One month ago, Galatasaray parted way with the experienced Faith Terim, maybe they wanted some changes given the team only had six wins from the first 14 Süper Lig games. Very soon, they identified Domènec Torrent as the successor of Terim, who was the assistant coach of Pep Guardiola since Barcelona, following him all the way to Bayern Munich and Manchester City. In recent years, he left the English champions and explored football in different continents, moving into the head coach positions at New York City and Flamengo.
While looking at the profile of Torrent, it was easy to picture the football he wanted his team to play. However, there were many obstacles during his early days, as his Galatasaray barely had one point after four games. It was unacceptable to the fans, and they were already wanting the coach to leave. In this tactical analysis, we tried to evaluate Torrent’s work at Galatasaray fairly by analyzing the data, including the good and bad things of his team.
Data analysis
In the first section, we analyzed Torrent’s Galatasaray by data to see whether the team improved in terms of numbers, and the data are reflected through this table.
| 2021/22 | Before Torrent | Since Torrent took charge |
| xG per 90 | 1.72 | 1.83 |
| Shots per 90 | 14.3 | 12.25 |
| Possession | 56.4% | 51.11% |
| Average pass length | 19.12 | 18.61 |
| Passes into final third per 90 | 57.25 | 37.25 |
| Losses in own third per 90 | 15.4 | 23.75 |
In the offensive stats, Torrent improved the goal threat of Galatasaray with an increased xG at 1.83, compared to the 1.72 before his arrival. However. In other metrics such as shots per 90 (14.3 -> 12.25) and possession (56.4% -> 51.11%), they show the team was not controlling the game or having less opportunities to test the goalkeeper. There were some worries because their final third entries had been lacking, their passes into final third per 90 decreased greatly from 57.25 to 37.25. Although the average pass length (19.12 compared to 18.61) shows Torrent’s Galatasaray played shorter passes in general, the team needs time to adapt as they gave away cheap goals by handing possession in their own third. The area they lost the ball was terrible, as their losses in the own third per 90 in increased from 15.4 to 23.75, that means the opposition were also countering closer to their Galatasaray goal – that was how Edin Višća scored the winner for Trabzonspor.
| 2021/22 | Before Torrent | Since Torrent took charge |
| xGA per 90 | 1.08 | 1.85 |
| Shots against per 90 | 9.45 | 14.75 |
| PPDA | 8.74 | 10.92 |
We also compared the defensive stats of Galatasaray during and before Torrent. Unsurprisingly, all metrics were better before the arrival of the Spanish coach. Their xGA per90 increased drastically from 1.08 to 1.85, which showed they were conceding high-quality opportunities to the opponents more often. In terms of quantity, they also concede 5.3 shots more per 90, as their shots against per 90 increased from 9.45 to 14.75. Meanwhile, they were less intense without the ball, the PPDA of Torrent’s Galatasaray was only 10.92, and that was 8.74 under Terim, the supports might be expecting more aggressive football in this regard.
A new identity?
As mentioned above, Torrent had a very clear football philosophy and how his football team should be playing. So far, he introduced a structure and some tactics to help Galatasaray move the ball around, and that included the principle of plays as well.
In their first game against Hatayspor, Galatasaray showed some patient build-up against the 4-4-2 high press. In the first phase, they played with one holding midfielder (Taylan Antalyalı) only, and with a pair of wide full-backs to use the maximum width of the pitch. It was quite successful when he used two midfielders to drag the opposition midfielders down, so to create spaces in his own third.
The above image shows a sequence of the ball direction and how they drew the pressure to one side, then, went out on the free side. The move began with their centre-back, Marcão, then, through the left-back, they connected Antalyalı in the centre. In the first two passes, they drew the first line of Hatayspor towards the left side, so Alpaslan Öztürk and Sacha Boey were had spaces to play on the right side. With very simple passes to move the ball, Galatasaray eventually reached Öztürk, who could carry the ball forward in the half-spaces where the strikers could not cover.
