Oscar Mingueza
Celta

COLUMN: Celta Vigo and a New Meta for Underdogs in Spain

There’s been a slight patch of turbulence at the start of this season in La Liga. Some of the teams that constitute the lower areas of the table have started embracing a stormy side of late. As if they want to shed the recent tradition of playing the pragmatism card week in, week out, and take the braver way through the other side of the door.  

If Andoni Iraola with his 21/22 Rayo Vallecano started what can now be called a trend, Michel Sanchez’s Girona last season was a passionate one-of-a-kind realisation of this ambition. Jagoba Arrasate, Ernesto Valverde, Garcia Pimienta to name just a few more – have given incredibly talented youngsters important roles and responsibilities in their respective sides for them to climb up the table. They also upset the big boys every so often in cups, or in home league games.

If we coded history in short chunks of years to keep up with overall changes, this is an underdog strategy with decent success rate already over the last five years. Rayo Vallecano, Osasuna, Athletic Club, Real Sociedad, Girona are among recent examples for different levels of underdogs with different ambitions and relative successes. And if this is indeed the new Meta, the latest loud knocks at the door are from Claudio Giraldez and his Celta Vigo.

Taking over in March last season, the ex-Celta B team coach arrested an overflow of negative momentum accumulating from two years of inertia; and now Giraldez’s boys have finally come flying out of the gates in 24/25 with vitality, confidence, perhaps even faith. Upon closer inspection it also seems that they fit the characteristics of our newly certified Underdog Meta, so let’s compare the most obvious shared traits.

First, the man himself – Claudio Giraldez. What does he really have in common with all the coaches listed earlier? The style and approach stand out. Celta fans are no strangers to good football; as Rafa Benitez’s last attempts at fixing a mess slowed into stagnation, Giraldez’s approach comes with a kind of potency that can help kick-start a season with collective excitement. Celta are fearlessly direct with the ball especially in the last two phases, and quick to press without it.

Having won three of their first five league games, they were thoroughly impressive in all of them regardless, with Giraldez serving up different formations at will. Their two losses were popcorn-worthy away games – close 4-3 and 3-2 to losses to Villarreal and Osasuna respectively. That trait so familiar to Iraola or Michel of showing up to difficult away stadiums and flipping all the tables over? That’s a check for me already.

You must watch out for calm 1st phase play (direct when appropriate) with tempo dictators dropping in to receive, full-backs high and wide as second phase creators, and lots of dummy runs from the forwards which make quick combinations and spaces open to utilise. The tempo goes up once the full-backs receive wide behind the first line of pressure, and from there it’s a fun guessing game to predict which way they head. Layers of synchronised moves in the final third drag markers away, resulting in a technically sound passer looking at a luxury of choices to decide from. It’s a time where they’re having fun, adapting on the fly, and reaping the rewards. 

The second attribute this side has in common with those other fun underdog sides explains itself quite plainly. That relatively younger players are taking on plenty of responsibility and shouldering it wisely so far isn’t a surprise. After all, Giraldez climbed the long ladder; managing Celta Vigo B, the U-19s and Gran Pena (Celta’s third team, operating in the 5th tier) in the last 3 seasons, upgrading a rung each year. The chemistry comes naturally, familiarity is felt due to mutual respect and confidence, and all this usually counts for double. Here are some results in terms of players on the younger end of the spectrum.

The stunning revival of Oscar Mingueza as a genuine contender for player of the season so far; reborn as a highly dynamic, energetic, and creative full-back down whichever flank Giraldez dares to put him on. The sudden appearance of 20-year-olds Damian Rodriguez and Hugo Sotelo onto the scene as composed and mature deeper tempo-dictators. The minutes that everyone’s been waiting for with Tasos Douvikas and Williot Swedberg, have alongside Hugo Alvarez maintained Jorgen Strand Larsen’s goal threat.

It’s a tight and busy season for everyone in Europe, and for Giraldez, the message is clear; trust is being placed in the youth, and this is about as good an early response as he could ask for on their end. Besides, Celta Vigo fans also get to see Iago Aspas reinvented as a deeper forward with tons of freedom to keep all the pieces ticking. And everyone’s favourite wily Panda, Borja Iglesias, returning to his home club to top it all off.

With Claudio Giraldez combining the major fundamental ingredients that have been common to some of the special underdog La Liga sides in recent past, strong winds are blowing earlier than usual at Balaidos. Consider this more of a weather report than a forecast. Especially at Celta, good football with results slowly drying up is a kind of slow death they’ll be wary of. You should go watch this mini-storm develop for now, even if just because it’s too much fun to look at. I’m going to be one of the weathermen keeping watch for sure.

 

If you want to catch more of Vishal Varier’s eagle-eyed insights, follow him on Twitter/X here, where they cover La Liga with a fine-toothed comb. 

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La Liga - Club News