The weekend of Saturday 12th September saw La Liga football return once again. On Sunday, it was the turn of Valencia to begin their 2020/21 campaign with a match against local rivals Levante at Estadio de Mestalla. Los murcelagos struggled last season, finishing outside the top four for the first time in three seasons as they scrambled to ninth. Levante on the other hand finished in an impressive 12th position – their highest finish since returning to La Liga in 2017.
Valencia supporters felt alienated by owner Peter Lim in the offseason, with his brutal handling of the club. They sold Ferran Torres to Manchester City, Francis Coquelin to Villareal, and Rodrigo to Premier League new boys Leeds, and heading into their season opener, had opted not to sign any replacements. Levante, on the other hand, made a few small signings to enhance squad depth, and with no departures, fans will be hoping head coach Paco López can lead his team to a top-half finish this season. This tactical analysis will explore how both teams approached what was, for the most part, a close game, and ultimately provide an analysis as to how Valencia managed to secure a victory.
Lineups
Javi Gracia opted for a 4-4-2 formation, in which he gave a debut to 17-year-old English winger Yunus Musah, with Gonçalo Guedes occupying the other wing. Maxi Gómez, who was Valencia’s top scorer last season, led the line with Lee Kang-In. Geoffrey Kondogbia partnered Vicente Esquerdo in the middle. Their back four was Daniel Wass, Gabriel Paulista, Eliaquim Mangala, and José Gayà.
Levante also started with a 4-4-2. Jorge Miramón and Carlos Clerc occupied the full-back positions, with Óscar Duarte and Róber Pier as centre-backs. Nemanja Radoja partnered José Campaña in the centre of midfield, and Gonzalo Melero and Enis Bardhi started out wide. José Morales and Sergio León started up front.
Valencia (4-4-2): Domenech; Wass, Gabriel, Mangala, Gayà; Musah, Esquerdo, Kondogbia, Guedes; Gómez, Lee
Levante (4-4-2): Fernandez; Miramón, Duarte, Pier, Clerc; Campaña, Radoja, Melero, Bardhi, Leon, Morales
Early Levante press
It was clear that López didn’t want his opponents to settle, ordering his men to press high from the outset. Their PPDA of 9.5 for the game exemplifies this desire, but López will have been especially pleased with the start Levante made. Following a high press from the centre, Levante won possession back and scored inside 40 seconds.
After the ball went back to Gayà, Campaña came high and wide in order to pin him back. From here, we can see below that León pushed higher than the attacking line to prevent the ball from going to the centre-back. This triggered Radoja to come in from midfield to shut down Esquerdo. The ball went to Esquerdo but Radoja was too close to him. Radoja, therefore, won back possession which released Morales who, after some fancy footwork, tucked the ball away to reward Levante for their high-energy start.
Note also in the still above how Miramón reacted to Radoja’s high press. He stepped into midfield to shut down the man Radoja just left, giving even fewer options to the man on the ball for Valencia. This high pressing tactic is tiresome but effective. One drawback is it does involve players often leaving their positional base in order to intensely close the man on the ball and his options. However, in an attacking sense, it worked well for Levante with 53.3% of their 75 recoveries occurring in a medium or high area of the pitch.
Levante’s second goal arose from a counter-press in a similar area. Instead of retreating after losing possession, the Levante players sought to win the ball back before Valencia settled. We can see below the crowding of Guedes by Campaña and Morales. The press was clever, as the two men shut off all passing angles besides one – in which the receiver was closed by Melero. Melero again had left his positional base in order to execute the press, but after he won the ball back, he shifted it to Morales who did the rest. While vacating your position can be dangerous, an orderly press like Levante’s (40% of their recoveries came from positional pressing) can bring numerous benefits, which they realised as they went 2-1 up.
