This is going to be a succinct post about something that recently caught my eye and that is Pedri’s role in the national team in the Euros which hasn’t been talked about enough.

Pedri who has been a key player for the La Roja since his breakthrough at Barcelona at a tender age of just 18 years, has often been compared to the likes of Xavi & Iniesta due to the immense talent that he has on display. Despite being pretty young he has been an undisputed starter for club & country when fit and after getting rid of his injuries he is finally back to his best, but something has changed and that is how Luis de La Fuente is using him differently on the pitch as opposed to Luis Enrique. Let’s take a closer look:

According to statistics from Sofascore Pedri averaged around 120 touches per game in the 2022 World Cup, meanwhile in the Euros he has only averaged 39 touches per game so far. So what has changed?

Mainly two things:

• First of all Spain’s style of play in the tournament has been very different from their usual self. Usually you would find Spain being patient in their build-up trying to play out from the back and moving the ball through lines of pressure to arrive in the final third. But this time round Spain have played a lot more direct especially to their wingers as they want them to generate more 1v1 chances on the flanks due to their sheer quality. There is a lot more to talk about Spain’s setup and I’ll write a detailed blog if they make it into the final stages of the tournament but for now I’ll limit this blog to Pedri’s role in the team.
• Second and the more significant change is Pedri’s role under Luis de la Fuente, from the recent matches one can easily concur that Pedri is no longer involved in the build-up phases instead he operates between the lines as a hole player. Playing further up the pitch means that he is always looking to crash the box looking for a cutback from the wingers, and providing an additional goal threat. This also means that he is no longer looking to progress the ball in the midfield instead he is always looking to receive the ball on a half-turn and pinging through balls to their forwards.

Pedri playing between the lines vs Italy

Heatmaps

The best way to display the difference is by using heatmaps where the darker regions indicate more touches on the left side, while you can easily see that Pedri has played a lot closer to the box in this tournament.

Pedri’s heavy involvement in the build-up phase in 2022 WC vs more box presence in Euro 2024

The Upsides

• The obvious upsides of playing Pedri higher up the pitch is that he arrives a lot more than before in the box and plays decisive combinations in the final third. He is not just a great shooter he also has an eye for a killer final pass to set up his teammates in clear goal scoring scenarios. In fact he has averaged more key passes and chance creation with his new role than he did under Luis Enrique despite seeing the ball way less than before.
• Apart from this Pedri is known for his great football IQ and positioning to find pockets of space to exasperate the opponents. He has good tight space control and dribbling ability to weave through the final defensive line and take a shot. If needed he can come out of the structure and drop into midfield as he is also excellent at beating the press and technically adept to find an outlet to improve build-up against high pressing teams.

Downsides

• Pedri has an exquisite passing range, one of his best skills is to play accurate long balls into the box from the deep to create chances. Also playing long diagonal balls to a winger to switch flanks after creating overload on one side of the pitch in attempt to try and break down a low-block. Since the departure of Busquets he fills that void perfectly by unlocking defenses from the deep with a single pass, but playing upfront means he can’t do it anymore.

Pedri’s one of many accurate long balls vs Costa Rica (2022 WC)

• Not really a downside this one, but playing between the lines means that there may be games where Pedri has little to no influence over the midfield and he has to rely on Rodri and Fabian Ruiz to find him between the lines. So far Fabian Ruiz has been excellent for Spain and if he keeps up these performances this will rarely be a problem for Spain.

Luis de la Fuente’s comments on Pedri

“We have been very happy and because he is a very good player and he knows that I have confidence in him and he is going to give us very good things in this competition,”

“I have always talked about it from the point of view of the confidence he has to have. I said that ‘Pedri has to meet Pedri’, in the figurative sense of gaining confidence. The best version of Pedri we don’t know where he is, because he’s so good. We expect so much from him that it’s infinite.”

“It has to be the player who takes that step forward, as he has done, to be sure and confident to do the things that only he can do.”

Though Pedri is a very dynamic player who is immaculate in every phase of the game, it will be very interesting to see how far Spain can progress in the Euros with his brilliance.