# 2010–11 Real Sociedad season

The 2010–11 season was Real Sociedad's 65th season in La Liga. After spending 3 seasons in the second tier of Spanish football the Basque club obtained promotion by topping the table in 2010.
This article shows player statistics and all matches (official and friendly) that the club played during the 2010–11 season.

## Season summary

In the 2010–11 season, Real Sociedad played in the top division of Spanish football for the first time since being relegated in 2007. Some additions were made to the squad that had obtained promotion. Among them Joseba Llorente stood out, having cost €2.5 million.
The season started with a home victory against Villarreal. During the first half of the season, the club got an unexpectedly high point tally. Relegation looked extremely unlikely and optimism reigned. Later in the season, the shortcomings in Lasarte's approach became clear and the club was in free fall. On the last match day Real Sociedad avoided relegation and Deportivo de La Coruña were relegated instead.
At the end of the season, Lasarte was dismissed on the grounds that he did not give enough of a chance to academy players and that his style of play was rudimentary and unattractive.

## Players
### Squad information

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | CHI | Claudio Bravo |
| 2 | DF | ESP | Carlos Martínez |
| 3 | DF | ESP | Mikel González |
| 4 | MF | ESP | Gorka Elustondo |
| 5 | MF | ESP | Markel Bergara |
| 6 | DF | ESP | Mikel Labaka |
| 7 | MF | FRA | Antoine Griezmann |
| 8 | FW | ESP | Joseba Llorente |
| 9 | FW | ESP | Imanol Agirretxe |
| 10 | MF | ESP | Xabi Prieto |
| 11 | MF | ESP | Mikel Aranburu (captain) |
| 13 | GK | ESP | Eñaut Zubikarai |
| 14 | MF | NED | Jeffrey Sarpong |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 15 | DF | ESP | Ion Ansotegi |
| 16 | DF | NOR | Vadim Demidov |
| 17 | MF | FRA | David Zurutuza |
| 18 | FW | ESP | Borja Viguera |
| 19 | MF | ESP | Diego Rivas |
| 20 | FW | ESP | Raúl Tamudo |
| 21 | FW | URU | Diego Ifrán |
| 22 | DF | ESP | Dani Estrada |
| 23 | MF | ESP | Francisco Sutil |
| 24 | DF | ESP | Alberto de la Bella |
| 26 | MF | ESP | Asier Illarramendi |
| 30 | GK | ESP | Toño |

## Start formations
### Starting XI

Lineup that started most of the club's competitive matches throughout the season.
4–2–3–1 was the default formation during that season. Occasionally, Lasarte changed formation, resorting to a back 5 (Santander away) or in some cases adding a second forward (Levante away). In some other games (Atlético Madrid Away) Lasarte played three center-midfielders. The preferred partnership in center midfield was that of Aranburu and Rivas. Alternative choices, such as Bergara or Elustondo, proving to be unsuccessful. Up front, Llorente began strongly but after his injury he was replaced by Tamudo, who would eventually start more games and play more minutes.

## Player statistics

Squad stats :
| Nr. | Player | Games played | Starting | Sub | Subbed | Mins played | Goals | Pens. against | Pens. for | Fouls suff. | Fouls comm. | Yellow C | Red c | Assists | Passes | Good passes |
| 10 | Prieto | 37 | 36 | 1 | 3 | 3388 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 116 | 26 | 6 | 0 | 81 | 1872 | 1307 |
| 17 | Zurutuza | 36 | 30 | 6 | 20 | 2595 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 97 | 60 | 6 | 0 | 27 | 1373 | 972 |
| 27 | Griezmann | 37 | 34 | 3 | 19 | 2952 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 45 | 7 | 0 | 51 | 1276 | 750 |
| 11 | Aranburu | 32 | 27 | 5 | 11 | 2422 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 35 | 6 | 0 | 16 | 1020 | 782 |
| 20 | Tamudo | 31 | 20 | 11 | 13 | 1904 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 24 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 381 | 258 |
| 15 | Ansotegi | 32 | 32 | 0 | 1 | 2947 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 21 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 806 | 612 |
| 19 | Rivas | 32 | 31 | 1 | 10 | 2683 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 90 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 1163 | 916 |
| 3 | Mikel | 32 | 30 | 2 | 3 | 2795 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 34 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 878 | 638 |
| 24 | De la Bella | 30 | 28 | 2 | 2 | 2651 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 31 | 42 | 4 | 0 | 15 | 1458 | 1001 |
| 2 | Martínez | 25 | 25 | 0 | 1 | 2312 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 22 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 1196 | 791 |
| 5 | Bergara | 19 | 9 | 10 | 2 | 1016 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 19 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 468 | 379 |
| 8 | Llorente | 18 | 15 | 3 | 9 | 1320 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 31 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 328 | 241 |
| 4 | Elustondo | 18 | 13 | 5 | 4 | 1237 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 579 | 417 |
| 14 | Sarpong | 16 | 1 | 15 | 1 | 379 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 166 | 111 |
| 22 | Estrada | 19 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 1704 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 22 | 4 | 0 | 13 | 834 | 561 |
| 6 | Labaka | 14 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 973 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 258 | 201 |
| 23 | Sutil | 17 | 4 | 13 | 4 | 553 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 223 | 109 |
| 16 | Demidov | 13 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 1148 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 395 | 303 |
| 9 | Agirretxe | 11 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 232 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 53 | 34 |
| 21 | Ifrán | 10 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 350 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 59 | 41 |
| 18 | Viguera | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 84 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 29 | 18 |
| 26 | Illarramendi | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 199 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 139 | 111 |

## Summer transfers

Emilio Nsue and Carlos Bueno, who were instrumental to the club's promotion, returned to their original clubs, as did the less important Songo'o and Jonathan Estrada.
In the winter transfer window Agirretxe was close to being loaned to a second division club. However, a season-ending injury suffered by Joseba Llorente put an end to all speculation. Borja Viguera was loaned to Catalan second division club Gimnàstic due to lack of opportunities. After having played a handful of games, his season ended when he suffered an injury.
The club acquired some new players in order to reinforce its squad. Most of the signings were arguably failures. Jeffrey Sarpong was bought from Ajax for €200,000 and was mostly used as a substitute. Francisco Sutil, a free transfer, suffered a similar fate. Joseba Llorente, signed from Villarreal for €2.5 million, although impressive while fit, missed most of the season due to injury. Raúl Tamudo and Vadim Demidov were the most consistent signings that season. Finally, Diego Ifrán showed signs of his quality, despite coming back from injury much later than expected.

### In

| Player | From | Fee |
| Joseba Llorente | Villarreal | €2,500,000 |
| Raúl Tamudo | Espanyol | Free |
| Diego Ifrán | Danubio | €1,600,000 |
| Francisco Sutil | Eibar | Free |
| Jeffrey Sarpong | Ajax | €200,000 |
| Vadim Demidov | Rosenborg | Free player, winter signing. |

### Out

| Player | New Team | Fee |
| Asier Riesgo | Osasuna | Free, end of contract |
| Sergio Rodríguez | Logroñés | Free, end of contract |

### Loan out

| Player | Team |
| Iosu Esnaola | Real Unión |
| Iñigo Sarasola | Real Unión |
| Borja Viguera | Gimnàstic |
| Alex Albistegi | Eibar |

### Loan return

Italics for players returning to the club but left it during pre-season
| Player | From |
| Toño | Tenerife B |

### Loan end

| Player | To |
| Jonathan Estrada | Millonarios |
| Carlos Bueno | Universidad de Chile |
| Emilio Nsue | Mallorca |
| Franck Songo'o | Zaragoza |

## Club
### Coaching staff

| Position | Staff |
| Head coach | Martín Lasarte |
| Assistant Coach | Alberto Iturralde |
| Fitness Trainer | Pablo Balbi |
| Goalkeeper Coach | Roberto Navajas |
| Technical Assistant | Karla Larburu |
Source:

## Pre-season

The club played a series of friendlies preparing for the new season. A brief stage in Austria allowed the club to play some foreign clubs.
| Date | Rival | Place | Result | Scorers |
| 30 July | Elgoibar | Mintxeta, Elgoibar | 0–3 | Llorente 18', Sutil 23', Agirretxe 58' |
| 4 August | Dinamo Tirana | Bad Bleiber, Austria | 4 – 2 Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine | Llorente 6', Agirretxe (2) 82', 85' Viguera 88' |
| 6 August | AEL Limassol | Bad Bleiber, Austria | 3 – 0 Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine | Viguera 55', Aranburu 63', Llorente 89' |
| 7 August | VfL Bochum | Bad Bleiber, Austria | 1 – 1 Archived 10 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine | Prieto 55' |
| 12 August | Eibar | Ipurua, Eibar | 1 – 3 Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine | Aranburu 52', Agirretxe 78', Alex Albistegi 78' |
| 14 August | Sporting de Gijón | Asti, Zarautz | 0 – 1 Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine | |
| 18 August | Real Unión | Txerloia, Azkoitia | 1–1 | Agirretxe 46' |
| 22 August | Osasuna | Estadio Reyno de Navarra, Pamplona | 0 – 1 Archived 28 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine | Tamudo 78' |

## Liga BBVA

Win  Draw  Loss  Postponed

## Copa del Rey

As a result of losing on a 5–3 aggregate, Real Sociedad were knocked out