Valencia have been through tough times recently.
The legendary club qualified for the UEFA Champions League in the 2018/2019 season and won the Copa del Rey in 2019, but from then on, things derailed quickly for the club from the South-East of Spain.
Owner Peter Lim lost interest in the club, cutting the budget by a huge margin.
This resulted in many players leaving the club, including Dani Parejo, Francis Coquelin, Gonçalo Guedes, and Ferran Torres.
In the 2020s, the club had a succession of managers as they sought stability and a way out of their downward spiral.
Their academy saved the club multiple times, with players like Carlos Soler, Cristhian Mosquera, and Javi Guerra taking on prominent roles in the first team.
However, most of the young players, such as Mosquera, who decided to leave this year and join Arsenal in the Premier League.
At the end of 2024, Valencia hit rock bottom.
After a huge flood hit the city, many of the team’s games were postponed, and the club found itself dead last in La Liga with only slim chances of getting out of the relegation zone.
Club legend Ruben Barajá was sacked, and a young manager, Carlos Corberán, was bought out of his contract at West Brom.
It has been an absolute success story so far.
Under Corberán, Valencia collected 34 points in 21 league games and got back into the midfield.
Now, Valencia have signed multiple experienced players to strengthen their squad, especially the two midfielders, Baptiste Santamaria from Rennes and Filip Ugrinic from Young Boys.
In this tactical analysis, we will examine what Corberán has prepared with his team for the next season, how their two new midfielders will fit into that tactical scheme, and what to expect from the team next season.
Valencia Attacking Press Analysis
Looking at what Corberán did in comparison to what happened at Valencia before his takeover, he changed two main things to make the team more successful quickly.
The first thing is their build-up play.
The young Spanish coach adjusted the team’s positional play, making them more secure on the ball in their passing game and allowing for more progression with planned rotations and by exploiting the space between the lines.
The second thing he changed was more important.
Under Corberán, Valencia stopped defending exclusively in a deep block and started playing a very aggressive attacking press, trying to push their opponents into mistakes high up the field.
While it wasn’t perfect last season, it still significantly impacted the team’s performance against the ball.
After spending an entire pre-season working on it, Valencia looked sharp in their season-opening friendly against Torino, completely dominating the game from the start.
Looking at the game for the Trofea Naranja, the silverware Valencia hands out to the winner of their season opener, we can see that the team and coaching staff worked hard on the way they are starting their press.
In this case, they forced a backwards pass to the keeper after a goal kick and moved forward as a unit to push their first line of press right into the box of their opponent.
The attacking press is always triggered by their striker, Hugo Duro.
Duro attacks in a rather frontal way; there is no curvature in his pressing attempt.
He just attacks the central player in the build-up, even if we are talking about the goalkeeper, like in the picture above.
It doesn’t matter which side their opponent is trying to build up from, because Corberán has two players moving forward into the half-space, ready to press either side quickly, always on their front foot.
In this case, Torino tried to build up on the right defensive side.
Their centre-back was already on the edge and rather wide, but Valencia still triggered their press here with their attacking midfielder now making a fast-paced run right at the centre-back on the ball.
The rest of the team now goes into man-marking, preventing any open options for the player on the ball.
They are trying to force the long ball that their physically strong centre-backs can defend easily.
Duro even takes away the option to pass backwards to the keeper to switch play out of the situation again, so now Valencia know that they are going to be able to get pressure onto the ball here on the right side.
Torino plays the ball to the right-back at the sideline and, from there on, obviously tries to get him some passing option, so his teammates try to form a diamond on the wing and overload the side.
Valencia continues to play with their man-marking and manages to cover each passing option for Valentino Lazaro in this situation.
Duro moves over to the side as well, and Valencia prevent Torino from overloading—even managing to create a 5-v-4 situation in their favour on the wing here.
This forces Lazaro into the long ball, but the Austrian right-back makes a big mistake here, trying to chip the ball to the far-sided midfielder, who is left open by Valencia sometimes, because they don’t commit their centre-backs forward into the man-marking of the midfield when playing against one-striker systems.
Still, the pass is hard to play, and the far-sided midfielder Guerra is able to pounce on it on his front foot and collect the ball with ease.
From then on, Corberán wants his players to establish possession while also trying to attack quickly.
Guerra vertically plays the first pass here towards his striker, who lays it off to midfielder Pepelu.
With these two passes, Valencia keep up the pace of their attack while still being able to control the ball and give it to their midfielder, who has a bit of time on his hands.
Guerra is not standing still; instead, he is moving forward after playing, opening up the possibility for a pass behind the backline here, forcing the centre-backs into tough and quick decisions.
No one accounts for Guerra, who is now wide open at the edge of the box.
Pepelu threads the through-ball right to him, allowing the Spanish midfielder to get into the box and, ultimately, to score his second goal of the night in this situation.
This attacking press and their quick attacks after high regains are the heart of the new Valencia under Carlos Corberán, and now we will take a look at how their two new midfielders will fit into that idea.
Filip Ugrinic Scout Report At Valencia 2025/2026
The first player Valencia signed for their midfield this season is the 26-year-old Swiss international Filip Ugrinic from Young Boys.
This is the second time Ugrinic leaves Switzerland, where he was a key player for Young Boys and FC Luzern.
Ugrinic is a very interesting player because he combines an imposing physical presence with a very good technique.
This allows him to play anywhere in midfield, from defensive to attacking midfield and even on the wings.
Ugrinic has no obvious flaws in his game and is very well-rounded as a player.
He finds solutions anywhere on the pitch while also putting his physicality into the game, imposing his will, and bossing the midfield.
For Corberán, I think Ugrinic will be taking over as their starting attacking midfielder in place of André Almeida, who has been given permission to leave the club.
Ugrinic fits into Corberán’s tactical scheme very well.
He is able to hold up play with his body very well, is secure in tight spaces, and plays with high intensity in the counterpress.
Young Boys also play with a very intense attacking press and counterattacking style of play, so Ugrinic is used to a high line of pressure and finding vertical solutions after winning the ball quickly.
Here we can see Ugrinic in action for YB against Galatasaray in the UEFA Champions League this past season.
As we can see in the picture, Young Boys are playing an attacking press and trying to win the ball from the Gala backline here, just like Valencia, just a couple of metres closer to their own goal.
There are a lot of similarities to what Valencia wants to do in these scenes at YB.
The team is forcing the ball to the outside and pressing in a man-marking system.
Ugrinic is covering the central midfielder here, but he is already screening the situation and on his front foot to defend forward.
Gala try to play the ball down the line, but the ball gets intercepted and is now loose in the middle of the field.
Ugrinic already oriented himself early and now realises that he can collect that ball with ease, something the Swiss midfielder does a lot.
He is always able to get these loose balls and even second balls by anticipating well and using his body to block off opposing players.
Here, he doesn’t even need to block anyone because he simply reacted way quicker than every single Gala player did in the situation.
Ugrinic collects the ball and instantly realises the opportunity.
Instead of trying to calm down the game, he instantly dribbles to the far side, where he has already seen that the Gala players are pushed forward and there is a lot of space to exploit.
Ugrinic know that his winger will attack the space behind the line with a vertical run, so he dribbles right at the last remaining centre-back, drawing his attention to him and dragging him out of the position to defend the far side.
From there on, it’s a simple pass to his winger, who now has a huge goal-scoring opportunity for Young Boys.
Ugrinic is great in these man-to-man situations; he anticipates well and collects the loose balls the press forces with ease, while also being able to facilitate the game after high regains.
Ugrinic is a perfect fit for Corberán‘s new Valencia and additionally provides them with a much-needed physical presence in their midfield.
For the low sum the club had to pay, this seems like a very promising transfer for Los Che.
Baptiste Santamaria Scout Report At Valencia 2025/2026
Valencia’s signing of Filip Ugrinic made a lot of sense because it would help their attacking midfield.
However, after the departure of Enzo Barrenechea after his loan last season, Valencia was also in desperate need of help in the defensive part of their midfield.
The club decided to fill that void with the signing of Baptiste Santamaria, a 30-year-old midfielder from France who played for Rennes and OGC Nice this past season.
Santamaria joined Valencia on a free transfer even though he was still under contract at Rennes, a coup on the market for Los Che.
Valencia have relied heavily on their academy and younger players over the last couple of years, so signing the French midfielder with over 400 professional games under his belt will do wonders for the midfield.
It should balance out Guerra’s inexperience quite well.
Santamaria is not as athletic as Ugrinic, but he is a motor in midfield.
He covers a lot of distance every game and is elite against the ball.
With the ball, the French midfielder is very secure on the ball and ranked above average in progressive passes per 90 minutes in most of his seasons in professional football, so he will fit into Corberán’s plans with the ball as well.
Looking at Santamaria’s biggest strengths, we are looking at his work against the ball for most of it, however.
Besides being very good in the air and in defensive duels, Santamaria has been an anchor as a holding midfielder, ensuring his teammates always secure the space behind those who are defending forward.
Here, we can see a situation from the game of OGC Nice against Olympique Lyonnais this season, with Santamaria playing the left part of a double pivot in a 3-4-3 formation.
Just like Corberán wants to do with his Valencia team, Nice play man-to-man in their attacking line, with the three attackers controlling the three centre-backs of Lyon.
The two wing-backs are man-marking their counterparts, and the midfielders are doing the same in the centre of the pitch.
However, Lyon also pays money to its video analyst and, therefore, found a solution to this problem by dropping back one attacker into the midfield, forcing Santamaria to now cover two players.
In theory, the centre-back on the right side of the picture is the man-marker of said attacker, but moving a centre-back this high up the pitch would create opportunities for runs behind the backline and long balls, so Nice does not do that.
Santamaria positions himself well between the two players, swimming between the assignments, and being ready to press or cover either of the two options.
Lyon plays the ball to the right defensive side, and Nice shift in their press now.
The near-sided players are now pushing forward, aggressively pressing the player with the ball.
Santamaria consistently has his eyes downfield and now makes a quick decision.
He sees that even though they play man-to-man in their attacking line, his central attacker is covering off the diagonal passing option in his shadow; therefore, Santamaria can now completely focus on the near-sided midfielder.
Santamaria closes the distance to the midfielder and covers him off, but he still keeps his eyes on the ball, scanning the movements of his attackers for gaps that he needs to cover.
Lyon finds a solution to break the press by chipping the ball down the right defensive side, forcing another two centre-backs to step up.
Santamaria quickly realises the danger seconds before, moving backwards and dropping back into the backline.
He covers the run behind his centre-back and closes the passing lane to the runner, allowing his teammates to win the ball.
Despite never actually pressing the ball carrier or even getting into a defensive duel, the experienced French midfielder had a huge impact on the situation.
He secured the space behind the attacking press and, in the end, covered for his teammates so that they could win the ball.
Santamaria allows his teammates to press aggressively and defend forward at all times without having to think about what happens behind them, because they know their holding midfielder will cover for them, even if they are too aggressive at times.
This will fit perfectly within Corberán’s idea of an attacking press and will help Valencia massively in defending the space behind the initial pressing attempts.
Conclusion
For the first time in years, Valencia CF decided to sign multiple experienced players to strengthen their squad.
In goal, Julen Agirrezabala will succeed Giorgi Mamardashvili after his departure to Liverpool this summer.
In attack, Dani Raba and Arnaud Danjuma will provide Los Che with more pace and physicality, while José Copete will provide physicality and dynamism in their backline.
While these signings will all have an impact on Carlos Corberán’s team, the two new midfielders will dictate the way Valencia’s season will go.
Filip Ugrinic will provide a strong physical presence in their midfield, giving them more ball security in their attacking line.
With his experiences at Young Boys, he will also be a huge help in the attacking press.
Baptiste Santamaria will hold together the defensive midfield for Valencia, covering behind the pressing players and bringing a lot of experience and calmness to the squad, allowing them to force their style onto their opponents.
It will be interesting to see how Valencia will start the season and how the team will progress with this aggressive style of play.
