Gonçalo Guedes Scouting Report

This La Liga season offered a lot of surprises.

First of all, no one would have expected that Real Madrid would have so many problems.

Especially, in the first half of the season, they struggled to get the win regularly.

Therefore, Barcelona only had Atletico Madrid as a real opponent in the fight for the title.

Besides Real Madrids bad performance, Real Betis have been one of the positive developments.

Under Quique Setién they perform well and can secure a Europa League spot.

Real Betis are possibly the biggest surprise, however, we shouldnt forget about Valencia under Marcelino.

The team performs consistently and competed almost the whole season for the third seed and, therefore, direct Champions League qualification.

Marcelino installed a counter-attacking approach with a compact defensive shape.

Their most important offensive player is surely Goncalo Guedes, the young Portuguese player Valencia loaned from Paris St Germain. He showed his potential and capabilities throughout the season.

His skills fit perfectly in Marcelinos vertical offensive approach.

In this piece, I am going to analyse his strengths.

The speed dribbler

Goncalo Guedes possesses a lot of high valued abilities.

First of all, he is a very quick wing player, his first touch is accurate even at full speed.

Furthermore, his dribbling abilities are very good for his age; his shooting technique looks great and extremely efficient.

When you watch Guedes for the first time you will arguably observe his dribbling skills.

In some ways, he is similar to Arjen Robben, with the main difference that Guedes likes to shoot with the right foot and therefore prefers the left wing.

Valencia are most effective when they counter-attack after regaining the ball.

Then, Guedes receives space to operate and his speed is fully usable.

In those counter-attacking situations, Guedes rarely dribbles with the ball or plays the passes in the earlier attack.

Moreover, he sprints into the open space in order to receive passes from Kondogbia or Parejo.

His major adva