Vicente Moreno Tactics At Osasuna 24/25

“These will be my last two matches as Osasuna coach at El Sadar, and I would love to leave the club in a European competition”, Vicente Moreno said.

During the Osasuna vs Atlético Madrid pre-match press conference, the head coach of Osasuna announced he will step down at the end of the season.

The previous coach of UD Almería, Al-Shabab and Espanyol, among many other teams, hopes to finish the season in a qualifying position for a European competition.

With just one round left in La Liga, the race for European qualification is heating up:

Seventh place (UEFA Europa League qualifier): Celta Vigo – 52 points
Eighth place (UEFA Conference League qualifier): Rayo Vallecano – 51 points
Ninth place: Osasuna – 51 points

In this tactical analysis, we will show Vicente Moreno’s tactics in the attacking and defending phases, outlining his style of play, which helps to predict where he can fit.

Vicente Moreno Formation At Osasuna

As shown in the graph below, under Vicente Moreno style of play, Osasuna’s preferred formation on paper has shifted mostly between 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 in the 2024/2025 season.

On the pitch, the 4-3-3 formation is used in attacking phases, while it becomes 4-4-2 in defending phases.

Vicente Moreno In-Possession Tactics At Osasuna

Starting with the in-possession phases, we’ll focus on the progression phase, in which they show good abilities and have many variations.

Three-Player Backline In Progression Tactics

The formation with the ball is more like a 4-3-3, as shown in the photo below, where the striker drops near the centre and the two wingers stretch the width out of the shot.

Let’s dissect some cases in their last match against Atlético Madrid, where they won 2-0.

The right full-back moves forward, stretching the width while the winger drops inside.

The eight near the ball cuts diagonally, trying to fix Atlético Madrid’s left winger, making him hesitant to press.

This leads to the shape below against the 4-4-2 mid-press by Atlético Madrid.

The backline now has three players, with the left fullback joining the centrebacks while the left centreback sends the ball directly to the stretching right fullback.

This is where the dilemma begins for Atlético Madrid.

Their left full-back has a tough question to answer: Should he press the stretching full-back or wait because of the winger who is cutting inside him after dragging him a little bit back?

We should also mention the critical role of Osasuna’s right winger, who fixes Atlético Madrid’s left winger.

The last scene is their starting point to create their preferred wing rotations, but the question now is, are wing rotations the only use for this shape?

Let’s see in another case.

As shown below, Atlético Madrid have just two strikers to press the three-player backline, while also shadowing the six, so the right winger leaves his narrow position to press the left full-back.

At the same time, the right winger cuts inside, and the left eight keeps moving to a higher point, as shown below.

All of this leads to a large empty area in the centre which can be exploited to make the six receive, twist and turn.

As shown below, the left midfielder drops suddenly, taking the attention of the striker, who leaves shadowing the six, opening the passing lane to him from the centre-back.

As shown below, the six could easily receive the ball, twist, and turn, breaking the press.

Dropping Eight Tactics

They also have a similar strategy with a slight variation: They ask the eight to drop into the right full-back’s position, who moves forward, stretching the width, while the right winger cuts behind the opponent’s full-back, as shown below.

The six also has a role in this shape, not just to receive, but in wide rotations.

As shown below, Real Madrid defend with a 4-4-2 formation, while the situation is a little bit complicated.

Madrid’s left winger (Jude Bellingham while defending) presses the eight because he is in the full-back position, while Madrid’s left full-back is in a 2v1 situation against the wide right full-back and the narrow winger.

Eduardo Camavinga realises that he is useless now, so he goes to the winger, allowing the full-back to press the stretching full-back.

Here, the six’s role comes to infiltrate behind the two strikers.

The result is that the six is free in a large area and can help in wide rotation, as shown below.

Vicente Moreno Out-Of-Possession Tactics At Osasuna

When moving to out-of-possession phases, he prefers to stay in a mid-block position and not rush to get the ball.

Despite pressing high sometimes, the stats clearly show that they are not always striving to press high to get the ball back quickly.

They are the sixth-lowest team, having an average ball possession of 45.8 %.

However, they are not safe, having conceded 51 goals in La Liga so far.

They are the eighth-worst team in La Liga.

As shown below, they prefer to use the 4-4-2 in the mid and low blocks, asking the two strikers to try to be with the two sixes, or shadowing one of them at least.

The other thing we should mention is that they have more man-marking responsibilities when the opponent asks questions.

As shown below, the right winger is stuck to the inverted Madrid’s left full-back, while a six will follow Bellingham when he drops.

On the other side, Real Madrid’s winger and full-back switch, so they keep the same man’s responsibility, and each one keeps following his man.

This strategy could be tough for some teams, but many teams have found a way to break this block dynamically, even without being planned.

Ironically, while they excel in off-the-ball movement in attacking phases, they demonstrate significant defensive deficiencies in handling such movements when executed by opponents.

As shown below, the six leaves his position to press Bellingham (yellow) while the inverted full-back still fixes the right winger (red).

This leaves a gap in the left blank that could be exploited by the dropping Kylian Mbappé (blue).

As shown below, Kylian Mbappé easily receives a third-man pass in this gap while the right winger is still out of the game and stuck with Madrid’s inverted full-back.

As we have mentioned, they suffer against teams who always have dynamic rotations and switching because every player wants to follow his opponent on paper, so if the opponent he should press is not the one he finds in his position, he won’t know how to deal with that.

That may be because of the lack of explicit references from the whole team.

As shown below, Luka Modrić drops into the full-back position, switching with the right full-back (Federico Valverde).

Here, you can find Osasuna’s left winger waving his hand, not knowing what he should do.

The result is that Modrić receives the ball, passing it to Mbappé, who drops into the half-space.

Now, you can guess who will follow Mbappé, and the answer is the same man-marking reference.

The centre-back drops with him while the left full-back marks Brahim Díaz, who stretches the width.

At the same time, Vinícius Júnior fixes the other centre-back, which makes the back line not shift well.

This creates a gap in the half-space where Mbappé can receive a dangerous through pass, as shown below.

To highlight how this problem is dangerous, we can dissect the goal they conceded in the same match.

As shown below, they stand in the same block.

This time, the ball is with Federico Valverde, so the left winger goes up to press him normally.

In this case, the two sixes are with two Real Madrid players (Luka Modrić and Jude Bellingham), but the shift isn’t optimal, and you can see that the far six is still far from Jude Bellingham.

Valverde passes the ball to Modrić, who touches it to Díaz.

Here, the left full-back will press him while the other three players in the defence line won’t shift toward this side to cover the half-space, as we will see.

As shown below, the backline didn’t shift, so the half-space was not protected, and the midfield line also didn’t shift, so Bellingham ran freely to receive the ball from Díaz.

Another problem with this individual’s responsibilities without a collective context is that the left winger should keep marking Valverde and tracking him all the way.

This isn’t easy, especially for wingers who dislike defending a lot.

Valverde’s run is also amazing and surprising, and he will receive a third-man pass from Bellingham.

In the end, Federico Valverde sends a superb grounded cross to Kylian Mbappé, who will put the ball into the net, as shown below.

Conclusion

This Vicente Moreno analysis has shown his tactics in the attacking and defending phases, showing the strengths and weaknesses that Osasuna have with him.

In this head-coach analysis, we showed that he preferred to use a three-player backline during progression, asking a full-back to go forward, stretching the width, or asking an eight to drop.

All of that is to create a dynamic wing rotation and achieve numerical superiority in flanks.

In the defending phases, we have dissected his preferred mid-block, showing how it could be difficult for static teams but easily broken for dynamic ones.