Team Focus: Midfield Trio Central to Valencia's Early Season Success

Saturday’s clash with Atletico Madrid was seen as a real test of this season’s new-look Valencia and particularly its previously impressive three-man midfield of Dani Parejo, Javi Fuego and Andre Gomes. Both the team, and its central unit, came through really well as Atletico were beaten 3-1 at Mestalla.

Parejo, Fuego and Gomes had started all of Valencia’s first six games of the new campaign, and had generally impressed with their performances. But they had yet to come up against opposition players as street-wise and battle-hardened as Atletico’s Gabi, Tiago and Koke. The midfield trio -- like their team in general -- stood up well to the challenge.

The three all had good games - with ratings of 7.48 [Gomes], 7.33 [Fuego] and 7.22 [Parejo], putting them all in their side’s top five performers on the day. As previously Fuego was the deep ball-winner, Parejo the organiser and Gomes had license to drive forward from the tip of the triangle. The stats also show nicely how their different characteristics mean they complement each other in the centre of the park.

On Saturday, Parejo was the most involved player on his side, with 69 touches in all. The former Real Madrid youth teamer made 48 passes with an 85% accuracy, including five out of nine long balls completed. He also made five tackles and three interceptions - something especially important in the second half as he helped lead a press in midfield that disrupted the visitors’ rhythm.

The now 25-year-old, not always previously known for rolling up his sleeves when the going got tough, also made three fouls. One of these was a crunching tackle on Tiago which brought a yellow card, but also showed Parejo was standing up to Atletico's ultra-aggressive side.

Fuego was next most involved, with 54 touches over the 90 minutes. The former Rayo Vallecano man made 36 passes with an 81% accuracy, with his role as a deep-lying protector of the defence shown by interceptions and clearances [six of each] being ahead of total tackles [three]. The importance of his performance was highlighted on Spanish TV on Sunday night, with pundits showing how he regularly dropped back to fill in at the back, especially when centre-half Nicolas Otamendi went towards the ball to win it.

 
Andre Gomes was less involved, with just 22 passes and a completion rate of 73% [this perhaps a sign of his greater ambition on the ball]. He made just one tackle and one interception during 71 minutes on the pitch, before being replaced by more defensive-minded Brazilian youngster Filipe Augusto.

A perhaps unexpected string to Gomes’ bow was the four aerial challenges the former Benfica player won. The most important came when he got up above Atletico defender Miranda to flick on a long clearance, and then burst forward to take the return pass from Paco Alcacer before entering the box to calmly score his side's second goal. That was one of his two shots at goal, but it was perhaps the game’s key moment as Valencia saw Atletico rocking and went in for the kill.

When looking at the game’s statistics the unusual way in which it panned out must be taken into account. Valencia going 3-0 up inside 14 minutes meant that Nuno’s team were primarily concerned with protecting their lead for the remainder of the match. That meant that Atletico, who last season won the title averaging just 48.9% possession through the 38 games, managed 59% of the ball at Mestalla. Hence Valencia’s midfield had less of the ball than usual, and more chance to show their defensive strengths.

Looking over the season so far as a whole, Parejo has made a total of 397 passes in the first seven games, the seventh highest tally of any player in La Liga. His pass success rate of 85.1% is also more than decent, while six accurate long balls per game puts him ninth of all players in the division [not including goalkeepers]. This shows his role as the ‘organiser’ of his side’s play, a role the former Spanish underage starlet has always appeared to have the ability to do, even if he did not always live up to the early hype. He now appears to have ‘arrived’ however - and some pundits have even suggested he is close to a Spanish senior call-up.

Fuego is third so far in La Liga’s ranking for blocked shots, with his average of 1.1 the most of any player who has featured in all seven games so far. He is also 14th in interceptions at 3.6, and his 87% ball retention is the best of his team’s starting players, showing an ability to keep the ball and build moves from deep. It had been thought that the 30-year-old, a free transfer 12 months ago, would be likely to miss out given the availability of other Jorge Mendes / Peter Lim signings who can fill his position, but his performances to date have won Nuno’s confidence.

André Gomes, meanwhile, has scored twice in his first seven games for Valencia. However zero assists, zero key passes and zero accurate through balls so far suggest the role at the tip of the midfield triangle might not be his best position. The youngster has shown excellent technique and intelligent movement, but his size and bulk [he’s actually among the biggest and heaviest of the entire Valencia squad] means it’s sometimes more difficult for him in tight areas close to goal.

So perhaps surprisingly, given his 15 million euro valuation and status as one of the big names delivered by Lim and Mendes, Gomes looks the least sure of his place in the side at the moment. Nuno has substituted him four times already, and twice at half-time. Filipe Augusto, who was with Nuno at Rio Ave last season, has replaced him in both of Valencia’s most recent games. This move has seen Parejo [five key passes in seven games so far] play further forward and Valencia look more solid in possession.

But it would be churlish really to nit-pick given Valencia’s superb start to the season. A major part of Los Che’s stunning defeat of Atletico on Saturday, and their unbeaten start to the new La Liga season, is down to the contribution of their well-matched midfield three.

Can Valencia's midfield trio lead the team to a Champions League finish this season? Let us know in the comments below