Alex Baena’s assault on the Spanish midfield stereotype

Every of Europe’s elite home divisions bears its personal distinctive traditions and traits. England’s Premier League is mostly related to pace and chaos, whereas Italy’s Serie A is usually described as being extra tactical.

In Spain, LaLiga’s traditions and fame have long-revolved round approach, although stereotypically talking, the tempo of the soccer performed there was thought of a few notches under the Premier League and even the German Bundesliga.

Nonetheless, in a league that has usually set the bar for managed possession and slow-burning creativity, a playmaking artiste from Andalucia named Alex Baena has been breaking the normal Spanish mould.

Baena’s unconventional affect

Alex Baena, who has been on Villarreal’s books since 2011, isn’t your cookie-cutter Spanish midfield metronome. The schemer curls his lip on the prospect of enjoying keep-ball or the thought of collaborating in a death-by-a-thousand-passes strategy.

As an alternative, Baena likes to inflict harm as shortly and straight as attainable. Possession is taken into account a chance to harm an opponent, and each motion Baena takes appears like a chess transfer performed at lightning pace.

While you view Baena’s affect by means of a statistical lens, his metrics leap off the web page. The 23-year-old ranks third in LaLiga this season for progressive passes (164) from the division’s non-defenders, behind solely Pedri and Rodrigo De Paul.

Whereas Baena continues to cross each eye check with flying colors, his numbers hit simply as exhausting. Within the 2023/24 season, the midfielder claimed 14 assists – which was probably the most by any participant underneath the age of 23 since Mesut Ozil in 2010/11.

In 2024, Baena created 100+ possibilities for his Villarreal teammates in a single calendar 12 months, changing into the primary participant to document a single-year century since a sure Lionel Messi did the identical again in 2017.

Baena was additionally LaLiga’s chief for anticipated assists (xA) over the past three LaLiga campaigns (23.4) and in keeping with Fbref, he ranks first in Spain’s prime tier for a similar metric in 2024/25 (10.6) forward of Barcelona trio Raphinha, Lamine Yamal and Pedri.

Baena driving the Yellow Submarine ahead

Marcelinho’s return to Villarreal in late 2023 didn’t simply convey stability to the membership, it lit the fuse on a dynamic new period for the Yellow Submarine with Baena the driving power. 

With Baena pulling the strings from the left facet of Marcelinho’s fluid 4-4-2 formation, Villarreal have been remodeled into LaLiga’s most harmful crew on transitions.

They’ve mustered 50+ photographs and scored 10+ targets from quick breaks underneath Marcelinho’s instruction – each league-best figures in LaLiga for the reason that Head Coach’s return.

Baena’s distribution and skill to separate a defence from completely different areas make him a multifaceted artistic weapon with low-driven by means of balls, whipped back-post crosses, and laser-guided early passes from deep leaving backlines scattered and uncovered.

Destined for the Champions League stage

With Baena pulling the strings, Villarreal are sitting fairly in fifth place as LaLiga heads into the ultimate stretch. That’s more likely to be sufficient to safe Champions League soccer this season, though a resurgent Actual Betis facet is pushing them shut within the race for a spot at Europe’s prime desk.

The bookies at the moment favour the Yellow Submarine in that individual battle, whereas they’re obtainable at 9/2 to complete within the prime 4 which might assure Champions League qualification. Punters can make the most of referral bonuses from sportsbooks to get began when betting on that market.

With no different distractions, Marcelino will probably be hoping his facet can chase down Athletic Membership who at the moment occupy fourth place and are favoured within the betting markets to complete there. Nonetheless, the Basque giants will even be inserting a giant concentrate on their present Europa League marketing campaign, so a window of alternative could but come up for the facet from the Ceramica.

No matter whether or not or not Villarreal recover from the road this season, it will not be lengthy earlier than we see Baena on the Champions League stage.

The midfielder is already established as one of the crucial artistic forces in LaLiga, and this can be the summer time when massive golf equipment come calling for the Spain worldwide.

Villarreal’s long-standing coverage has been to finally money in on their most-prized academy graduates, however followers of the Yellow Submarine will probably be hoping that a spot in Europe’s elite competitors, is perhaps sufficient to persuade Baena to stay round for a minimum of another season.