Player profile:
- Nationality: Venezuelan
- Age: 20
- Date of birth: 13/02/2000
- Current Club: Caracas FC
- Career: Caracas FC (Y)
- Position: attacking midfielder
- Secondary position: left-winger & right-winger
- Preferred foot: right
Positioning
Jorge Echeverría has played as an attacking midfielder, as a right winger and as a left winger in the matches that I watched. He often starts as a right winger, but he switches position with Richard Celis and Robert Hernández often. Eventually, he moved permanently to the left or the center as the match progressed. In these positions, he did better than on the right.
As a right winger, Jorge Echeverría seemed quite limited. He tried to tuck inside sporadically to make space for either Luis Casiani or Eduardo Fereira (the right-backs). Sometimes, he stayed close to the sideline and waited for an underlapping run of Casiani, which was quite successful at times. However, this is not his ideal position in terms of positioning.
The Venezuelan midfielder had a lot more freedom on the left, cutting inside often to shoot from distance or to give a smart through pass to one of the attackers. In this position, he always went on the inside and did not move on the outside. His left foot is not that bad, but he tries to use his right foot whenever he can.
In a central role, the Venezuelan stayed close to the striker and they put pressure on the opponent in a 4-4-2 formation. Echeverría is very active in putting pressure on the defensive line and he does not give them time to think about where they need to pass. He gets a lot of freedom in this position as well, allowing him to roam over the pitch.
In general, Echeverría is at his best when he can tuck inside and play in either the central zone or the halfspaces. This allows him to be creative and to exploit his qualities optimally. Also, when he is used in a central role, his teammates (Hernández and Celis) perform better. In this article, you will read more about these qualities and get to know Echeverría better.
Ability on the ball
When playing in a central zone, Echeverría likes to position himself between the lines to receive in space, which allows him to turn towards goal, make a run to eventually create a chance for, in this situation, Blanco. Jorge Echeverría is very active without the ball and has good off the ball movement, always trying to get into space to receive the ball.
As mentioned above, the 20-year-old Venezuelan is a creative midfielder that likes to play smart passes and always has a creative solution. Even under pressure, Jorge Echeverría does well and manages to see the option forward. In the image down below, Echeverría is being put under pressure and he manages to find the space behind the left-back of Deportivo La Guaira, Leonardo Mosquera.
The attacking midfielder can also be decisive in the final third, using his good vision, technique and decent timing of passing to play the perfect through pass to the striker. Despite only having assisted one goal, he has good decision-making in the final third and is able to create two or three chances a game, which is quite good for an attacking midfielder.
Jorge Echeverría can play well in the tight spaces. He is quite agile which means that he can turn away from his opponent when it’s needed. Also, he has good ball control and technique which allows him to keep the ball close to his feet and that makes it hard to intercept the ball. Echeverría likes to combine with his teammates in the tight spaces as well.
Against Deportivo La Guaira, the perfect example happened. Echeverría spotted space and decided to move into the space. He received the ball and managed to hold off two opponents, moving into the slightest of gaps in between the two opponents. Then he got into a 1-on-1 duel with the left central defender and eventually managed to find a gap and nearly scored.
An aspect in which Jorge Echeverría still can improve is definitely his finishing. He did well to get into scoring positions because he has good spatial awareness and is able to dive into the gaps. However, he did not finish his chances and does not score that often. In the image down below, Echeverría has spotted a gap and manages to get into a dangerous situation, being able to assist his teammates.
The Venezuelan not only sees space himself, he is also able to make diagonal runs to the wing to create space for either Richard Celis or Robert Hernández to cut inside and take a shot from distance. Echeverría has been very important for Caracas in the final third in the matches I watched and both on the ball as off the ball, he did very well.
When operating on the right of the field, Jorge Echeverría liked to give early crosses to the far post. As he has a good kicking technique and good vision, he often managed to spot the man in space. However, this approach did not turn out to be very effective as Caracas did not get a proper chance from doing this. Echeverría still did well to pick out the right option, though.
Defensive abilities and physical attributes
Whenever Jorge Echeverría lost the ball, he was very aggressive to recover possession and he immediately wanted to recover his mistake. Sometimes this is a good thing to do, but Echeverría was this determined to recover possession that he followed his opponent around to the other side of the pitch. Besides sometimes tracking back after he lost the ball, Echeverría did not have many tasks in defence.
As mentioned above, Echeverría mostly put pressure on the defensive line as the second striker. He did this well. He lost some physical duels and he sometimes got pushed off the ball very easily. However, he most of the times held his own and managed to hold off his opponent, also using his agility and acceleration to get away from his opponent.
He lost most of his aerial duels, as he is only 1.74m. He sometimes can’t keep his balance, especially in physical duels. However, due to his determination he is able to stay on his legs and this helps him in keeping in possession or draw fouls. His pace in the long distance is above average, as well as his acceleration. He coaches his teammates well and an example of that can be seen below, where he waves that he is in space.
Conclusion
Jorge Echeverría is a talented player who is able to move to the MLS already. His physique is questionable, but his technical abilities, tactical abilities and versatility make him a very interesting player for the future. It is very important that he picks out the right move to be sure that he will develop and the MLS would be a great option, as he’d be able to improve his physical abilities in that league.
In terms of his position, I would say that he performs at his best in a free role on the left or as an attacking midfielder in an advanced role. He can be effective in the first phase of putting pressure but you do not want a player like Echeverría to be running down the wing to track the full-back for 90 minutes long.
Rating: A1
Target Scouting 