Sunday’s top of the table clash between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid may have been the focus of attention in La Liga last weekend, but elsewhere two tactically strong teams with very different styles met – Qique Setien’s possession-focused Real Betis side visited Marcelino’s direct and defensively strong Valencia.

Valencia’s pressing game

Defending and pressing are perhaps the aspects of the game that Marcelino’s teams are most known to be competent in, and they were able to demonstrate this again in this match. Starting in a 4-4-2 shape against Real Betis’ 3-4-2-1, one of Valencia’s wide midfielders would push forward to close-down Real Betis’ side-backs when they had the ball. When this happened, the ball-near striker would drop slightly, in order to try and prevent passes into Betis’ nearest centre-midfielder. This centre-midfielder would also be marked from behind by Parejo or Kondogbia.

This meant that the most immediate options for the centre-back on the ball were passing back to his central defender Bartra, or to his wing-back. Passes back to Bartra were pressed by Valencia’s ball-far striker, attempting to prevent him from being able to open his body and play out to the opposite side or make a penetrating pass.

If the ball went to a Betis full-back, they were aggressively pressured by Valencia’s full-backs. The active role of Valencia’s full-backs in pressing allowed the wide midfielders, Soler and Guedes, to remain narrow in order to directly pressure Betis’ side-backs. Valencia’s full-backs were usually able to prevent the Betis buildup from progressing any further once the ball reached the wing-backs, and in some cases were successful in forcing turnovers in Valencia’s favour.

Another small issue for Betis was that the side-back who most commonly found himself in the types of situation described above was Jordi Amat, a right-footed defender playing on the left side of the back three, which means that he was perhaps less ideally suited to the passing angles that might be presented to a player in this position than a left-footed player playing on the left side would be.

Overall Valencia press was well constructed. On occasions where they weren’t directly pressuring the ball, the strikers did a good job in preventing passes into midfield with their cover shadows, and the wingers generally kept the compactness of the midfild (although there were some problems which allowed a couple of passes to reach Betis’ inside forwards in the halfspaces). In general, though, they were able to limit the success of Betis’ build-up, as well as forcing turnovers of possession from time to time.

One possible solution

Early in the second half, there was a scene which showed one possible solution to Betis’ problems in buildup, particularly with regards to the challenge posed by the active role of Valencia’s full-backs in their pressing.

In this situation, (which may not have occurred intentionally on Betis’ part, or for this purpose) Joaquin has positioned himself close to the touchline, rather than in a more central zone. This pins Montoya back due to the threat of leaving Joaquin unmarked on the last line, meaning that Junior can receive the ball without immediate pressure.

This was one possible way of solving the problem of Valencia forcing Betis into disadvantageous situations when the ball reached their wing-backs, such as in the scene in the previous section. Betis were unable to make anything further of this situation, partly because of a quick recovery from Carlos Soler to be able to put pressure on Junior, but also because Junior lacked a diagonal passing option to connect back inside with Joaquin occupying a wider position.

Betis were actually able to find their inside forwards, Joaquin and particularly Camarasa, more directly on some occasions with line-breaking passes. This was usually due to advanced positioning from Valencia’s wingers in anticipation of pressing Betis’ side-backs, which could open up passing lanes between them and their nearest centre-midfielder. Again though, Valencia usually recovered these situations fairly well and Betis were unable to create much.

Valencia switch to evade pressure

A prominent aspect of Valencia’s possession phases in this game was the way in which they were able to find a free man simply with switches to the ball-far full-back, either direct or indirect.

This was facilitated by Betis’ pressing scheme, in particular the behaviour of the ball-far wide forward, who would come into fairly narrow positions when the ball was on the other side of the pitch, either marking Valencia’s ball-far centre-midfielder or anticipating a pass to the centre-back. This of course helps Betis maintain compactness, keeping a strong defensive connection between the inside forward and the central midfielders, but it also has the effect of leaving a large amount of space for Valencia’s ball-far full-back, if they can get the ball to him.

The idea of using switches of play in these situations is hardly revolutionary, but it was a noticeable part of Valencia’s game against Betis. Once the full-back, either Montoya or Gaya, had received the ball, they would often look to play into depth immediately, seeking Valencia forwards and wide-midfielders running into the channels between Betis’ side-backs and wing-backs.

Valencia’s verticality

Valencia also showed small glimpses of the vertical style of attacking which has been a clear feature of their game since Marcelino took charge. Their attacking structure is essentially a 4-2-4, often with double wing-occupation, which on the surface might not sound like an attacking structure which will find success in top level football.

Key to Valencia’s attacking game is flat, vertical passes into the feet of the strikers, met with diagonal runs from the wingers, cutting inside to receive layoffs from the strikers. This is something which suits Guedes in particular extremely well, with the Portuguese winger having the opportunity to show great promise cutting in from the left, using his diagonal dribbling and playmaking abilities.

Conclusion

Despite Betis having 60% of the possession, Valencia can claim to have controlled the game for the most part with a strong performance against the ball, and were deserving of their win.