FC Barcelona’s summer hasn’t been the best this year.
Messi’s departure from PSG and the lack of massive signings have left the club in a delicate situation in which lots of players will be expected to step up and show their worth in La Liga.
However, the preseason had some positives, too.
One of them was the minutes Pablo Martín Páez Gavira, known as ‘Gavi’, enjoyed with the first team.
The 2004-born midfielder is one of the most exciting players to come out of La Masía in recent years, and he has already convinced Koeman to join the first team.
In this tactical analysis, we’ll see how he influences Barça’s tactics and why he has been tipped to lead the club in the following years.
Who Is Gavi?
Gavi is a right-footed central midfielder who stands at just 173 cm / 5’8’’ and possesses excellent agility, stamina and work rate.
He’s quick, even if it isn’t his best attribute, and he can cover long distances with excellent stamina and intensity.
Always playing as one of the two central midfielders in Barcelona’s classical 4-3-3, Gavi has the technical conditions to be in charge of progressing from the back and creating in the final third.
His 6 goals in 23 games with Barcelona U19 last season show he’s a threat in the final third.
As expected from any player coming from La Masía, Gavi is technically excellent and very well-educated.
Even among older players who are physically and technically superior to him, he stands out for his understanding of the game and the principles of Barcelona’s positional play.
This explains why he needed almost no experience in the B side to start playing with the first team.
In the following sections of this scout report, we’ll look at Gavi’s best attributes and some areas he could improve.
As a 2004-born player, he has plenty of time to adapt and become a regular in La Liga.
Gavi Style Of Play Excellent understanding of positional play
As part of La Masía, since he was 14, Gavi has reached a top knowledge of Barcelona’s playing philosophy, ‘Juego de Posición’ or Positional Play.
For this playing style to be influential, certain positions on the pitch at different heights and widths should always be occupied, so players help the team using their positioning to generate spaces and numerical advantages.
Gavi understands this very well and combines it with excellent dynamism.
He quickly occupies the positions left by his teammates, ensuring the teams shape is always good and that all the key positions are covered.
To do this, Gavi appears in different zones of the pitch, adapting to the movements of his teammates and keeping excellent focus and work rate to quickly understand which positions have been left unoccupied and get into them.
With this dynamism, it isn’t strange to see Gavi start the plays as a full-back in the build-up, move to a central deep position as the play progresses, appear between the lines and end the attacks in the final third.
He has the technical qualities needed for each position and, more importantly, knows what to do in each phase of the game.
Some positions need to be occupied, but the same players dont always need to be there, so Gavi’s movement also provides freedom to his teammates.
Those who aren’t 100% used to positional play, like Griezmann, De Jong, or Memphis Depay, benefit a lot from being able to leave their assigned positions and get on the ball more often, while Gavi balances the team.
Let’s look at some examples of Gavi occupying different positions in an attack and moving to ensure the teams shape is correct and beneficial for everyone.
In the picture below, we see Gavi getting deep and wide during the build-up as the right-back moves forward to provide depth higher up the pitch, forming a back-three and giving the full-backs the freedom to push forward.
When the theoretically deepest midfielder leaves his position, Gavi quickly reacts to fill it, making sure there’s always a safe passing option in the centre.
We see this in the example below.
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