Gennaro Gattuso He has arrived in Valencia to direct a team that lives in constant turbulence. He will have a lot of work ahead of him, but the Italian is a coach with some experience. What can ‘Rino’ bring to Valencia?
In order to know a little more about the coach Gattuso we have resorted to the coach profiles generated by Smarterscoutwhich try to highlight the Distinctive traits and the effectiveness of the playing styles of each coach. In this way they offer us a slightly broader vision of what the Italian can do in Mestalla.
We will base ourselves on his last season as coach, 2020-21, in which he led a Napoli that finished fifth with 74 points, one away from entering the Champions League.
This chart summarizes all the featuress but, of course, needs to be interpreted. From left to right, consider the most used formations; seconds it takes for your team to recover the ball on average; offensive and defensive style; the flow of play and average substitution times; and the average difference in expected goals and points, divided by parts. All this, for when it is local and for when it is visitors.
And at the bottom, from left to right, consider the average positions of full-backs and wingers, to determine the extent to which width is used in their style of play; the location of the team’s shots in open play; and the effect it generates per game in terms of expected goals for and against, giving a percentage of confidence on the part of the coach.
Therefore, of Gattuso we can say that he usually uses a 4-2-3-1 both at home and awayalthough sometimes it varies to a 4-4-2 or even a 4-3-3. Offensivelymakes his teams play in a somewhat indirect but without abusing the aerial game.
defensively it is more intense in the pressure at home, without being a great feature either. He also used a very high line on defenseespecially at home, but the team got the ball back faster away from home, being one of the best in the championship. That is, they were much more effective.
Their trade windows usually start around game time and consumes them around the last 15 minutes. Namely, condenses them all in a quarter of an hour.
At home, winning, the offensive effort was lowered in the second half (+0.45 xGD or expected goal difference); away from home, however, the substitutions were key to level up and secure more points (from 1.47 to 1.94 per match).
Their sides They played with very orthodox positions, always with two central defenders. Were long distance, but also playing inside. Their extremes on the right side, were deeperwhile the left ones got to more interior positions.
Usually, his players shot on goal from good positionsrather focused and many from within the area.
In terms of advanced metrics, it seems that Gattuso had more benefits as a coach in his decisions and in his style for defense (73% confidence) than for attack (40% confidence), compared to the performance of their players in previous seasons. In other words, his style brings more improvements in the defensive game than in the offensive.
This is only a small approximation of what Gattuso could mean for Valencia. What happens next will depend on many other factors: a different league, other players, another environment… But now we can find out a little more about what the Italian coach can bring to the Mestalla.
