La Liga · Racing de Santander
After Zabiri's Hat Trick, Racing Should Reinforce Behind Him
Yassir Zabiri's first Racing start produced a 20-minute hat trick against Elche. The club should use the remaining transfer window to protect that attack, not crowd it.
Three goals narrowed the shopping list
Racing de Santander should leave the centre-forward queue alone for the rest of this window. Not because one spectacular start has proved a season's worth of depth; it cannot. Yassir Zabiri is on loan from Rennes, and Friday night supplied a persuasive clue rather than a guarantee. Racing's remaining work is to improve the conditions around this attack without buying another claim on the same minutes.
The clue was emphatic: three goals in 20 minutes, a 3-2 win over Elche and the club's first victory since returning to La Liga. Transfer plans are rarely settled this neatly. Football usually sends an invoice, a complication and an agent's phone call. This time it sent a hat trick, followed by two late goals that moved the useful questions behind the striker.
Zabiri scored in the 15th, 21st and 36th minutes. The first came from pressure on goalkeeper Matías Dituro, the second from a run into space, and the third from meeting Iñigo Vicente's cross at the far post. That is not one trick repeated three times. It is a young striker showing that he can make Racing's existing creators more valuable in several different ways.
The loan already has a job
Rennes announced Zabiri's loan on July 30. Less than a month later, Racing gave him his first league start and received the club's first top-flight hat trick since Mohamed Tchité at Valencia in 2008. That history makes the night memorable. The variety of the finishes makes it useful.
Sergio Canales and Vicente do not need a forward who waits for a perfect final pass. They need one who begins the action by unsettling a goalkeeper, attacks the next channel and still arrives for the cross. Zabiri's movement gave Racing a vertical target without asking the side to abandon the combinations that brought them back to the top division.
There is a contractual temptation here. A loan player scores three, and the conversation jumps immediately to ownership, future value and whether somebody can turn the deal permanent. Racing should resist writing the sequel before the first chapter has stopped steaming. The immediate task is to preserve the role: starts when the matchup suits him, service from both sides and enough patience to learn what happens when defenders stop being surprised.
Spend the deadline on the 78th minute
Zabiri left in the 69th minute with Racing leading 3-0. Elche scored in the 78th and 79th. The goals do not belong to the departing striker, and they should not be used to turn his night into a warning label. They do show where the remaining roster conversation should move.
Racing need substitutions and midfield relationships that can slow an opponent's momentum without erasing their own threat. Protecting a lead cannot mean inviting wave after wave until the clock becomes embarrassed on your behalf. One outlet must remain high enough to occupy the centre-backs. One midfielder must be available for the first pass after a regain. The full-backs cannot both treat the next clearance as permission to disappear.
Those are coaching details, but squad construction determines which details are available. If the club can still add a player before the deadline, the useful profile is not another finisher demanding the same central space. It is someone who can protect the ball, cover a transition or let Racing change the match without changing their identity.
The case against closing the striker file
The strongest counterargument is obvious: promoted teams do not decline goals because one loanee enjoyed a perfect half. Injuries, form and the long season will test every forward. Racing already watched a 2-0 opening-day lead over Villarreal become a 2-2 draw, then lost 1-0 at Getafe. Four points from nine do not create the luxury of a closed recruitment file.
Correct. They create a need to define the file properly. Depth is valuable when it adds another way to solve a problem. Duplication is expensive when it merely gives a manager two players waiting for the same service. Zabiri has earned a run in which Racing can discover whether the press, the channel runs and the far-post arrival travel beyond Elche.
That evaluation also protects the player. Declaring him the answer after three goals would make every quiet match look like a reversal. A clear role gives José Alberto López something more honest to judge: does Zabiri keep creating pressure and separation when the finish does not arrive? Development should not become a weekly referendum conducted by the scoreboard.
Butarque should test the new priority
Racing visit Rayo Vallecano at Butarque on September 5. The first question is whether Zabiri starts again. The more revealing one comes if Racing take the lead: can the team keep a forward outlet, connect the first pass out of pressure and avoid another sudden collapse in territory?
El Sardinero recorded a ninth consecutive full house as 22,498 watched the club's first win of the season. That crowd has already provided the promotion energy. The recruitment department now has to provide restraint. A hat trick is not an instruction to stop looking at the squad. It is an instruction to look somewhere else.
Give Zabiri the next start and give the side behind him a cleaner way to close the next match. If Racing leave Butarque with their attacking identity intact and their final 15 minutes under control, Friday's three goals will have changed more than one result. They will have changed the deadline's actual job.
2026-2027 season
La Liga standings
| # | Team | GP | W | D | L | GD | Pts | Form |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Barcelona |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | +10 | 9 | W W W |
| 2 |  Real Madrid |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | +8 | 9 | W W W |
| 3 |  Atlético Madrid |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | +4 | 7 | W D W |
| 4 |  Deportivo Alavés |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | +4 | 7 | W D W |
| 5 |  Osasuna |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | +2 | 7 | W W D |
| 6 |  Sevilla |
3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 6 | L W W |
| 7 |  Real Betis |
3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 6 | L W W |
| 8 |  Deportivo de A Coruña |
3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | +2 | 5 | W D D |
| 9 |  Levante |
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | W D L |
| 10 |  Racing de Santander |
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | W L D |
| 11 |  Real Sociedad |
4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -3 | 4 | D W L L |
| 12 |  Espanyol |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | +1 | 3 | L L W |
| 13 |  Athletic Bilbao |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 3 | W L L |
| 14 |  Getafe |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -3 | 3 | L W L |
| 15 |  Villarreal |
3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | -1 | 2 | L D D |
| 16 |  Celta Vigo |
4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -3 | 2 | D L L D |
| 17 |  Valencia |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -3 | 1 | L L D |
| 18 |  Rayo Vallecano |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -4 | 1 | L D L |
| 19 |  Elche |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -6 | 1 | L L D |
| 20 |  Málaga |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -6 | 1 | L D L |
