Vélez Sarsfield 2024: How Gustavo Quinteros Tactics Brought Their Attack Back To Life

CA Vélez Sarsfield is one of the biggest names in Argentine football.

The club has won 10 national championships and multiple other titles.

In 1994, they even won the Copa Libertadores and went on to become Club World Champion that year.

After a bit of drought to start the early 2000s, the club hired Ricardo Gareca as their new manager in 2009, a former player of the club in the 90s, and went on to win five titles in five years up until 2014.

Later in the 2010s, the club had a very successful time under former Real Madrid and PSG defender Gabriel Heinze but did not add more silverware to its trophy cabinet.

The start of the 2020s has also not been kind to the club.

Since former Valencia and Southampton manager Mauricio Pellegrino left the club in 2022, it has spiralled out of control.

The clubs last two years have been especially bad. They finished 26th and 25th in the 28-team Liga Profesional in Argentina.

While the club is known for its academy, these harsh years of turmoil have turned many young players away from Estadio José Amalfitani.

Over the last couple of years, Vélez has lost players like Thiago Almada, Máximo Perrone, and Lucas Robertone because different clubs offered them more attractive opportunities.

Just before this season, Vélez lost more talented academy graduates in Santiago Castro (to FC Bologna), Gianluca Prestianni (to Benfica Lisbon) and Francisco Ortega (to Olympiakos).

After the unsuccessful years and financial struggles, the club could not replace those departures, spending only a fraction of the money they made with those players.

But Vélez Sarsfield made one key signing this winter, Gustavo Quinteros, which changed the clubs trajectory for this year.

The Argentine-born Bolivian Coach came straight from Chile and Colo-Colo after winning multiple titles.

Quinteros brought life into a dead team.

After scoring only 24 goals in 27 games of the Liga Profesional last season, Quinteros men have scored 27 goals in just 14 games so far this season.

They reached the final of the Copa de la Liga and are currently leading the league for the first time in ten years.

In this tactical analysis and scout report, we will examine how Gustavo Quinteros brought a struggling team back into form and rejuvenated one of the worst attacks in the league by examining what CA Vélez Sarsfield has done with the ball so far this season. 

Gustavo Quinteros Formation & Players Used

While Gustavo Quinteross tactics have used many formations throughout his managerial career, he has been consistent with using a 4-2-3-1 as his base formation at Vélez Sarsfield so far this year.

In terms of players, Quinteros has done what Vélez excelled at during the last couple of years and promoted several academy players to the first team.

In goal, Vélez signed a new number 1 for Quinteros before the season started in Tomás Marchiori, who has started every game he was available for so far in 2024.

In defence, Quinteros uses academy graduate Valentín Gómez as his left centre-back.

During the season, former Olympique Lyon player Emanuel Mammana won the starting RCB spot from Aarón Quirós and formed the centre of the defence with Gómez.

At full-back, Quinteros puts his trust in experienced Elías Gómez and another Vélez academy player, Joaquín García.

The double-pivot consists of captain Agustín Bouzat, who played under Quinteros at Colo Colo, and another academy graduate, Christian Ordóñez.

In attacking midfield, the trio of Claudio Aquino, Francisco Pizzini, and (academy player) Thiago Fernández have earned the starting spots this year.

In the attack, 33-year-old Braian Romero gets the start as the lone man upfront.

Quinteros has been rather stubborn with his starting players, barely rotating in the key competitions, Liga Profesional and Copa de la Liga, so far throughout this season.

Vélez Sarsfield’s Strong Attacking Play

For this article, we will examine the attacking play that elevated Vélez from being one of the worst teams in the league to playing an incredibly successful season so far.

As we all know, attacks do not start after reaching the final third; attacks start after regaining possession.

In the upcoming paragraphs, we will examine the three phases of possession play for any football team in the world: build-up play, transitional play, and attacking play.

Build-up play is the first phase of attacks, with the ball being at the feet of your own defenders.

In this phase, it is crucial to establish a foundation for the attacks, adjust the positional play, cope with the opposing team’s press, and show great ball security.

Transitional play involves transferring the attack from your defenders into the final third; finding ways to play through the opposing teams formation and get your attackers into good positions is crucial.

Finally, attacking play is the phase of actually creating goalscoring chances in the final third of play, finding ways to beat opposing defensive lines, and creating space for your attackers to get shots off.

First, we will take a look at the build-up used by Quinteros’ men so far this term.

Build-Up play: Attracting the press with short passes

If we take a look at the build-up, at first, we have to take a look at the shape that Vélez are using when they are in possession.

Usually, the team positions themselves in the way pictured above.

Quinteros likes his men to line up in a V-shape, with both centre-backs moving into the half-spaces, both full-backs staying in the first line of play but on the outside and the keeper covering the centre of the pitch and being an active player as well.

The midfielders are doing someth