Héctor Bellerín is the latest addition to Barça 2022/2023. The former azulgrana does not arrive as a first option but as a market opportunity to relieve Sergiño Dest. What characteristics does he have? What role can you have for Xavi? Here my tactical analysis:
Héctor Bellerin is a right back with an offensive look. One of those players who likes to run the band and who need to cover a long way to feel comfortable. In addition, he is a footballer who has always had this very internalized role. A specialist on the right side who has always been either a winger or a lane player. These are the positional maps of his last two courses in the 2021/2022 League with Betis and in the 2020/2021 Premier League with Arsenal (via SofaScore).
Undoubtedly, one of the most favorable points of the new Barça winger is that he will not need to acquire new football concepts for what Xavi wants. He knows the 4-3-3, the 3-4-3 and the position game from his formative past at Barça (he was from junior to cadets). The theory knows her. We will see if the practice goes in the same direction.
On offense, he doesn't burn the ball at his feet. And he has technical resources to progress. One of the aspects that help him the most for this are the inward driving starts. In that, he is very similar to Sergi Roberto. In other words, he has output capacity on both sides. If the rival covers the band, he gets into the inside lane and, if the space is out, he shoots down the band.
It is solvent to go to forward pressure. Due to its speed, it quickly reduces meters and assumes responsibility for its peer. It is ideal to be part of a collective pressure because, both due to timings and intensity, it is a good pressurer.
One of his best virtues is the arrivals from behind near the area. Either in rupture or accompanying an attack in an elaborate play. Last year he signed a 71% pass accuracy in the final meters, accumulated 4 goal assists and averaged 2.10 centers finished off per game (@Alebia Analytics)
Considering his average height (1.78m) he does relatively well in the air. He wins 52% of his aerial duels. It is necessary to highlight his tackle of him, an action that he repeats a lot and that serves to vary his positioning errors. He really he is very good when he goes down. With 2.8 per game, he was one of the players in the League who used this resource the most last season and in 82% of them he was victorious. He does it with agility and forcefulness
It is located more by sensations than by reading the situations of the game. He is not a player to remain static in vigilance, nor to close when the game goes the other way. When the team has the ball, it is more like a striker than a defender since, many times, it goes in front of the ball line. Off-site more times than would be recommended.
The purely defensive aspects are not his strong point but rather the opposite. He is so fast that, sometimes, he has time to remedy his improvable position but, in many others, he does not arrive on time. He makes it easy for opponents to spread out in transition and, above all, to attack his back in a worked manner.
He has little calm. Both in his game and in his general mobility. That makes him enter unforced errors or activate unnecessary rides at game moments. Quite a bit of room for improvement here. In the Barça type of football, good decision-making is very important.
It is closely related to the previous point. It is difficult for him to make clean and simple plays. When he intervenes, he almost always goes beyond the two passes or uses driving at some point in the intervention. Sometimes the game needs to go fast for contacts and it doesn't quite interpret it well. It will have to improve this aspect because it is capital in the Barça game.
