At the time of writing, Fluminense are 14th in the Brazilian Serie A, having recorded 10 wins, seven draws, and 16 defeats after 33 games played; quite clearly, they are a struggling team.
However, not all is lost.
Despite their difficulties keeping up with the rest of the Brazilian elite, Fluminense still have great talent in their ranks, including Facundo Bernal, a young defensive midfielder who might soon be starting to garner looks from Europe.
In this tactical analysis, we’ll give you a full scout report on his profile and how he enables Fluminense’s tactics.
Facundo Bernal Player Overview
We’ll start the analysis with a basic profile overview of Facundo Bernal’s style of play.
Facundo Bernal is a 21-year-old Uruguayan defensive midfielder currently playing for Fluminense in the Brazilian Serie A.
He’s 187cm tall (6’2”) and weighs 78kg (171 lbs), which gives him a good frame and a lanky stature that helps him cover ground and tackle.
He can, however, feel a bit laggard, especially when trying to explode from a standstill position, and can be unbalanced by agile rivals with a lower centre of gravity.
Statistically, Bernal struggles to outperform other midfielders in his respective tiers, but that’s also largely due to the team context; Fluminense are far from dominant despite being decent in some analysed metrics.
Our data analysis also shows that Bernal’s jump from Tier 4 to Tier 2 and transfer to Serie A means he is now competing with higher-quality opposition.
Facundo Bernal Style Of Play
However, looking at his profile progression through the lens of statistics is quite interesting.
He was far more aggressive and attacking-oriented back in Uruguay but is now used more as a metronomic presence at the base of Fluminense’s midfield.
He still shoots a lot, but he is now slightly more involved than before and far safer in his retention and distribution of the ball.
As a result, his progression and chance creation numbers have plummeted, completing the transformation of his role for his team.
Regarding movement, he’s occupying similar zones in a box-to-box fashion, which accounts for his aggressive nature and the number of shots he deploys.
Facundo Bernal Heatmap & Touchmap - Serie A 2024
But there is always a steady and secure presence just ahead of the backline, especially in the central areas down the team’s spine.
It does surprise me that his defensive actions are so much lower in Fluminense compared to Defensor Sporting, but that says a lot about the different tactics and contexts of those two teams.
Facundo Bernal In Possession
Fluminense are a team averaging 59.3% after 33 games of football this season, so they see more of the ball than their opposition.
With that possession, however, comes responsibility for their metronomic presence, one of which would be Bernal himself.
When we look at the 21-year-old’s passing charts, we can see he’s more about stability and recycling of possession than necessarily progression and risk-taking.
Facundo Bernal Pass Map - Serie A 2024
He mainly occupies two areas: the area just ahead of the backline and the area just behind the frontline.
In essence, he is a player who plays between the lines, but that only applies to the zones he operates in, not the game state.
This means he won’t prefer being in congested pockets, meshed between two lines of opposition, but rather outside their block, both in the first and last phases of the attack.
Looking at his progression chart on the right side of that last image, we can see his progression is mainly done over long distances.
Bernal likes to receive the ball outside the defensive block and then distribute it when he has more space and time on his hands.
Naturally, this comes with some caveats: what happens when he’s pressed?
What happens when he inevitably loses the luxury of time and space when and if he moves to a higher level, especially in Europe?
However, distribution is still his big strength as the passes are deployed with the appropriate precision and weight behind them, making them generally easy to control.
That said, Fluminense are the team with the fourth-most passes in the league and fourth-most per 90 (418.15) while also being the third-most accurate at 87.2%.
However, their long ball usage is low.
In fact, they have the lowest volume in the league, with only 33.15 per 90.
So, while Bernal’s distribution is an asset, it is also not the key to their tactics currently.
Another issue is simply the team’s ease of progression and chance creation; Fluminense are nowhere near the top in any of the advanced metrics in either category, and Bernal himself is not a difference-maker in them.
If we look at his passing in key areas and his progression in passing vs runs, we see that verticality is not a strong suit in his profile.
Again, as mentioned earlier in this scout report, he likes to play it safe, and he does so in high-pressure situations.
Fortunately, he can retain the ball well even in those situations, but he won’t be a big progressive presence.
In that sense, we can talk about a primary receiver but not a primary progressor role in Fluminense’s tactics.
However, there are instances when he will attempt a riskier ball, and to his credit, those often also come off.
Even more impressive is that, as seen in the next example, he uses his weaker left foot quite a lot for both control and passing.
This shows us that this is still a tool in the young midfielder’s locker, albeit underutilised overall.
While he’s not too keen on risk-taking, Bernal will still use whatever tool he can to help the team, especially in the first phase when receiving the ball from the backline.
We see this often when he has to dribble out of pressure or break the first line of the opposition’s defensive structure.
It comes with the caveat of low volume, but his success rate, especially in the deep zones, is impressive.
Facundo Bernal Runs And Dribbles Map - Serie A 2024
Notice all those won dribbles in his own half and their respective success rates; Bernal is neither a volume dribbler nor a silky aesthetic dribbler.
But he is still effective whenever he uses this side of his player profile.
Earlier in the tactical analysis, we already ascertained that he prefers passing to running but is overall more risk-averse in his approach.
This shows that in times of need, these actions, generally deemed risky, are still a tool he can use.
Finally, the last aspect we must mention here is his body; Bernal is very good at manipulating his frame to either shield the ball or withstand pressure from the opposition.
However, he is at his best when he can combine all of his best attributes in one smooth action, as we can see in the final image of this section of the scout report.
First, he moves into a better position to open a passing channel for his teammate.
Next, he receives and controls the ball elegantly with his weak foot.
Then, he shimmies past his marker with a quick feint of the body.
And finally, he re-connects with his teammate to continue the action and keep moving it forward.
This might seem like an easy sequence, but only because Bernal made it look that way.
And that takes a lot of skill.
Facundo Bernal Out-Of-Possession
Out-of-possession tactics are equally as important when it comes to complete defensive midfielders.
As a pivot ahead of the backline, Bernal has a lot of in-possession responsibility, but this, too, applies to his defending.
Again, however, he doesn’t feature prominently in the stats as Fluminense don’t seem to be topping too many advanced categories we’ve dissected so far in our tactical analysis.
That being said, they are not amongst the most aggressive teams in the Brazilian Serie A.
They registered 10.4 PPDA and 5.3 challenge intensity, good enough to tie for eighth place in the latter and seventh in the former.
Interestingly, the league as a whole is less aggressive in their defensive tactics.
Still, considering their position in the table and the fact they have recorded 42.15 xG against but only conceded 34 goals, it is quite telling.
Their opponents also record 0.105 xG per shot against them, enough for a mid-table value overall.
But what about Bernal himself?
Facundo Bernal Defensive Territory Map - Serie A 2024
Here, we see his defensive territory, which tells us the areas he’s most active in out of possession.
Since Fluminense rarely press excessively aggressively as a team, Bernal also doesn’t consistently venture too high up the pitch.
Instead, we see him operate largely in the middle third, dropping deeper to support a lower block and slightly above the halfway line, just behind his forwards.
The volume is also quite low; compared to his former self last year, Bernal is registering fewer duels in general, aerial and ground, and is relying less on positional defending than before.
This, too, is affected by team context.
Let’s look at some of the numbers in more detail.
Overall, Bernal has not been too impressive in winning his duels in Fluminense’s first third.
Analysing the numbers, he’s won 51/75 duels in zone 14 (68%), which is his best win rate, but this plummets as we go further down the data analysis.
16/25 (64%) on the right flank, 12/23 (52%) on the left flank and 4/7 (57%) inside the penalty area.
Aerially, the situation is similar despite his decent height; Bernal’s numbers range from decent to quite average, but the overall volume is low.
He’s won 8/12 (66.7%) aerial duels in the penalty area, 4/8 (50%) in zone 14 and 1/1 (100%) on the left flank, making for a total of 13/21 (61.9%).
When we look at high pressing and counter-pressing, it does make for slightly better reading, especially in the latter category.
As we know, the team setting dictates the pure volume, and Fluminense are largely in a low-to-mid block when defending.
In that sense, Bernal surely won’t have a high volume of high pressures, which the statistical analysis confirms.
But the young midfielder is near the top in per 90 numbers when it comes to counter-pressing recoveries.
In his own third, he’s made 139 recoveries in total, 68 coming from counter-pressing, 45 from interceptions and four from sliding tackles.
The central third, however, is the most prominent one: 267 recoveries in total, 150 by counter-pressing, 76 by interceptions and, again, four by sliding tackles.
Finally, the final third accounts for 52 recoveries, 39 by counter-pressing, 12 by interceptions and none by sliding tackles.
Again, the highest volume comes from those central areas, which we already established by analysing his defensive territory earlier in the scout report.
Still, using his frame is something he’s good at both offensively and defensively.
With his lanky physique, Bernal has a lot of reach and can dominate all angles when trying to tackle and intercept the ball.
Aerially, this obviously helps to protect from crosses and lofted deliveries while running in big strides helps cover ground.
However, this latter one is something he often struggles with since he doesn’t have explosiveness from a standstill.
Conclusion
Facundo Bernal is a big talent over in the Brazilian Serie A.
At 21 years of age, however, he still needs to master a lot, from fully utilising and growing into his body to consistently using the full palette of his abilities, both in and out of possession.
Offensively, he is risk-averse and likes to operate in a lot of space, but that may not be the luxury he’d often be afforded if he moved to Europe.
Defensively, while his frame is a great asset, he still needs to be more consistent in executing his actions, especially in key defensive areas of the pitch.
The foundation of a potentially great player are there, but at the moment, he’s still a diamond in the rough.
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