For my first report here on Target Scouting, I rewatched a top half battle in the Primera Division. The teams involved were the City Groups Uruguayan flagship, City Torque, and their other English clinging counterpart, Liverpool FC Montevideo. The latter approached the game with a patient build up, but it was Torque who created the chances. After an entertaining game, City Torque also came out on top after an attacking bonanza in the first half. Let’s dive a bit deeper into how that happened, and which players impressed the most in the light blue shirts.
Torque lined up with a 4-4-2, but did not really remain in that shape in either attack or defense. Out of possession, It moulded into more of a 4-4-1-1. This shape was mainly in purpose to eliminate the influence of Liverpools’ excellent young holding midfielder, Martin Fernandez. However, this did not really work out for Torque. Fernandez let himself get marked by either dropping forward, to then move right or left lateral to create space for another dropping midfielder on the opposite side. Liverpool continuously exploited this and were able to bypass Torque’s first line of pressure well throughout most of the game. A strong factor behind Liverpool’s domination of the ball possession (57 % against 43 %). Further up, Liverpool were however struggling to put their ball progression to good use. Torque proved to be far superior in that phase. Especially In the first half, the home side created chance after chance and ended the game on a really impressive XG of 4.47.
When in possession, Torque systematically pushed their center backs wide and placed their goalkeeper Fiermarín in between. The full backs initially positioned themselves wide and semi-high up the pitch to provide freedom for the wingers to drift inside, while also offering passing options to the centre back pair plus goalkeeper. This created a sort of 5 man U-form. However, after a while the City Torque manager allowed a lot of freedom to their left winger Allende (and I mean a lot). This left the fullback Teuten to consistently be the highest positioned wide man on the left side. This did lead to a bit of a problem when progressing the ball from deep. Teuten’s high positioning made Liverpool able to block the passing lane to him, and because of this Torque sometimes found themselves a bit short of alternatives. In the build up, this did result in some unnecessary losses of possession. Nevertheless when they advanced, this setup also meant that City had a complete spare man in Allende. They could switch the play with ease and play with full width, while Allende still roamed free in more central areas. This made Torque nearly always have numerical superiority. If one player in Liverpool decided to mark Allende, another player found himself free of space. The spare man could combine freely with marked players, and Torque created chances with ease this way. This was significantly also the key factor behind the first goal, when Teuten provided a cut back assist for Allende.
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, rewatch
- D – Below average in this match
Marcelo Allende
Player profile
- Nationality: Chile
- Age: 21
- Date of birth: 07/04/1999
- Club: Montivdeo City Torque
- Career: Cobreloa, Santa Cruz, Necaxa, Magallanes , Montevideo City Torque
- Position: Left Midfield
- Preferred foot: Right
Allende played well till being subbed off in the 70th minute. The shortbuild Chilean scored one of Torque’s goals while racking up an XG of 0.96 and an XA of 0.14. He started the game as a left midfielder, but operated over large areas. Whenever Montevideo City Torque found themselves in possession, Allende had license to drift around to impact the game. Just apart from a few moments, Allende used this freedom impressively. He always seemed to place himself in dangerous areas and came of as a player greatly aware of his attacking positioning. An impressive indication of this was when he quickly offered himself as a cut back option to slot in 1-0.
Allende is also very technically gifted and maneuvers the ball with quick and neat touches. However, he seemingly lacks a bit of pace and is not the player to constantly beat his man one on one. His constant movement is a tool to compensate for that though. Allende builds his game on quick passes followed by a movement to offer support. This combined with his impressive positional awareness makes him nearly impossible to mark, and thanks to his well developed technical abilities he is able to pull this off in very tight areas.
He also worked hard throughout the game. City Torque were not placing their first line of press too high, but when Liverpool played through City’s two strikers, The manager had ordered them to press in frenzy. Allende did this well and pressed with non stop intensity, no matter if he found himself on the left side or tracking back as one of the two strikers. Some indications of this were the fact that he racked up 5 interceptions in the game, and that in just about 70 minutes.
Rating: A2
Christopher Fiermarin
- Nationality: Uruguayan
- Age: 22
- Date of birth: 01/01/1998
- Club: Montevideo City Torque
- Career: Defensor, Montevideo City Torque
- Position: Goalkeeper
- Preferred foot: Right
Another young and interesting upcommer in Torque is their goalkeeper, Fiermarín. Standing 1.89 cm above the ground, he seems to be the perfect combination between height and swiftness. With 6 clean sheets in a well oiled Torque defence, the talent has impressed throughout the season, and this game was no exception. Fiermarín guided his team with authority, and pulled off a world class save to keep his team in front. He is quick off the ground and his long slender arms covers most of the goal with just one reach.
He was also constantly impressing with his passing ability. Positioned between his wide placed center backs, Torque were able to use their big mans’ distribution to advance on the pitch. Considering that, his range is however still a bit short and this is something he needs to improve. He is also a bit cautious in the air, and although that can be seen as more of a trait rather than strictly negative, he sometimes seemed to leave his players alone. did not struggle in this game this could be
All in all, the Uruguayan seems like a keeper ready for a bigger move. Considering his profile and the willingness in the City group to recruit goalkeepers within, could he even be on his way to Manchester City?
Rating: A1
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