Cruz Azul are in the midst of one of the most exciting in-season renaissance stories in football at the moment.
La Maquina endured a torrid first half of the Mexican league season in the Liga Apertura, finishing 16th among 18 teams after winning just five games and losing 10.
After they began their campaign with three losses, the club initially sacked manager Ricardo Ferretti and replaced him with assistant manager Joaquin Moreno, who notably played 120 times for them during his career.
However, the team laboured to just five wins from Morenos 14 matches in charge, resulting in another managerial change.
Cruz Azul then chose to bring in Martín Anselmi, who had just resigned from Independiente del Valle after over a year and a half in charge.
Under the Argentine tactician, the Mexican club have endured a start few could have anticipated, racking up five wins and a draw in seven matches to sit atop Liga Clausura.
Their uptick in form can be attributed to a solid defence that has conceded just three times, but their attack has also performed, with the team scoring 10 goals.
What has led to Anselmi drastically improving the teams fortunes?
This Martín Anselmi tactical analysis report will dive into the changes he has brought about, along with some analysis of Cruz Azuls tactics, performances, and players who have improved.
(Note: This report does not take Cruz Azuls 3-2 win over Club León on February 22, 2024 into account)
Who Is Martín Anselmi?
Anselmi is only 38 but already boasts extensive managerial experience.
His coaching career began in 2015 with the youth teams at Atletico Excursionistas and Comisión de Actividades Infantiles.
He then became Gabriel Militos assistant manager at Atletico Independiente in the summer of 2016, but held that position only until the end of that year.
Anselmi received another assistant manager gig at Uruguayan second-tier side Club Atletico Atlanta in July 2017.
He remained there for nearly a year before getting his first managerial appointment at CD Universidad Católica B.
A year later, he joined Independiente del Valle in Ecuador as assistant manager to Miguel Ángel Ramírez.
The duo left the club in December 2020 before joining forces once again at Internacional three months later, a partnership that lasted until that summer.
Anselmi then became the manager of Chilean first-tier team Unión La Calera in January 2022 but lasted just four months as they won just three of his 15 matches in charge.
However, they also lost only four, drawing eight games.
In May of that year, he returned to Independiente del Valle, this time as their first-team manager.
This time around, Anselmi made the most of his chance, as the team won five and drew one of his first six matches in charge.
In October 2022, he won his first senior title as Independiente beat São Paulo 2-0 in the Copa Sudamericana final.
A month later, he let them win the Copa Ecuador title with a 3-1 win over AD 9 de Octubre in the final.
February and March 2023 brought two more titles as Independiente defeated SD Aucas (3-0) and Flamengo (5-4 on penalties, 1-1 on aggregate) in the finals of the Supercopa Ecuador and Recopa Sudamericana.
Meanwhile, he led them to a second-placed finish in the 2022 Serie A Segunda Etapa before following it up with a table-topping display in the 2023 Serie A Primera Etapa, winning 20 and drawing three of 30 combined games across both competitions.
However, Independientes form dipped in the 2023 Segunda Etapa as they won just six of their 15 matches to finish eighth.
They then lost the Tercera Etapa final on penalties (4-1, 1-1 on aggregate), which marked their sixth successive game without a win, after which Anselmi departed the club.
Martín Anselmi Tactics At Cruz Azul Key Statistical Changes
This section must be prefaced by some surface-level stats involving Cruz Azul.
La Maquinas performances over the last six seasons (2023/24 included) suggest that they generally tend to do better in the Clausura than in the Apertura.
Between 2018/19 and now, they have averaged a higher win percentage (57.89% vs 40.90%) and lower loss percentage (21.17% vs 34.04%), as well as more goals scored (1.55 vs 1.38) and fewer goals conceded (0.94 vs 1.19) per game in the Clausura than in the Apertura.
However, rather interestingly, three of the five completed seasons saw them finish higher in the Apertura than in the Clausura.
In the two seasons they didnt do that (2019/20 and 2020/21), they finished first in the Clausura, a trend Anselmi will hope to continue.
This still shouldnt take away from what Anselmi has done, however.
Cruz Azul hold a win percentage of 71.4% so far in the Clausura this term, more than what theyve managed in each of the last six Apertura seasons and four of the last five Clausura seasons.
Their goals per game of 1.43 is also more than all but two seasons each in the Apertura and Clausura, while their goals conceded per game at 0.43 is their lowest in the Clausura across the last six seasons and was bettered only once in the Apertura (0.35 in 2020/21).
Digging deeper into the underlying stats also shows marked improvement across the board in the Clausura compared to their 2023/24 season average, which itself has undoubtedly been helped by their incredible shift in form in the new year.
As the table below shows, Cruz Azul are performing better in expected goals (xG) and shots per game while recording a massive uptick in penalty area entries per game.
Their shot accuracy has dropped with more attempts from outside the area, but their average shot distance is more or less the same.
Additionally, they were a much more potent counter-attacking team previously.
Under Anselmi, however, a higher percentage of their positional attacks result in shots instead, indicating a shift in tactics entirely.
The table below also suggests the change in the tactical approach mentioned above.
Cruz Azul are averaging more possession per game under Anselmi than their season average, with a higher number of passes per possession per game.
This has, in turn, led to more forward passes with marginally
