With Barcelona Femení’s fifth consecutive Liga F title mathematically confirmed following the weekend’s win at Granada Femenino, there is not much left to play for in the current Spanish top-flight season, with only the team joining Sporting de Huelva Femenino in being relegated to the Primera Federación and the remaining Champions League places left to be determined.
As a result, attention is quickly turning towards the 2024/25 campaign. What might occur when the league resumes later on in the year, and one thing that has got fans talking is the return of Irene Ferreras‘ Deportivo de La Coruña Femenino to top-flight action, following a period in the second tier. Their history of challenging in the higher echelons of Liga F, finishing as high as fourth in the 2019/20 campaign, means they are not a team that anyone should underestimate.
Whilst a return to the top four is unlikely, given the current strength of the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid Femenino, Atlético Madrid Femenino, and Levante Femenino, there will be a number of other sides in the league who will need to be wary of what they are capable of. This tactical analysis and scout report will take a closer look at what they can expect from the newly promoted side once the new season gets underway.
Build-up play
When forming any analysis of why Deportivo de La Coruña Femenino were so difficult to beat in the Primera Federación last season, what will always top the list is how they moved the ball around and controlled the flow of their matches. They averaged 58.66% per game throughout the last campaign and used that as the key foundation for the rest of their tactics.
What should be pointed out is that there is nothing unique about their play. Instead, a lot of what they do is based on the much-utilised but highly successful Spanish tiki-taka brand of football, which sees teams make sequences of shorter passes in a bid to ensure that the ball is continually circulated around the pitch whilst minimising the risk of it being given away. It is something that Barcelona, in particular, have long championed and is a set of tactical principles that their men’s and women’s senior teams have deployed to great effect over the years. It is clear that Deportivo are another who firmly believe in it as the way to play football.
However, what makes it such a successful philosophy is teams having passing options available every time that the ball travels from one player to the next, and that is something that Deportivo have really worked on and which is clear to see here, with defender Raquel García receiving the ball against Europa Femenino here and instantly having five different passes available for her to select from. In the end, she moves the ball towards Lucía Martínez, who is making a run towards her, and that then leads to the process starting again as players look to give her the same number of options to choose from.
It is this ability to be patient and not force issues that has really helped Deportivo become so efficient in possession. They registered an impressive 80.7% passing accuracy last season, and it seems highly likely that this will be just as prominent in their play during the coming campaign as they look to give themselves the best possible chance of avoiding an immediate return to the second tier.
The other thing that has helped Deportivo control the flow of their matches has been their constant positional rotations. Every player on the pitch must constantly make a series of vertical and horizontal movements as each game goes on.
This combines other aspects of the traditional Spanish brand with elements of the Dutch Total Football brand in that the players are capable of moving between roles and slotting in seamlessly to each one, and that then makes it difficult for their opponents to set up in a way that limits what they can do on the ball. In this case, it looked as though Osasuna Femenino had players in position. Still, Deportivo created a gap through left-back Clara Rodríguez and forward Ana de Teresa working in unison to tempt Iara Lacosta and Aitana Zumárraga towards them and out of position. That then also forced midfielder Maite Valero into shifting across the field, with her needing to cover the space that had now been left open.
That secondary action then allowed right-back Cristina Martínez, in the midfield role here, to receive the pass and to instantly spread the play towards the other side of the pitch, which allowed Deportivo to send the ball into the middle and to fashion a goalscoring opportunity, which was converted by Brazilian forward Millene Cabral. Therefore, even when it looked as though teams had done enough to keep them out, Deportivo have tended to find a way through and have utilised player rotations in a bid to create passing routes, and that is another reason that they could cause a few teams problems on their top-flight return.
This is not to say that everything about them is about being stylish, though, because there are times when they have played in a more mundane manner. This is particularly true when they are looking to counterattack, as they were here against Deportivo Alavés Femenino.
In this case, the ball had been regained at the back, and Rodríguez is now looking to move it up the field at pace, and there is no desire here for her to have numerous options open and to keep the ball for long. Instead, her sole focus is on having a teammate ahead of her and using them to take defenders out of the game and further enhance Deportivo’s chances of turning this break up the pitch into a shot on goal. That option was provided by Cabral dropping back, and the quick one-two that Rodríguez played with the forward ultimately took three Alavés players out of the game.
Whilst the defender was unable to continue the attack herself, midfielder Paula Gutiérrez was able to get into the goal area. Even though her effort went disappointingly over the bar, the pace and quick thinking of Deportivo as a team was clear to see, and the fact that they had managed to break down a team with recent top-flight experience (Alavés were relegated last season) shows that they are capable of competing with those in the mid to lower reaches of the Liga F table.
The other thing to really highlight in that situation is the role played by Cabral in making the counterattack possible, with it not being the only time that she has dropped into deeper spaces to get on the ball and to ensure that her side can keep progressing it up the field. Instead, as this graphic indicates, it has been a regular feature of her play, and it is something that Deportivo integrated into their game plan as the last season went on, with her ability to drift between the channels fitting in with the aforementioned desire for players to rotate and to operate in multiple roles per game.
So much of what Deportivo have done well has come through their goal threat, and the fact that Cabral scored 12 goals and provided two assists indicates how she was a major part of that being the case. However, the fact that she also registered a personal passing accuracy of 73.7% shows that she is someone who can have an effect in any area of the field and is, therefore, the type of player that anyone coming up against the Galician side will have to work hard to cancel out.
Creating chances
The fact that Deportivo de La Coruña Femenino’s build-up play has been so strong is one of the reasons that they have been so potent in front of goal, with them constantly getting into positions from which they can create chances. The fact that they found the net on 43 occasions last season (an average of 1.75 per game) is further proof of the danger that they pose whenever opposing teams allow them to work their magic.
When they find their way into the final third, Deportivo’s attention instantly turns towards shifting the ball out to the wings at the earliest available opportunity, with their mentality constantly revolving around being as expansive as possible and stretching their opponents out whenever they can. As a result, their wide attackers and full-backs all have vital roles to play in turning positive build-up play into shots on goal, with them responsible for providing the final passes or crosses, just as Ainhoa Marín is doing here by running beyond Sara Navarro and delivering the ball into the Europa goal area.
However, what needs to be pointed out is that there is variety in the way that they use the wings, with them sometimes engaging in 1-v-1 duels like this and sometimes using other methods to fashion crossing chances. One that has been used a few times is the La Pausa principle, which sees players halt their runs and hold onto the ball for an additional second, drawing opponents towards them and creating spaces for others to control the ball. In the trip to Cacereño Femenino, it was this that led to them keeping their opponents on the back foot for periods of the game, and so there are several ways in which Deportivo have looked to use the wings and they have shown an ability to adapt depending on the circumstances that they have found themselves in.
As mentioned, the reason that Deportivo favour the use of the wide areas is because it allows them to create spaces inside the pitch through drawing opponents out of position, but that is not the only way that they have looked to manipulate defenders into leaving gaps open. Another thing that has been common to see is runs off the ball from those inside the pitch, with the forwards here working to ensure that there is space available for Martínez to send the ball into when the chance arises.
In this case, it would not be immediately possible for Deportivo to convert this chance, with both Cabral and de Teresa being marked by Laura Chamizo and Navarro. However, Cabral has realised this and has looked to move towards the ball here, knowing that doing so would entice Chamizo into following her. Once the Europa player has done just that, it leaves de Teresa with only Navarro to beat in a 1-v-1 duel and with additional space to work with, too. As a result, she makes an angled run behind her opponent and meets the delivery from Martínez in the gap that Cabral had created.
Even though the chance didn’t lead to anything in the end, the fact that it came about at all is the crucial point to take from this. It shows once again how so much of what Deportivo do well in attack is the result of players reading what is happening around them and reacting early in order to maintain control of the game.
Whilst the points made in this section of the scout report might lead one to believe that Deportivo’s attacking chances all follow the same pattern, that isn’t the case. There is a sense of unpredictability around their play at times, which allows them to catch their opponents off guard.
In this situation, Europa are once again under pressure inside their own third, but the difference this time is that the ball has not been moved out towards the wing. As a result, they seem hesitant as to what to do, with Silvia Masferrer looking to head the ball clear but without much conviction and without noticing the run made by Gutiérrez towards her, with the ball ricocheting off the Deportivo player and falling kindly for her. The resulting shot might not have found the target, but it did provide a clear warning sign that Deportivo are not a purely one-dimensional side and have multiple ways of breaking their opponents down.
Defensive issues
Until now, this analysis has focused on what Deportivo de La Coruña Femenino has done well, but what is important to note is that they are not perfect and that they are eminently beatable. Their defensive play, in particular, has shown some signs of weakness, with them only conceding 0.8 goals per game but looking very open at times and, therefore, easy for opposing sides to test.
The main way in which Deportivo’s deficiency inside their own third has been on display is when teams have looked to move the ball out to the wings before delivering it into the middle, much as they have done to others. The problem doesn’t come in the wide channels as such but arrives when the cross is made, with Deportivo often getting the ball first but then making loose clearances that only allow their opponents to try again.
This is shown clearly here, with AEM Femenino (based in the Catalonian city of Lleida) crossing the ball into the middle through Evelyn Acosta and seeing it met by García, but she only succeeds in sending the ball back towards the far side of the field and Acosta is invited as a result to have another go. On this occasion, Deportivo get away with their mistake as AEM fail to make the most of the gift, but it is something that they will have to work on and to eradicate from their play ahead of their return to Liga F, because teams in the top-flight will not be as forgiving.
One way that they could address that problem is by focusing on winning their duels in the wide areas, with that being something that they have succeeded in more often than not (66.7% of the time last season, to be exact). When they managed to prevent crosses from being made, just as Rodríguez is doing here against Barcelona B’s American forward Onyeka Gamero, they instantly gave themselves a more robust quality. They made it a lot more difficult to create chances against them, and it was that that contributed in no small way to them ending this game with a clean sheet (albeit a goalless draw).
The positive aspect of their ability to defend well in this situation is that Gamero’s ability to make runs towards the goal line resembles a lot of what Deportivo will face next season from her senior team counterpart Caroline Graham Hansen. The Norway winger has been the top-flight’s star player this season and has continually tested opposing defensive lines both by staying wide and by cutting inside.
Therefore, Deportivo’s ability to compete with Gamero and shut her down will have given them a lot of confidence and potentially an idea of the effort required to replicate this, which could see them frustrate some of the league’s stronger teams at times.
However, this is not the only way in which their defensive play has looked poor at times, with there also being times when they have made themselves too easy to play through when the ball has been further out. In this case, Barcelona are looking to find a way up the field with the aim of unlocking the pace of Gamero. Yet, it appears on first sighting that Deportivo have succeeded in closing off any potential routes that they could have used to find those critical threats.
However, this changes as soon as Deportivo look to move from this 4-1-4-1 shape into the 4-4-2 that they started the match in, with Laurina pushing forward to join Cabral in the forward line and Gutiérrez dropping back to play alongside Henar Muiña in the midfield.
This in itself is not an issue, but the problem comes when the wingers don’t go with either and instead hold their positions. That then leaves a hole between the Deportivo players and so provides the perfect invitation for Barcelona to play through them. It is a chance that Júlia Bartel doesn’t hesitate to take, with her finding Noah Bezis ahead of her and a shot at goal coming only a few phases later through Laia Martret.
This is perhaps a downside of Deportivo’s constant desire to play in a fluid manner around the field, with that meaning that their players don’t recognise the need whenever they are without the ball for them to be solid and to form distinct lines in order to keep attacks at bay. Therefore, this is something that they will need to develop ahead of their return to Liga F, with not doing so potentially increasing the chances of them making an immediate return to the Primera Federación.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this tactical analysis has taken a closer look at Deportivo de La Coruña Femenino, who have been successfully promoted back to Liga F after a period of time away and who will be hoping to establish themselves as a top-flight regular from the 2024/25 campaign onwards.
It will not be easy for them to achieve that, and the critical thing that they will need to get used to is that they will be facing better teams and a higher quality of matches on a weekly basis, which some of their squad might not be used to. However, what has been evident when watching Deportivo is that they have the ability to test their opponents in different ways and can adjust to differing circumstances, with their tactics in possession leading to plenty of chances during their final season (for now) in the second tier. Them never giving their opponents a chance to settle.
The defensive side of things will need some improvement over the summer, as has been highlighted, and recruitment will also be key as they look to add what is required for them to challenge in the top-flight. However, Deportivo look to have the foundations of an up-and-coming outfit in the Spanish game, and it could well be that they surprise a few people when the action gets underway.
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