing multiple mistakes that have cost them valuable points throughout the season. That won’t make the cut when you own the most expensive squad in Liga MX according to Transfermarkt, worth around 68.80 million euros.

Despite the aforementioned, this wasn’t enough to keep ‘La Pandilla’ from having the most amount of players in Liga MX being called up to their respective National Teams to face the upcoming FIFA International friendlies. Six players were called up from Mohamed’s squad (Hugo González, César Montes, Jesús Gallardo - MEXICO; Celso Ortiz - PARAGUAY; Sebastián Vegas - CHILE; Stefan Medina - COLOMBIA), and it would’ve been seven, had it not been for Carlos Rodríguez’s positive COVID-19 test in the recent days.

The teams that follow Rayados in National Team call-ups are León and Cruz Azul, with five apiece. Atlas are next with four players, and lastly, América with three. These are the clubs with the most call-ups in the league.

It’s also worth noting that the pressure has continued to mount on Argentine head coach Antonio Mohamed. While there haven’t been any ultimatums thrown around as of yet, one can’t ignore last season’s 10-game winless streak, coupled with their slow start to the current one, as they only won one out of their first five. And despite the fact they’ve managed to obtain a few more W’s since, the general style of play and overall team attitude remain an enormous cause for concern.

This goes to show that Rayados continue to own an extremely talented squad which by no happenstance won the Apertura 2019 title and nearly overcame a nearly undefeated Liverpool squad in the Club World Cup. The problem continues to be the players’ attitudes. If they can find a way to fix that, the end result will be better performances, but most importantly, consistency. If they are unable to, it’ll be time the front office stepped in and began making important moves to rebuild the squad, but most importantly, its mentality.