Marcelino took charge of Valencia last summer and led them back to the Champions League in his first season.
Los Murciélagos are one of the biggest clubs in Spain, but after some disastrous managerial spells, García Toral has managed to turn the club around.
The Spanish coach‘s method has been characterised by a very compact defence, rapid counter-attacking, and a lot of energy.
In this tactical analysis, we look at Marcelino García Toral’s style of play and what the upcoming season may hold for Valencia.
Marcelino García Toral Background
Marcelino worked his way up the coaching ladder in his native Asturias, eventually impressing at Sporting Gijón, Recreativo de Huelva, and Racing Santander before failing at Real Zaragoza.
He then had another spell at Racing before moving to Sevilla.
It didn’t work out in Andalusia, but Marcelino’s next move would prove successful.
Appointed at Villarreal, he first led the club to promotion back to the top flight before guiding them to three successive top-six finishes.
Toral also led the club to the 2015/16 Europa League semi-final.
After a disagreement with the board at Villarreal, Marcelino left the club and was then appointed at Valencia in May 2017.
From Villarreal to Valencia, he brought the obvious tenets in his tactical approach.
Marcelino wants a very energetic team which works together at all times and presses and harries the opposition.
His teams are always set up in a narrow 4-4-2 formation and look to break out of their extremely compact, positionally oriented defensive shape with rapid counterattacks.
This has worked superbly at Valencia, where he led Los Che to a fourth-place finish in La Liga last season.
Valencia CF Transfers
Valencia has undergone some changes in their playing squad this summer.
The main departure is Gonçalo Guedes, who was brilliant last year on loan from PSG.
There are rumours that they are looking to sign the Portuguese player permanently, but no deal has been agreed upon yet.
Andreas Pereira has also returned to his parent club Manchester United after his loan spell.
The same goes for Luciano Vietto.
Valencia also sold players who were bit-part players last term or out on loan, such as João Cancelo, who’s gone to Juventus for €40M.
But Guedes is the only loss to the starting eleven of last year.
In terms of recruitment Valencia have done well.
The biggest deal is the €25M paid to Inter Milan to make Geoffrey Kondogbia a permanent Valencia player, but if he plays like last year, then he will be worth every penny.
The young defender Mouctar Diakhaby has joined from Lyon, but he is likely to start as cover.
Celta Vigo midfielder Daniel Wass, Red Star Belgrade‘s midfielder Uroš Račić and Sporting CP right-back Cristiano Piccini have also been added to the squad.
Finally, Valencia, with their symbol being a bat, has signed football’s Batman with Michy Batshuayi joining from Chelsea on loan.
Marcelino García Toral Formations
Let’s move on to how Marcelino García Toral sets Los Murciélagos up on the pitch.
Valencia lines up in a 4-4-2 formation, as shown in the image below.
I’ll look at the three most vital components of his football philosophy below.
Marcelino García Toral Compact Defending
As highlighted in the above image, Marcelino wants his side to be extremely compact in defence.
He deploys a positionally oriented defensive system where the players move in unison across the pitch, depending on the positions of their teammates, the ball, the space, and, lastly, their opponents.
They don’t mark opponents but instead defend collectively to close off available space.
The goal is to protect the centre and force the opponent wide.
When the ball enters the wide areas, the entire team overloads on the ball side to prevent the opponent from getting out.
Below, you see an example as Valencia is very compact and narrow, with close distances between players both horizontally and vertically.
Specifically, the relationship between the defence and midfield is critical for Marcelino García Toral’s style of play.
The two strikers are the counter-attacking outlets (which I’ll discuss later) and can’t always get back quick enough, but the two banks of four always stay in position defensively.
Look at those lines between midfield and defence!
To use an Italian expression, “there’s not enough air to breathe in there”.
The wide midfielders have a key role to play.
Whereas some coaches (José Mourinho, for example) want their wide players to track all the way back outside their full-backs, Marcelino has a different idea.
His wide midfielders’ first job is to prevent central progression for the opponents and force them into wide areas instead.
Below, we can see how right-midfielder Carlos Soler keeps a central position and covers potential passes forward.
The Real Sociedad player is forced into a pass towards the wing instead.
As that ball is about to get played, the right-back has the responsibility to sprint out and press.
The wide midfielder then covers his full-back pressing action.
While Marcelino’s defence is almost strictly positional Valencia are sometimes man-orientated when pressing high.
A good example of this approach can be seen below away at Barcelona.
The front-two start the press while the positions of Valencia’s central midfielders are different.
Here, they’ve followed Barcelona’s very high to participate in the press.
The strong defence has been one of the keys behind Valencia’s rise under Marcelino García Toral.
Their compactness is extremely impressive and perhaps there are ideas in place to become an ever more effective pressing team.
That would make them even harder to play against.
Marcelino Toral Rapid Counter-attacks
Valencia are good in possession and can create chances from their passing and combination play, but the main threat they pose comes from rapid counter-attacking.
They were ruthless last season and had the perfect players for such a style, with the likes of Guedes, Rodrigo Moreno and Santi Mina.
The main reason they were so effective was based around how quickly the players read the situation and then made vertical runs beyond the ball-carrier.
Often, Valencia’s counters started with a pass or long ball to one of the strikers, Simone Zaza, in the example below.
As soon as the Italian received the ball, there were one or two players making runs beyond him.
In the image below, we see both Guedes and Rodrigo making runs into depth, and Zaza plays the Portuguese in behind.
Below is another example with Kondogbia playing the first pass into a striker.
Already, we can see the runs being made by Rodrigo and Pereira.
As the striker has now received we can see how the runs continue and the ball is played into depth for Valencia to go on to score.
The willingness to make these runs and the ability to pick them out with understanding and quality are the keys to Valencia’s ruthless counter-attacks.
Marcelino Toral Rotations In Wide Areas
In possession, Valencia’s 4-4-2 changes slightly, with the full-backs being really attacking down the sides and the wide midfielders moving inside into the half-spaces.
Basically, this creates a 4-2-2-2 formation in attack.
One well-established pattern they use is the overlap from the full-back who is the played into depth by the wide midfielder who has moved inside.
Below, Soler has come inside from the right and plays Nacho Vidal in on goal for the young right-back to score.
And below is another goal coming directly from these rotations in wide areas.
Guedes, in possession, has come inside from the wing, and the overlapping run from José Luis Gayà creates a 2v1 situation against the Barcelona full-back Nélson Semedo.
Gayà is played through and then sets up Rodrigo Moreno to tap in from close range.
The rotations with the wide midfielders coming inside make these combinations natural, given the wings are left free for the full-backs to attack.
But the movement also means Valencia get four players in central positions and therefore forces the opposition to centre their defence thus leaving the wings free to attack.
This very simple piece of movement from the wide midfielders makes Valencia a much tougher team to defend against.
Conclusion
With Marcelino García Toral in charge, Valencia fans can dare to dream.
Their return to the Champions League has brought excitement and optimism to the club again.
With no key players (except the on-loan Guedes) leaving in the summer, it seems Marcelino’s men can look to challenge again at the top of La Liga.
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Read more tactical season previews here: RB Leipzig, Inter and Juventus, for example, and check out this on Valencia talent Ferran Torres.
