Celta Vigo is a very traditional club in Galicia, the north-west of Spain.
In 2023, the club celebrated its 100th anniversary, marking a century of existence and solidifying its status as a staple in Spanish football.
However, they never won any major trophies and were stuck in limbo for most of their existence.
After being relegated in 2007 and spending five harsh years in the depths of Segunda División, including three years in the relegation battle, the club finally secured promotion back to La Liga in 2012.
In the 2013/14 season, a young Luis Enrique coached the team.
This marked the beginning of a highly successful era for the club, as Celta finished in the top half of La Liga for three consecutive years and even reached the UEFA Europa League under the guidance of coach Eduardo Berizzo.
Over the last couple of years, the bad side of Celta Vigo unfortunately regained control.
It has become almost a formality that Los Celestes will be in the relegation battle for most of the season.
However, superstar striker Iago Aspas will likely save them in the last couple of games, and the club will remain in La Liga for one more year.
This has also meant a revolving door for coaches, with the last couple of coaches not lasting longer than a single season with the club.
In March 2024, the club had to fire their manager once again.
This time, it was legendary coach Rafa Benitéz who was unable to achieve much with the squad.
Instead of pursuing another big-name or highly experienced option, Celta Vigo chose to promote the manager of their secondary team to the first team.
Claudio Giráldez has been part of Celta Vigo’s academy since 2020 and previously coached their U19 team before being promoted twice.
With their new head coach, Celta have found a new approach to the game.
They finished last season strong and started this one in the same manner.
In this tactical analysis and team report, we will examine Claudio Giráldez’s tactics, how he’s succeeded with a struggling team, and what to expect from the club moving forward.
Claudio Giráldez Possession, Domination & Triangles
Claudio Giráldez made a bold choice when he started his first coaching gig in professional football.
He decided to turn his struggling team, which was battling relegation, into a possession-based side.
Although that was not an easy task, the young coach managed to accomplish it.
With 51.7% average possession in La Liga so far this season, Los Celestes rank sixth in the league in that regard.
While that is not a significant amount of possession, it is still an improvement over last season and is comparable to the possession of teams like Real Betis, for example.
Celta are very good at playing with the ball and are currently tied for the best passing rate in the league, meaning that they are playing the most passes per minute of possession.
This shows us that Claudio Giráldez’s dominating possession through quick, short passes has been highly effective so far.
When we examine how they achieve this tactical feat, we must mention the great positional play that results in numerous triangles all over the pitch for Celta.
Here, we can see that Celta have already progressed the ball into the opposing half and is now building up their play against a deep block.
Examining how the team moves collectively, we can see that they are forming groups of three, which in turn create triangles.
The triangle at the top of the picture above is a very tight triangle in a condensed space.
While this might not look too promising, it still helps Celta maintain close passing distances and allows the team to keep the ball moving, even if not necessarily progressing.
Looking at the triangle on the bottom half of the picture, we can see that they are moving in a way that creates a numerical advantage in that area.
One Mallorca striker is trying to press the defensive line.
He is caught up in the triangle and, therefore, will never be able to cut off both passing options for the ball carrier.
He is already pretty much out of play.
Looking at the bigger picture, Celta Vigo’s positional play is structured to allow the players to form triangles and, consequently, diamonds all over the pitch.
Giráldez has implemented a style of play with his team, using a 3-4-3 base formation that resembles the great Spanish team of the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Every player in the picture above has at least three connections to his teammates, making it very hard for the opposing team to press.
But Giráldez has his men do other things well, too, as seen here.
While Mallorca is playing in a deep block and trying to crowd the centre of the field, Celta still have a lot of width with their wing-backs, allowing them to drag the block apart and enabling the midfielders to switch play to get the block moving.
With one holding midfielder dropping back towards the defensive line, the team always wins the numbers game in the first line of play, which is essential to keep the ball for longer periods of time.
With the other central midfielder staying in the shadow of the holding midfielder and one of the three strikers dropping back slightly, the team also establishes control over the half-spaces while still threatening the defensive line with the far-sided central striker in the opposing team’s last line.
Overall, Claudio Giráldez’s positional play tactics represent a revival of Spanish traditions.
It reminds me a lot of Pep Guardiola or Luis Enrique, which is always a good sign for a team.
This positional play enables the team to maintain possession for longer periods, execute multiple passes, and keep the opponent on the move.
If you followed the ball for these last three pictures, you’ve also seen that the team just played into Mallorca’s midfield press and switched play twice.
Once again, Mallorca tries to press Celta one last time in the picture but is unable to generate any pressure thanks to the diamond formation the team has created on the wing.
Fran Beltrán plays an easy pass to his wing-back, who quickly passes the ball to Moriba in half-space.
Moriba then shoots from a distance but misses.
Overall, Celta kept the ball for over a minute in this situation, showing that Giráldez’s tactics work.
Claudio Giráldez Threading The Ball Tactics
While keeping the ball is a nice thing to do, possession itself is overvalued in football overall.
At this point, possession is more of a defensive measure because as long as you can keep the ball, the opposing team can’t score.
However, possession just for the sake of possession is not a viable approach to the game in 2024.
For this reason, Claudio Giráldez had to provide his team with solutions to advance the ball and attack opposing defences as well.
While their play in possession provides a good foundation for this, the team still needed to find ways to beat opposing teams and score goals.
With 25 goals scored, Celta and Giráldez currently have the sixth-best attack in La Liga, which demonstrates that the young coach has provided his men with effective solutions.
The groundwork for their attacking play is obviously their passing game, as we examined in the first paragraph.
With their positional play, Celta can break apart opposing defences, keep the ball and block moving, thereby creating and exploiting space right in the heart of opposing teams’ formations.
Celta currently ranks 2nd in progressive passes, 2nd in smart passes, 4th in passes to the final third and 2nd in through passes per 90 minutes in La Liga this season, making a case for being the best passing attack in the league at the moment, even better than teams like FC Barcelona.
This shows that Celta are skilled at maintaining possession, progressing the ball, and creating chances when necessary.
We will now examine an example of how Giráldez and his men are so successful in creating opportunities.
For information purposes, Barcelona was down to ten men in this situation, so keep that in mind.
For starters, Celta do not boot the ball away, but when their goalkeeper has it, they always play short passes towards their centre-backs.
Barcelona are playing with a three-man attack.
Therefore, Fran Beltrán is dropping back from midfield just in front of the defensive line, so Celta once again has a numbers advantage and takes out Barcelona’s half-hearted pressing attempt early on.
Celta then proceed to play onto the wing and overloads their left side heavily, with Ilaix Moriba moving very close to the ball here.
With Barcelona playing with only ten men, there is no midfielder left to cover him, so the right centre-back has to step outside to prevent him from receiving the ball.
There has been much talk about the high defensive line that Hansi Flick has brought to Barcelona, and we can see that in this situation as well.
Giráldez was prepared for that, and now two players are making a run behind that line, perfectly timed onto the pass.
With the gaping hole in the middle of Barcelona’s defensive line, striker Iglesias is now the target man for the through ball towards the space behind the line.
Three passes and good movement allowed Celta to progress the ball quickly into a dangerous area, but it didn’t stop there.
Iglesias struggled with controlling the ball a bit but managed to retain possession.
Now, all Celta’s non-defenders are moving up the pitch and forming a circle around the box, while Barça are forced to retreat into a block inside their box.
Celta now switches play again, dragging two defenders out of their position and playing another quick pass outside to get behind the defensive line for the second time.
Álvarez now does exceptionally well to beat his man in an attacking duel and calmly finishes the chance.
He also had three options in the box for a cross or cutback, showing that the team can create opportunities even in the opposing team’s box.
Celta are doing exceptionally well in these situations under Giráldez.
They manage to create a lot out of their possession and are finishing their chances efficiently.
Celta Vigo Counter-pressing Class
The thing that somewhat disrupted the game of football in the early 2010s was counter-press, a tactical measure aimed at regaining possession instantly after losing it.
There are different ways of using the counter-press to your advantage, but it has become a staple for teams that want to play a possession-based style of football.
As good as Giráldez men are at keeping the ball, you can’t play the game without losing it.
These losses serve as a trigger for a decent Celta counter-press, and they manage to win the ball back relatively quickly compared to other teams in the league.
This has multiple reasons, the first and most important being their positional play.
The four phases of football influence each other, and good coaches prepare their team in possession to regain control of the ball after losing it.
With many players forward and good positional play, Celta are always able to crowd the ball instantly after losing it.
Here, we can see Celta after a bad lay-off by their striker Iglesias.
Instantly, only two Mallorca players are in the area of the ball compared to five Celta players.
Giráldez also managed to have his team orient itself very well.
The two players in the area were immediately taken into man coverage, and the player receiving the ball in a closed stance was attacked very aggressively here.
The other players are all looking for the ball and are ready to pounce on the opportunity to attack it as well.
This allows Celta to make swift collective decisions; the handwriting of Giráldez is also evident in this phase.
With their good reactions, times, and decisions, they are pretty successful in these situations this season.
And obviously, they have many players forward after winning the ball back.
Here, Giráldez’s men play three quick passes and release their left wingback in space against a scrambling defence, which ends up in a beautiful goal.
In situations where their counter-press is not working, Giráldez has his players drop back and play in a deep block, which is why they are just ranking average in terms of PPDA against and challenge intensity in La Liga.
This is one area where they could be more aggressive.
Conclusion
Celta de Vigo have been through quite a lot during the last couple of seasons, with a lot of relegation battles, managerial changes and Iago Aspas‘ legacy performances, but never managed to find an awful lot of success.
With Claudio Giráldez, they took a huge risk, making a young, inexperienced manager their head coach in a tough situation that could have gone badly for the club, ending its 12-year tenure in La Liga.
Instead, the young coach brought an aggressive and ambitious approach to the game to the team and was bold enough to take the team and make it play a hard-to-execute possession-based style of football and an aggressive counter-press.
With 53 goals scored, relegation avoided, and a good start to the season, Giráldez’s approach has worked wonders for the club so far.
The team is in contention for a spot in European football next season.
Still, there are a bunch of things Giráldez and his team need to work on especially their defending, with 27 goals conceded, there is a lot of room for growth there.
It will be interesting to see how the young coach and team will work together for the rest of the season, but what they are doing right now is showing that Celta Vigo is on the right track again.
