After ending 2023 in fourth place in the CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifiers, Venezuela will end 2024 out of the qualification places.
The reality of ‘Bocha’ Batista’s team is that they have a lot of issues in possession.
Historically, Venezuelan midfielders are a different biotype than those who are currently on the rise.
Tomás Rincón and José ‘Brujo’ Martínez are the most representative example.
Both types of defensive midfielders can be considered destroyers.
Even Yangel Herrera or Cristian Cásseres are more physical than technical midfielders.
The new generation has various midfielders with excellent passing and ball-striking techniques.
At the U23 Pre-Olympics, Bryant Ortega, Carlos Faya, Telasco Segovia and David Martínez showed Venezuela’s capacity to play in a prettier way.
Kervin ‘Tuti’ Andrade and Dani Pereira are also midfielders with good technical abilities.
Although each player is at a different stage of their development, Telasco Segovia has been the most impactful player on the national team.
In the short term, it seems like the 21-year-old is the only rising midfielder who has the chance to make a real impact on ‘Bocha’ Batista’s side.
In this scouting report and tactical analysis, we will provide an in-depth analysis of Telasco Segovia, a deep dive into how he can fix many problems in Venezuela’s game model and tactics.
Who Is Telasco Segovia?
Segovia’s path through the youth categories has been nothing short of perfect.
In every category, international tournament, and even national league, his name has been in everyone’s mouths.
That is why it’s reasonable to see him as one of the first U23s to erupt in the senior national team, alongside Jon Aramburu.
In that sense, Jordan Florit, the best-known English-speaking Venezuelan football expert, summarises Segovia’s process perfectly.
“If one of the final starlets to benefit from the now-scrapped Juvenile Rule can be named the Official Liga FUTVE Young Player of the Year in 2021, win Player of the Tournament at the Tournoi Maurice Revello in 2022, and move to the Portuguese Premier Division after a loan in Serie A in 2023, but not close 2024 as a serious piece for Venezuela’s World Cup qualification hopes in 2025, what has this process all been for?
Alongside David Martinez and Kervin Andrade, Venezuela’s midfield has demonstrated it needs the youthful injection of quality Segovia can provide.”
This year, Segovia has made excellent appearances in the ‘Vinotinto’ shirt at three different tournaments: U23 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympics, Copa América, and CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifiers.
What Kind Of Midfielder Is Telasco Segovia?
Telasco Segovia has mainly played as a number eight, in a double pivot and closer to the final line, like an attacking midfielder.
He has even occasionally featured as a second striker.
His experience lies in his ideal position.
We can compare his situation with Enzo Fernandez, another who has played in advanced positions, and the endless debate on his best possible zone of influence.
Although Segovia has played in advanced positions, he is better when he is the axis of the possession.
Javier Semeler, a well-known journalist and analyst from Venezuela, describes Telasco Segovia as “The ‘pausa’ amongst the storm”.
Because of his accuracy and tempo with the ball, Telasco Segovia dictates the rhythm of the possession – constantly opening passing lanes and shaking the opposition’s block with his long-passing range.
So, in terms of role, Segovia’s perfect description would be as a deep-lying playmaker.
Even though he has an offensive tendency, he works a lot when defending, leading some metrics in that part of the game, as his radar shows.
Telasco Segovia Radar Chart
Is Telasco Segovia The Answer To Venezuela’s Problems?
Telasco possesses ‘pausa’ — a term and technique we’ve analysed in detail before at Total Football Analysis — which Venezuela always miss, as they are in ninth place with the fewest accurate passes per match (214) in this CONMEBOL World Cup Qualification tournament.
During the build-up, Venezuela’s block tends to maintain a lot of distance between potential combinations.
As the attacking midfielder, Jefferson Savarino tries to break the opposition’s block by organising from the initial passes, but he does not receive as much support as he needs.
In sequences like Figure 2, Venezuela show why they can be considered a direct side in terms of game model.
Usually, these types of actions end with the midfielder restarting the play and a long ball finding Rondón’s header to win the second ball with Yangel/Cásseres/Bello.
Telasco Segovia Winning Second Balls
One of the originators of Segovia’s role misunderstanding is his capacity to win second balls.
In Venezuela’s direct playing style, Segovia’s first big challenge was starting against Uruguay as the attacking midfielder.
The problem with this role in Batista’s 4-2-3-1 is that this advanced midfielder is usually more of a second striker than a midfielder.
In that shape, Salomón Rondón usually drops in to hold up the ball, and Segovia had to make unmarking runs to sink the rival’s defensive line.
So, the highest-quality player with the ball was not able to float between the spaces; he was forced to attack finishing zones without being a finisher.
This misunderstanding of his abilities was caused by his youth tournaments.
Mainly, the U23 Pre-Olympics and even the Tournoi Maurice Revello.
In both cases, Telasco was a beast attacking spaces in the final and the second line.
But, at the Pre-Olympics, he used to hold off his opponent impressively.
Segovia’s goal, illustrated in Figure 4, shows the main resource that Venezuela used against Brazil at the Pre-Olympics: second balls.
In that case, Renné Rivas sent a long ball from the left-back, and Telasco used his arms intelligently to destabilise his mark and control the second ball.
Then, he subtly evaded the incoming defender and finished with a tremendous long shot.
At the U23 Pre-Olympics, against strong defenders, he was capable of imposing himself physically, but it does not mean that this is the best skill in his profile.
Segovia dominated the tournament with fantastic technical abilities and exploited the weaknesses of the opposition’s defensive blocks.
Now, he cannot translate the same strength facing older and experienced defenders, but his physique can be a good weapon in some duels—just not constantly.
Is Telasco Segovia A Bad Player While Defending?
It is normal to hear that a top technical player is not good at defending after his name has been linked to advanced positions or possession style.
That is one of the main lies at the moment when speaking about Telasco Segovia’s profile.
Although he is a great player for controlling possession and combining with his teammates, Segovia can also be effective defensively.
Without going too far, Segovia was the Venezuelan player with the most ground duels won (8) against Chile recently, a match in which Venezuela did not stop running, looking for the ball and did not take care of possession.
Especially in those cases, Telasco is a fantastic resource.
He understands the game and can run less but better.
Telasco Segovia Defensive Territory Chart
In terms of commitment, Telasco at Casa Pia, in a double pivot, tends to participate in a high volume of defensive actions per match.
In the 2023/24 season, he was in the 96th and 97th percentile ranks in tackles and interceptions, respectively, compared with every midfielder in the Portuguese League.
Telasco Segovia Shielding The Ball
Segovia’s physicality is also a resource for breaking the rival’s press.
Receiving with his back to the goal, Segovia accelerates the possession by turning on the ball and looking at the pitch in front of him.
In Figure 6, Telasco shields the ball and breaks the pressure.
This is a successful way to progress while breaking lines under pressure with the ball at his feet during the build-up.
Despite his low body and lack of top speed, he is accurate in tight spaces and does not get nervous when pressure comes.
The possession does not burn him.
Telasco Segovia Ball Progression Chart
He will not progress by driving forward quickly, but he can break the rival’s structure and use his passing technique once he evades a line and sees the pitch better.
He uses his body intelligently, dribbling short distances and reading the potential better areas to attack from deeper positions.
That is partly why he should ‘float’ across the pitch.
Telasco Segovia’s Passing Technique: His Best Skill
Telasco Segovia passing technique is exceptional.
As stated at the beginning of the article, Yangel Herrera, Cásseres Jr., ‘Brujo’ Martínez, and Tomás Rincón do not shine mainly because of their technical abilities.
For example, Dani Pereira and Bryant Ortega—both U23 players who have been called up for this CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifiers—are midfielders with good passing technique.
However, Telasco is an anomaly.
Firstly, his long-passing range is remarkable — he can complete short, medium and long passes.
He takes risks because his creativity and imagination are big, and his football asks for unusual passes, but he does not tend to lose the ball while passing.
This is a great weapon for progressing or penetrating the penalty area using his vision and accuracy, as Venezuela have when he has been in deeper zones.
Telasco Segovia Progressive Passes Chart
More than the accuracy, vision, or tempo of his passes, what makes Segovia different is his capacity to hide the intention behind his actions.
Those who are watching know he will make a pass; even frequently, they know who will be the receiver, but the main complex fact is to predict how he will execute the pass.
Let’s illustrate this with a sequence.
In Figure 10, everyone understood what was going to happen.
Segovia drops in, scans his surroundings, stops the ball and evaluates Bello’s unmarking run.
Once he decides the pass is going to Bello, he assesses how he can make that pass.
The automatic idea is to make an aerial pass to the wing, and the left-back should retreat to engage Bello.
Considering the left-back does not have a crazy distance with his centre-back, it seems like the perfect option.
With the ball stopped and his body position, the pass preparation shows that Telasco will elevate the pass.
He did not.
He took the risk and made a grounded-through pass while Bello ran in.
Segovia managed to save time for his teammate.
The tension of the pass is perfect, something that Telasco tends to do well and one of the most desirable traits in football in terms of passing.
Due to Segovia’s decision, Bello did not need to enter the duel with the defender.
Despite knowing the receiver, this pass beat the mid-block and destroyed a whole defensive system without revealing its intention.
Telasco Segovia’s Finishing
Segovia has good abilities in front of goal.
Telasco Segovia Shots Map
He is not a finisher, and his best abilities are in other parts of the pitch, but he can appear at the edge of the box and score, as he did against Brazil.
This privileged reading of the game that we have been discussing during the article is always fruitful in detecting where to be in which moments to attack the rival’s weakest parts of the pitch.
His ball-striking from outside of the penalty area is excellent.
Although he has often been the set-piece taker with Sampdoria’s youth team or Deportivo Lara, his ball-kicking can be exploited in other ways, but his aerial balls are not as accurate as the ground.
He is comfortable shooting from the edge of the box, deciding the exact target by the angle from which he shoots.
Conclusion
With his passing, intelligence and underrated physical profile, Telasco Segovia is more than ready to enhance ‘Bocha’ Batista’s side.
Will the Argentinian coach give him the keys to the midfield to build his in-possession system?
Until now, the very direct play has not shown the best version of players like Segovia, Jefferson Savarino or Yeferson Soteldo.
Nevertheless, a few tactical changes seem like an interesting option for Batista if he wants to fulfil the dream of World Cup qualification, considering that Venezuela are far from achieving this now.
A passer and deep-lying playmaker like Segovia must be important in the Venezuelan national team.
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