Agustin Almendra

With Boca Juniors’ new manager and the hype the Copa Libertadores final attracted, it seems fitting to scout some of Boca’s youth players coming through and see if any them have what it takes to make the esteemed step to Europe. Even though the final between Boca and historical rivals River Plate received immense negative coverage, it is important to know which young players are performing well in Argentina. This player analysis will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Almendras game using statistics.

Player analysis

Agustin Almendra has just broken into the Boca first team with only 12 appearances to his name. He comes from the Boca academy, which boasts the development of recent players like Carlos Tevez, Fernando Gago, Ever Banega and Nicolas Gaitan. In terms of positioning, Almendra plays at either 6 or 8 and is a very dynamic player. He makes significant contributions in both defensive and build-up phases.

Several big European clubs including Valencia, Barcelona, Manchester City and Napoli have cast interest his way. It isn’t difficult to see why. He is currently valued at ₤4.5m by transfermarkt.com but the club has stated in the past they wont let Almendra leave for less than ₤13.4m. His release clause stands at approximately ₤18m.

Press resistance

The first key aspect of Almendra’s game that stands out to is his press resistance. He has an innate ability to claw his way out of tricky situations using close ball control, perception and raw upper body strength. Almendra is one of those players who seems to have glue on his boots. At times, it seems like the ball just doesn’t seem to slip away when he is beating opposition players in 1v1 and 2v1 situations.

His perception when he is in 1v1 situations is very good, and this is reflected in his body orientation. Often you will see him use his hips and upper body to orientate a defender one way by dropping the shoulder and then switching direction. This then leads to advantageous dynamics like switching the angle of play to gain final third entries.

In the image shown above, Almendra looks like he is going to pass into the half space. He perceives the space behind his marker and performs a 1v1 move to beat the press. Almendra demonstrates physical attributes scouts purr over when analysing new talent: balance and agility.

In this example, Boca have created an overload and drawn five defenders into the half space and wing area. The opposition have essentially shut the triangulation down with the Boca players engaged. Was the Cruyff turn move the correct decision for Almendra to make? This is also a good opportunity to switch the play. This will be discussed later on in the article.