Celta de Vigo are one of the sides struggling in this La Liga season. Their head coach, Eduardo Coudet, paid the price and was sacked in November, as Portuguese head coach Carlos Carvalhal took over the Galician side. However, Celta found a talented boy from their youth system — Gabri Veiga, who was only 20 — who then emerged as a first-team option. Under both coaches, he was given time to start, even against strong opponents such as Barcelona and Real Sociedad. This scout report will explain the playing style of Veiga, and how he fits into Celta’s tactics.
A forward-thinking player
With the ball, Veiga stood out as a player with the awareness to play the ball forward. This section combines the use of data analysis and in-game examples to explain his contribution when the team is attacking. He plays as an ‘8’ in a 5-3-2 system, or 4-D-2, mostly on the right side. On occasions, when Coudet lined up his side in a 4-4-2, Veiga started as a 6 with a partner.
In terms of ball progression, Veiga isn’t impressive compares to other ‘number 8s’, he merely had 4.82 progressive passes per 90, while others such as Dani Parejo from Valencia, Luka Modrić from Real Madrid, or Mikel Merino from Sociedad, had more, let alone Toni Kroos! But an explanation could be the playing position on the pitch, Veiga was not a deep player who stays close to central defenders. Instead, he preferred to be high up on the pitch. Additionally, the context of the different teams these players are playing their trade with must be considered.
Comparatively, Veiga had better progressive runs per 90 at 1.38 — higher than the mean of all in 1.26, but that figure was nowhere near the likes of Frenkie de Jong or Yunus Musah.
The viz above shows all progressive runs of Veiga. Because his position is more inclined to the right side, he has made more around that region. But another noticeable trend is the distribution of successful and unsuccessful dribbles. He is decent in the central third when it comes to taking on the opponents, but there is certainly room for improvement when he tried to dribble in wider space, most failed attempts occurred in outer areas.
Veiga is not a deep-lying progressive passer because his style is more energetic, he always tries to make runs behind and take advantage of his teammates’ probing through balls. In this example against Elche, Hugo Mallo invited the left wing-back to press when he moved towards the ball, space opened on this side and Veiga moved out to exploit the area behind.
The movement was anticipated by the central defender in advance, the pass behind became an open battle, and Veiga did not arrive early. The next image shows Pedro Bigas was very close to him when he covered the left side. However, Veiga was good at using his body as a tool, not only shielding the ball but showing upper body strength and balance in the duel. This time, before the defender arrived, he used his shoulder to bump the defender to make him off-balance.
That physical bump mentioned above affected Bigas’s balance, and the Elche defender overran and missed the challenge. Veiga was afforded the time and space to take the ball down and drive towards the centre; he is typically quite goal-oriented in his actions.
Although Bigas had another effort and tried to challenge Veiga as he carried the ball into the penalty zone, Veiga again used his body as a shield to separate the ball and the opponent, with good strength to resist the challenge without losing balance. But his final decision also suggested he could be more mature in these situations as Veiga went for a shot from his weaker left foot from a tight angle as shown. Alternatively, he had Gonçalo Paciência, Franco Cervi, and Iago Aspas arriving from different positions with better potential shooting angles.
Another example to demonstrate Veiga’s forward-thinking mindset was his assist versus Villarreal more recently. Whenever he receives, the first thing he wants to do is play behind the defence to trigger potential 1v1 chances behind the goalkeeper. He did that perfectly against Villarreal, as he received, he was able to see far and noticed Jørge Strand Larsen’s run and also managed to slice a through ball behind the last line to feed his teammate.
However, the decision of when to hold the pass and take another decision and when to play it behind remains something Veiga can develop. Sometimes, he is too eager to play behind the defence even though the condition was suboptimal, weakening the team’s playing rhythm and conceding transitions.
Eyes on goal in the last third
When checking Veiga’s goal stats, it is easy to note that he has scored four goals already this season. He is always interested in testing the opposition goalkeeper.
This scatter plot shows Veiga’s playing style and impact in the last third. He is not always combining in and around the goal, as he only had 0.57 deep completions per 90 — many others such as Merino, Sergi Darder, and Koke have performed better by far. Veiga only had an average number in this regard. But when it comes to arriving into the penalty zone, he was very decent or some of the best in the league — 1.95 touches in box per 90. Only three players: Isco, Gavi and David Silva were better.
Veiga also had more shots per 90 than any other ‘number 8’ in La Liga — 2.41, only Brais Méndez had a value >2 in this metric, while David Silva (1.13), and Isco (0.52) had lower figures despite making more touches in the opposition’s penalty zone. Veiga also accumulated decent xG per 90 at 0.21 compared to other midfielders ranking fifth in the scatter plot; Modrić was far better but he was taking the penalties. Again, the team context must be considered here too.
Nevertheless, whether Veiga could consistently score many goals for his team requires more observation, because he has four goals from 1.8 non-penalty xG in this La Liga campaign. The data viz above shows the positions and directions of the shots. He always tries to test the goalkeeper from outside of the penalty zone with three of his four goals being long shots. This is a strength of Veiga’s, as he can hit the ball with great power that gives the keeper very little time to react.
Apart from scoring long shots, Veiga could also create a goal threat when he attacks the space behind. He has very good speed to outrun the opponent from deep, and similar to how we profiled him in the attacking section, he always senses the gap is opened in the defence by his teammates. His goal vs Sevilla is a good example.
Initially, he started an attack and found Strand Larsen, who used his body strength to hold off the central defender and kept the ball in play.
Due to both Aspas and Strand Larsen’s presence in the midfield, Sevilla’s last line was dislocated as the central defenders were attracted. Then, Veiga sensed the gap was opened between defenders as he sprinted into space behind the last line, being picked by Aspas’ excellent through ball, he managed to register a 1v1 chance vs Yassine Bounou and chipped the ball into the back of the net.
Aggressive and fierce defending
Defensively, Veiga also has decent output, he has 30 interceptions from 53% of total La Liga game time, the rate is more efficient than Gavi’s 27 interceptions from 69% of all.
In a middle or deep defence, Veiga has good defensive awareness by covering his teammates. This example vs Rayo Vallecano shows Celta were defending in front of the defensive third with two midfielders securing the central areas, but the distance between him and Renato Tapia was relatively large. So, the opponents tried to breach by sending the ball to the player in the centre.
the next image shows he covered from the right and tried to steal the ball from the receiver. He was very aggressive and had a strong ability to combat in these 1v1 defensive scenarios given his powerful physique, although he could also work more on the angle of challenge in order to be more effective. His intensity in the defending was also very conducive to the team’s second-ball battles in the midfield.
In addition, the data vizzes and stats confirmed Veiga’s impact defensively as a Celta player. The image above shows he can defend higher spaces, around the offensive third. But he is also more specialized in defending in wider spaces, always helping the right defender out on the outer spaces in the central third.
The last scatter plot of the analysis shows the defensive output of La Liga ‘8s’, where Veiga appears average. The likes of Merino or Geoffrey Kondogbia had very good numbers of successful defensive actions per 90, as well as decent PAdj interceptions, but Veiga’s 7.23 successful defensive actions per 90 were only slightly above average at 7.11, and his 4.18 PAdj interceptions were slightly below the average at 4.28. This shows he has more room to grow when the team is defending, maybe improving at reading the pass and intercepting rather than waiting until the opponent has received it.
Conclusion
Clearly, this is a breakthrough season for Veiga into elite football, he has been impressive on the pitch, even though as explained in this tactical analysis, not everything is perfect, but he has been giving good performances despite the formidable in the campaign. Veiga was still young, he was only 20, and still have his up and downs such as receiving a red against Almería, more consistency can be expected from him when he was given more chances to play week and week out.
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