Even though the first rumours had started years ago, Ivan Rakitić’s transfer away from Barcelona was finally confirmed yesterday afternoon.
The Croatian will return to his beloved Sevilla and continue playing his football in La Liga for the upcoming 2020/21 season.
And even though he’s on the wrong side of 30 already, Rakitić is a player that can still offer Julen Lopetegui’s side quite a lot.
This tactical analysis will give you a scout report of the player and tell you how exactly he can fit Sevilla’s tactics.
The deep-lying distributor
Sevilla are a very peculiar team.
Of course, with Lopetegui at the helm, it doesn’t exactly come as a surprise to see that they are indeed a squad that focuses on possession but are also more traditional in a sense that most of their chances come from crossing and quick transitions.
Still, the Andalusians’ midfield, albeit not the fulcrum at all times, is a very important part of those tactics.
Generally speaking, they can be divided into more generic roles as a creator, destroyed and wide-sprayer or distributor in a formation that usually resembles a 4-3-3 on paper.
Lopetegui likes to keep and recycle the ball until a gap appears up front.
This means Sevilla are not exactly a heavy positional team but rather more opportunistic and direct once that chance finally arises.
When building-up their attacks, this structure often naturally transitions into a 3-4-3 or even a 4-1-4-1, often with the pivot dropping in-between the centre-backs to form that back three.
You can see a usual setup in such a scenario in the image above.
The pivot, usually Fernando for the majority of the season, will drop deep, pushing the full-backs high and combining with their respective wingers and midfielders.
