Defensa y Justicia 2022: Tactical tweaks to help terminate the team’s winless league run – tactical analysis

Located in the Greater Buenos Aires region with 14 other Argentina Primera División teams, Defensa y Justicia are overshadowed by the massive clubs in the capital. With a reported stadium capacity of around 12,000 and being one of few teams to have played in every division of the Argentine league system, it’s safe to say that Halcón are overachieving since gaining promotion to the top division in 2014. They have not looked back since promotion, winning the 2020 Copa Sudamericana and the 2021 Recopa Sudamericana to achieve the club’s first-ever international titles. These impressive performances have continued with Defensa y Justicia entering the final stages of the Copa de la Liga Profesional before being knocked out by eventual winners Boca Juniors, something that meant many punters went to the pools sign up offer to take full advantage of the impressive odds.

However, the Primera División season has started poorly for Halcón. They remain the only side without a win in the opening six matches, currently sitting 27^th ahead of Aldosivi on goal difference. This form has resorted to Sebastián Beccacece, in his third managerial spell at the club, changing his team in a bid to start winning games again. In this tactical analysis in the form of a team scout report, we will discuss Beccacece’s tactics that have tweaked player positions to recover from a bad start.

Build-up variance

With a PPDA against of 9.25 and average possession of 52.4%, Defensa y Justicia are above average at retaining possession in the Argentine top division. However, this is in part because of the opposition’s allowance to Halcón having possession in the build-up phase. Beccacece’s side struggle to progress possession in the build-up phase, constantly changing their set-up to offer different solutions. The image below shows the split centre-backs of Juan Rodríguez and Tomás Cardona between the goalkeeper Ezequiel Unsain. The two full-backs in Nazareno Colombo and Alexis Soto are on the same horizontal line as pivot player Kevin Gutiérrez, creating a 6vs3 overload in the build-up phase.

Despite the overload, Defensa y Justicia were unable to break through Vélez Sarsfield and played the ball wide forcing Soto to punt the ball long. The struggles can be quantified by the centre-backs passing numbers. Out of the 109 centre-backs to have played 400 minutes in the Argentine top division in 2022, Defensa y Justicia have three players in the top ten for lateral passes per 90. Adonis Frías, who has missed recent fixtures due to injury and transfer rumours to La Liga side Elche, Colombo and Rodríguez average nearly 50% of their total passes per game being lateral.