Champions League Performance Insights: How teams create goals from out wide
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UEFA Technical Observer Gaizka Mendieta casts an eye on goals sourced from the wide areas as we identify an attacking tendency to look out for in this week's UEFA Champions League games.
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The early evidence from this UEFA Champions League campaign suggests the goals will flow once more on Matchday 4. After the record number on Matchday 2 (78), there were 74 more last time, though, amid the goal rush, something else has caught the eye of UEFA's game insights unit – the variety of goals created from the wide areas.
The following videos feature a trio of goals that we analyse with the help of UEFA Technical Observer Gaizka Mendieta. To cite the first, Borussia Dortmund forward Serhou Guirassy's superb volley against Sabah, coach Niko Kovač said after the match: "We used our wingers and wing-backs very well. We also got a lot of players into the box."
Elaborating on this, Mendieta observes that movement and timing are key, both in the build-up outside the box and in the finishing action inside it. "You need to bring players into positions to generate doubts for the defenders, both outside and inside, and create the space for the cross and the finish," he adds.
Dortmund's structured attacking
Mendieta highlights Guirassy's movement, pointing to his ability to find the defender's blind spot, and adds: "[Joey] Veerman has the view of the full attacking area because of the way they've created space for him. Then when he puts his head up, Guirassy knows the ball is going behind and, in that moment, he makes a perfectly timed run towards the back post."
Club Brugge's combinations
Here Mendieta lauds the third-man run – "one of the most simple but effective actions in football" – which gets Carlos Forbs into the cutback zone. Then he notes how three players attack different areas ahead of Joaquin Seys' far-post finish. "One needs to go near post, one needs to go penalty spot, one needs to go back post. It's about practice and then timing."
Napoli's individual talent takes over
To score from a ball from the wider zone takes more individual quality, from crosser and finisher alike, as we see with Matteo Politano's fabulous strike for Napoli.
To achieve such quality, Mendieta says young players require regular crossing practice, as he did himself as a young footballer. "Nowadays, with the trend for inverted wingers, it often seems you have to be close to the box to put in crosses, but you can win in many ways and kids need to learn that. In particular, with teams today defending in quite deep positions, one solution is shooting from outside the box; another is putting in crosses from wider positions."
Coaching reflection: Mendieta on timing your run for a cross
"You wait as an attacking player for the right moment when the wide player puts their head down to send the ball in. It's all about timing and it's important in training to get to know your team-mates as usually all it needs is a gesture from your team-mate when he's about to deliver the ball – a movement of the arm or the way he positions himself."
For an excellent example, see Harry Kane score from a wide cross here.
A two-time Champions League runner-up with Valencia, midfielder Gaizka Mendieta also played in Italy and England and was capped 40 times by Spain. Since hanging up his boots in 2008, the former Barcelona player has been doing media work along with a spot of DJing.
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