La Liga Bargain Bin: Why Huesca star should be on the radar for Europe’s best

Even though reaching the heights of La Liga is surely a huge accomplishment for Huesca, surviving the Spanish top-flight could prove impossible. At the moment of writing and following 22 games of regular play in the campaign, they sit dead last in the table with no clear signs of improvement just yet.

However, despite quite obviously being among the worst performers in 2020/21, Huesca have a squad full of talented players. One such player is the 26-year-old Javi Galan, a left-back who’s been silently performing way better than it may be expected of a full-back playing for the worst team in the league.

Even though his current market value is only around €3.5M, it has been on the rise over the past few years and is still on a steady upward spiral. Quite clearly, the 26-year-old may soon become too big for his current side and could even represent a bargain scoop for top teams should Huesca truly plummet down to Segunda División come the end of the season.

This tactical analysis will give you a scout report on Galán, highlighting his strengths and weaknesses as well as tell you why he’s slowly outgrowing his team and their tactics.

Player overview

Standing at 5’6, Galán is a very diminutive and pacey full-back who combines speed and skill to beat his marker and get in a good position to cross the ball into the box. At 26 years of age, he is no longer a youth prospect but rather a player enjoying his prime years at Huesca.

However, playing for an underperforming team in both the offensive and defensive aspect, it is sometimes very difficult to get noticed. Huesca don’t create many chances despite having talented players and are also prone to conceding a lot of opportunities to the opposition. With all of that being said, Galán still manages to tally impressive numbers when compared to other full-backs in the league.

Below you can see a dashboard which will show us his player profile. Note that for this data analysis part we’ve only included full-backs and not all defenders.

Looking at the data, we can immediately see that Galán is a player who highly relies on his progressive runs in the build-up and aims to make use of his accurate crossing to create chances. When it comes to expected assists (xA) and smart passing, the 26-year-old is not among the most lethal full-backs but he does the job mostly through long balls.