La Liga 2020/2021: Getafe vs Granada – tactical analysis | OneFootball

Getafe and Granada come into this game of the back of their prestigious wins against Barcelona and Sevilla respectively. Both teams come into this game with ten points after five games, same points as the reigning La Liga champions Real Madrid.

The game was a chaotic game as both teams seemed to employ the same style. The extent of the chaotic game is evident in the dead time of 67:02, total duels of 268 and total fouls committed of 42. This tactical analysis gives an analysis and tactics about how the game became so chaotic and how both teams feared with this chaos.

Lineups

Getafe lined up in their usual 4-4-2 formation. There were no changes from the team that started in their last game against Barcelona which ended in 1-0 victory for Getafe.

The visitors lined up in a 4-1-4-1 formation. Diego Martinez made four changes to the team that beat Sevilla. Luiz Suarez comes in for Antonio Puertas as the left-winger. Jorge Molina comes in for Roberto Soldado as the starting striker. Jesus Vallejo comes in for the injured Domingos Duarte as the left-sided centre-back. Eteki comes in for Maxime Gonalons as the defensive midfielder.

Getafe’s build-up

The chaotic nature of the game was set in motion due to type of build-up both teams opted. Getafe opted for the more uncontrollable and chaotic long balls. The long balls came as a result of either goal-kicks, launched balls from defenders or clearances from any deep player.

At first, the Getafe keeper kept hitting his long balls or goal-kicks in centre of the midfield. However, they got overpowered by Granada at winning the first balls. Apart from this, Granada was also winning the second balls as they had a good support structure. The aforementioned support structure coupled with athleticism and technicality of Granada helped in winning these second balls.

In other to solve this, the goalkeeper started hitting his goal-kicks towards the right channel/right flank in Granada’s half. These tactics worked due to two reasons.

The graph above shows the goal kick map from Getafe’s goalkeeper. You can see a cluster of launched passes towards the wide areas. It clearly shows the recipients are mostly wide players and strikers who position in the halfspace.

First, Jaime Mata was able to win a couple of first balls against a less physical Vallejo. Jaime Mata was able to use his upper body strength to bully the smaller frame of the on-loan player from Real Madrid.

Here, you can see how Jaime Mata uses his upper body strength to somehow overpower Vallejo.

Apart from that, this position was far from goal and a bit far from the central midfielder. This gave Getafe enough time to win the back as well as limiting the speed/pace at which they get transitions.

Also, the limited space between the right halfspace and wings meant that the possibility of Getafe conceding a transition or a turnover was slim. In the case were, Getafe lose the ball, they quickly counter-press and win it back. Or in other cases, it goes out for a throw-in. in all, the positives outweigh the negatives as there quite none for the later.

As the game progressed on, the intensity and the chaotic nature of the game slowed down and reduced. This led to a bit more settled play and more short passing play as opposed to the more chaotic long and floated balls

Getafe looked to build-up through wide overloads and wide combinations. Here, Getafe created a wide overload on the left flank and halfspace. The overload was in somewhat of a diamond structure which facilitated fast combinations due to the good passing options.

How Getafe created shooting opportunities

Due to the chaotic nature of the game, transitions were a common scene throughout the lengths of the game. Getafe had their fair share of these transitions as they were to get quality turnovers. Most of these transitions came about from turnovers won in midfield duels.

However, the transitions weren’t easy to come by as Getafe we being dominated in winning duels and loose balls. This promoted them to result to create crossing opportunities. Getafe had different ways of creating these crossing opportunities.

First, they were able to create crossing opportunities through wide overloads or wing combinations. This wing-play created opportunities by mostly exploiting the channels through the deep underlapping runs. In other cases where the channels are protected, they resulted in deep crosses from halfspace.

Here, it shows the underlapping run by Arambarri. Nyom finds him by playing a diagonal through the pass. Arambarri completes this sequence by making a well-timed low cross into the six-yard box for the on-rushing Cucurella.

Getafe was able to create these overloads or wide combinations through the use of long balls from deep players(defenders and goalkeeper) or switches. These long balls were either for flicked-on by Enes, Unal, Cucurella or Jaime Mata. They were also brought down directly through chest control in any case they weren’t any aerial duel.

An aerial duel map which shows the positions where aerial duels have happened. There’s a cluster of aerial duels around the halfspaces

Before these longballs are hit, the players already overload the wide area in order to create to gain numerical superiority. These overloads create a good support structure in order to retain possession in the advent of loss or win of the first ball.

In other cases, it goes out for a throw-in. This allows Getafe to quickly overload the preferred spaces and then take a quick throw-in and create their preferred crossing opportunity.

Also, setpieces were also integral to Getafe’s attacks. They were to get good shooting opportunities with as they struck with bar with a perfectly timed header for the substitute, Enes Unal.

How Granada sought to attack

Granada attacked in a similar manner to their opponents. Granada also sought to create crossing opportunities from wing play. The wing play consisted of similar underlapping runs into the halfspace, then playing a well-timed low cross into the middle

Here, a Granada player makes an underlapping run through the channels in order to make a low cross to through the middle.

Apart from this, there was also a similar approach in creating these overloads and wing-plays.  Granada also hit wide areas with long balls. Due to the aerial threat of Molina to win first balls and their ability to win second balls, they were to fairly create these overloads.

In this course, Granada could also create chances through their counter-press in any scenario they lost the first and second balls. The counter-press after hitting these wide long balls allowed them to sustain attacks and retain possession in the final third. These tactics led them to create the chance that led to the foul which caused the penalty.

Apart from this, they also tried to transit after winning midfield duels and subsequently getting turnovers. Once they won the midfield duels which came as a result of loose balls and aerial duels from long balls, they played in balls in behind for Luis Suarez and Kennedy to make runs into.

Here, Kennedy makes a deep penetrative run as he sees the ball-carrier trying to play a lofted ball through the defensive line.

However, Getafe was able to deal with it just like they did to most of their attacks.

Granada’s defensive play

In the settled defensive play, Granada sort to defend in either a staggered 4-4-2, 4-1-4-1 or 5-4-1. Their settled defensive play was based on defending central areas first.

Apart from this, they also were also proactive in their mid-press. They always tried to force the build-up wide and press the wide areas. This is because the wide areas are more controllable as they need to defend fewer spaces as opposed to the central areas.

Granada sought to do this by setting up a pressing trap. They did this attracting the ball-carrier to the half-space.  After baiting the ball carrier into the halfspace, the lone striker presses the ball-carrier at an angle that cuts off the passing lane to the other centre-back. This forces the ball-carrier to remain in the trap as he doesn’t have the agility to make a reverse pass to the goalkeeper or the time and space either. This forces the ball-carrier to play an uncontrollable long ball.

Here, Molina presses the ball-carrier at an angle that blocks the passing lane to the other side. This forces him to make a pass to the fullback who can be easily marked by the ball-side winger.

Apart from these, Granada was also good at defending the wide overloads and wide combinations from Getafe. Granada shifted their block to the wide areas and remained compact around the wide areas in defending these overloads. They were also good at tracking the in-to-out runs in these wings play which nullified some potential combinations from Getafe.

In chaos, they were also immense as they were able to battle with an aggressive Getafe side. They defend transitions well with either their counter-press or tactical fouls. They won midfield battles which prevented numerous transitions. However, the intensity at which they played slowly waned as the game progressed on.

Conclusion

The game was a cagey game as the two teams limited themselves to few opportunities. Both teams defended well. However, the game ended in Granada’s favour as Getafe weren’t able to take their chances as they did against Barcelona.