Valencia are still in the hunt for Champions League football as Spain’s La Liga winds
down.
While they currently have the worst form of any side in the top eight, Valencia, under
manager Marcelino Garcia Toral, have impressed this season with their counter-attacking football
and in spite of off-field upheaval and a consistent policy of selling their best players.
Valencia have a justly deserved reputation for developing youngsters and David Silva,
Isco, Jordi Alba, Paco Alcacer and current Los Che left-back Jose Gaya are all academy
graduates playing at the highest level.
This reputation makes Valencia an attractive destination for young players seeking first
team experience on loan, and this season Paris Saint-Germain’s Gonçalo Guedes, a right-footed
left winger on loan at Valencia, has shone in La Liga.
Still only 21, Guedes has registered nine assists for Valenica with two games remaining
of the league season, as well as scoring four goals.
He’s a promising talent who could make an impact for Portugal in the 2018 World Cup
as well.
Valencia play a 4-4-2 under Marcelino.
Guedes lines up usually on the left, though he has played occasionally on the right.
Geoffrey Kondogbia, on loan from Inter Milan, and Dani Parejo form the usual central midfield
axis, with Carlos Soler the first choice right midfielder.
Two from Simone Zaza, Santi Mina, and top scorer Rodrigo Moreno play up front.
This attacking unit has seen Valencia score more goals than any La Liga sides save Barcelona
and Real Madrid.
Valencia tend to flex their middle vertically, so that the central midfielders drop closer
to the centre backs to collect the ball, and the strikers in turn drop to close the gap,
while the wide players shift upwards.
The central players then move up again as Valencia progress their possession, so that
the strikers are in position to receive crosses, and the midfield can support the attack or
guard the central space if it breaks down.
This creates space for the wide players as the opposition tend to adjust their defensive
lines to mark centrally, and so Valencia’s wide players are between those lines.
Guedes plays mostly like an out-and-out winger, taking advantage of how his side create space
to carry the ball forwards and look to cross, or to receive a moving ball in space and cross
immediately.
Guedes works well with left back Gaya, either taking direct passes down the wide space to
run onto and cross, or cutting inside onto a more angled ball.
While predominantly right footed, Guedes can cross fairly well with his left foot and generally
does this first time when released into space.
He delivers a better ball when he has time to cut inside, though, and sometimes Gaya
or even Kondogbia can get ahead of Guedes and play a return pass to him, affording him
time to look up and pick his pass.
Guedes does also make lateral runs across the box.
Parejo is Valencia’s creative fulcrum, and play is often switched from one side to another
through him.
However, he’s also capable of looking up and spotting runs from out to in, and Guedes
playing on the side that favours him cutting inside often makes these runs, especially
as the forwards drop off towards Parejo.
It’s another examples of how Valencia use horizontal movement to create space, and Guedes’
use of intelligent running to exploit this.
Guedes’ stats show a player with reasonable all round involvement – interestingly, his
best creative output came in 140 minutes of action for PSG after his transfer from Benfica
and before his loan season at Valencia.
That implies a player with potential who is transitioning this season into playing more
and being less of a player who comes on when defences are tired and makes an impact, but
also shows, because there’s not been a massive drop-off, that Guedes can sustain this improvement.
Guedes has also improved carrying the ball forwards.
Valencia work hard to create room for Guedes to run into, and this means that his dribbling
is less into congested areas and more towards pockets of space from which he can cross.
His numbers show a commensurate improvement.
Gonçalo Guedes has had a strong season at Valencia, operating with another young prospect
on the left in Jose Gaya, and reinforcing his international claims.
In a team that engineers width through clever movement, the young Portuguese player can
thrive.
Whether that will be the case next season when he returns to Paris Saint Germain remains
to be seen, but a good World Cup, even from the bench, could see Guedes attracting some
real interest.