The 2020/21 La Liga season kicked off at the Ipurua where SD Eibar hosted Celta Vigo. It was a game that lacked much quality for large periods and ended in a 0-0 draw with not much excitement at either end barring a late red card. Celta Vigo lined up in a 4-3-3 against Eibar’s 4-4-2. There was a fair amount of positional fluidity in the Vigo side as Aspas dropped in allowing space for midfield runners and wide men to move more centrally. Neither side threatened to score with much regularity with a lot of shots flying off target. Celta Vigo had the better of the chances but couldn’t convert on a day where they probably would have hoped for more.
Ratings:
- A1 – Very good, could play higher
- A2 – Strong potential to play higher
- B1 – Good, strong player at level
- B2 – Potential to be strong player at level
- C – Average for the level, re-watch
- D – Below average in this match
Emre Mor
Player profile:
- Nationality: Turkish
- Age: 23
- Date of Birth: 24/07/1997
- Current Club: Celta Vigo
- Career: Lyngby (Y), Nordsjaelland, Borussia Dortmund, Celta Vigo, Galatasaray (L), Olympiacos (L)
- Position: Right Winger
- Preferred Foot: Left
Emre Mor started the match on the right side of Celta Vigo’s front three but found himself drifting into the central areas vacated by Iago Aspas a lot of the time and tended to operate from the middle for large periods of the game. He has a sleight build and is 5’7″ tall so found himself to be lacking in physical battles at times, if he was side by side with a defender he would often be out-muscled but he showed on a couple of occasions that he could ride challenges well and was able to compete and win aerial duels occasionally.
He was often found to be cutting in off the right hand side onto his stronger left foot as he looked to drive at the Eibar defenders to create opportunities to score. He demonstrated good dribbling ability and close control and he was able to create space for himself in dangerous areas and managed to create a good shooting chance for himself, albeit from a tight angle, with a particularly good bit of skill and close control to beat 3 defenders from the byline to the box. Emre’s height and build lends itself well to his style of play as he has great agility and balance to weave in and out of defenders tackles. He played on the shoulder of the last defender a lot and his pace meant he was able to get into space in wide areas behind the full backs. He sometimes moved a bit too early and was caught offside in some promising positions but he generally played on the last defender quite well.
His passing was solid and mostly accurate, he kept it generally short as he looked for return passes into feet but he did play some one or two good switches to change the angle of attack after he was closed down by the opposition. When he had the ball at his feet he was sometimes too slow to release the ball or make a decision on what to do so he was dispossessed in some good attacking areas and when he did find himself with time his final ball or shot was lacking. He sometimes seemed to want to do too much with the ball himself rather than moving the ball on to a teammate.
Off the ball, he did not have very many defensive contributions but he at times pressed well which was helped by his pace. He was able to put defenders under pressure quickly and cut off some passing lanes which forced the opposition to go long. When looking for the ball he seemed to prefer coming short to get the ball to feet despite getting some success when running in behind. He came out on top in most of his loose ball challenges because of his good close control and low centre of gravity and he reacted well to developing attacking situations. When he did press he was quite good at it but he missed some pressing triggers and opportunities to try and win the ball back and seemed to lack an urgency in his game at times.
Rating – B1
He was one of Celta’s better players on the day, particularly in the second half he was important for driving the team forward in attacking areas and showed a good few flashes of skill which suggests he can be a valuable player for Celta going forward this season.
Joseph Aidoo
- Nationality: Ghanaian
- Age: 24
- Date of Birth: 29/09/1995
- Current Club: Celta Vigo
- Career: Inter Allies, Hammarby, KRC Genk, Celta Vigo
- Position: Centre Back
- Preferred Foot: Right
Aidoo played as Celta’s right sided centre back in this game and was a big reason why they managed to keep a clean sheet. He read the game on the defensive very well, he made a number of important interventions in the box as he made seven clearances in the game and he was able to cut out a number of crosses before reached threatening areas with good regularity. At 6ft tall he isn’t the tallest defender but that didn’t stop him from getting involved in the air. He was up against two striker from Eibar that were physical but he was more than a match for them. He wasn’t able to win all of his aerial duels but even the ones he didn’t win his challenge and presence was key to making sure the ball fell safely for another defender or keeper to clean up. He was strong in the tackle and won all of the tackles he attempted as well.
When Celta were attacking, their full backs pushed on very high whilst one of the centre midfielders dropped to provide help for the centre backs in the event of a counter attack. When this did happen Aidoo proved he was very capable of moving across to cover in the full back areas of the pitch and did a good job of shutting down counter attacks that came from both wide and central areas. He showed a decent turn of pace to get across to the oppositions wide players when the full backs were out of position and he used that pace well to prevent the opposition from getting in behind the defensive line.
His didn’t see much of the ball in possession, his short simple passing was accurate but his longer balls were less so as he tried to play balls deep into the opposition half to turn the defence and get attackers in dangerous potions. He was successful with this pass on a couple of occasions but one of them was very well weighted and he created a good scoring chance which ultimately wasn’t converted. Aidoo showed he was comfortable with the ball higher up the pitch though as he was able to step out into the middle to make some good interceptions to get Celta on the front foot higher up the pitch.
Rating – B1
Brais Mendez
- Nationality: Spanish
- Age: 23
- Date of Birth: 07/01/1997
- Current Club: Celta Vigo
- Career: Celta Vigo
- Position: Right Midfield
- Preferred Foot: Left
Brais started this game on the right of Celta’s midfeild three but found himself drifting out wide to the touchline from quite early on and he started to take up space on the right wing as Emre Mor moved more centrally.
He showed he was a pretty good technical player for Celta, he had good close control and his first touch was good and rarely got away from him. In the first half especially he was important for getting Celta into attacking positions and he was a good link between midfield and the forwards. He demonstrated good vision and was able to execute some quite difficult passes to get his teammates into good areas. His close control was good and despite lacking some pace he was able to carry the ball at a decent speed because of this. He made some good runs into the space between the centre back and full back and found himself trying to receive the ball in the right half space often before trying to turn and create. Brais is quite tall for a wide man at 6’2″ which could help explain his lack of pace, but at his height he handled himself well in physical and aerial battles. he found himself on the end of some heavy blows after aerial duels but he wasn’t phased by them and continued to be competitive. He was the target for a number of goal kicks and he was able to knock them down to teammates well on occasion. He had one decent scoring chance after a long ball from Aidoo which he controlled well before lifting an attempted lob wide. He seemed reluctant to use his weaker right foot and tried to use his left as often as possible when striking the ball.
He worked well on the defensive end and he and the right back defended well in a pair and were able to crows out the Eibar wide men well on a number of occasions. He held good defensive positions, cutting off passing lanes and opposition players well in his cover shadow. But he wasn’t involved a great deal in defensive sitations.
His passing was good as he showed a good range of passes and was able to fashion some good chances and situations for his teammates. He was able to create one big chance that was missed with a good cross clipped into the middle after the second phase of a set piece in the second half. However in the second half he lost a lot of his influence compared to the first half as he wasn’t able to get on the ball or pick the spaces as he was doing previously so he had little impact after the break. He was eventually substituted after 76 minutes and will perhaps feel like he could’ve been the one to win i the game for Celta after hsi missed opportunity.
Rating – B2