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Introduction

Signing for Celta Vigo from FC Nordsjaelland in the summer of 2017, Stanislav Lobotka found himself firmly planted in one of Europe’s top two leagues at the age of 22.

The Slovakian international signed for the Galician side for the small fee of €5million and has been nothing short of a revelation since.

Here, I will discuss everything there is to know about the midfielder following his debut season for the Spanish side and explain why so many clubs should be keeping a keen eye on the 23-year-old this summer.

Where does he play?

At the beginning of the season, Lobotka often found himself coming off the substitute’s bench to feature as one of the more advanced midfielders (i.e. ‘interiors’) in Juan Carlos Unzué’s 4-3-3 setup.

Not so long after this, he established himself as a mainstay in the first eleven with the manager beginning to play him in a deeper role. When he was first starting to get consistent game time, he was positioned alongside the experienced figure of Pablo ‘Tucu’ Hernández in a double pivot. Soon after this, he was given the responsibility of playing as the deepest midfielder in Celta’s three-man midfield, and since taking on the role, the Slovak has reached new heights.

It’s worth noting that Lobotka has looked comfortable whenever he’s been tasked with playng in them.

In possession

With the ball

Lobotka is excellent technically. Keeping close control at all times and using both feet to adjust appropriately, he always has control over his opponent. Although he’s predominantly right-footed – only using his left foot to play shorter passes – it hasn’t been any kind of a hindrance to the spaces he can attack, nor the angles he can play into. That being said, it should come as no surprise that he often favours turning inside on to his right and also closes down angles better on the right side (the opponent’s left). This doesn’t make him immune from taking the outside route, however.

As a result of his close control, he’s better prepared to evade pressure when it comes from players he wasn’t even aware were nearby.

His general ability to evade pressure is undoubtedly one of his strongest assets, helped most of all is his small stature. At only 5’7″ tall, Lobotka is consistently able to use his lack of height to his advantage. Being this small means he subsequently has a much lower centre of gravity and his balance is therefore better than most other players – that remains true whether he has the ball or not.

What helps to maximise this even more is how deceptively strong he is. This combination of strength, balance and his subsequent ability to shield the ball – holding off opponents with ease – makes it very tough to snatch the ball away from his grasp.

Spatial awareness

The midfielder’s spatial awareness is usually quite good. Because of this, he knows when it’s best to receive with an open body and when to play with his back to goal. In the case of the former, his extreme close control means that he can play off any lunging challenges from his opponents and exploit the challenges made. Not to mention, his ability to get the ball out from under his feet very quickly in order to play the next pass means he can take advantage of this open angle with little time to work with. In the case of the latter, this might mean dummying from one side to the other in order to evade his marker and/or draw a foul, or it might simply be to play a square pass – attracting pressure by receiving in a tight area and opening the space elsewhere by making this quick and simple exchange with one of the centre-backs.

Creating separations

As can be seen in the short compilation of clips below, Lobotka is great at using these attributes to evade pressure and to turn away from tight areas against the grain of his opponent. What is also evident from these clips is the way in which he creates separations. For example, he will often wait for the pressure to reach its highest point and then make the sharp turn. Additionally, he might shape his body to move one way whilst simultaneously touching the ball in the opposite direction.

Using this kind of timing affords much greater space and makes it harder for his opponent to recover to his position, or make it back towards Lobotka. From that point, he will look to either spread the play or play through the lines.

And, again thanks to his low centre of gravity, Lobotka can make incredibly sharp turns quicker and much more easily than his opponents.

A further attribute of his – one that is especially useful when evading pressure to open up lanes inside to make runs into – is his speed. Maybe somewhat less surprising than his strength, Lobotka is very fast with and without the ball. Combine this with his close control and ability to hold off players, he is more than capable of making driving runs through the centre at high speeds, though he often holds back from doing so when the opportunity to do so isn’t quite as obvious.

Such is the extent of his overall press-resistance that Stanislav Lobotka has completed 44 of his 48 attempted dribbles, which gives him a success rate of 91.7% – the joint second best success rate of any La Liga player this season.

Quick to adjust, combine and release

Another point to mention is his ability to get the ball out from under his feet very quickly. Because the ball is always in such close proximity to him compared to his opponent, he is easily able to make quick and short exchanges to evade pressure in tight areas. And, because he is that bit quicker than his marker, his give-and-go moves are that bit more effective since his opponent has already committed to the tackle/interception by the time Lobotka is on the move again.

The midfielder will look to combine in this way much more often than taking on players as it’s a more risk-averse way of limiting opponents and progressing through the lines.

As can be seen in the clips above, he is always looking to move the ball on quickly and act by making the next option. His combination and one-touch play are at a very high level, which helps in a side like Celta, who produce a quick, passing style of football. It also helps to capitalise on the open spaces that arise between the lines.

Whilst some more immobile players might take longer to adjust and play a direct pass, Lobotka is able to execute these types of passes in a fraction of the time. Because he is so effective in adjusting his body and identifying spaces between opposition lines, he is constantly able to make use of his limited time with the ball and the limited window of time in which he has to play these kinds of vertical passes.

Negatives of releasing the ball so quickly

Whilst I’ve already gone over the positives of how quick his reactions are, there are some downsides to the frequency in which he does this.

Naturally, if you’re constantly playing quick passes that are clear in front of you, then you aren’t always assessing the entire space around you. On a number of occasions, though still not too frequently, he will rush the pass and subsequently play his teammate into trouble.

This happens in both directions with the ball. If he’s receiving from the goalkeeper, his instinct is to play back to one of the split centre-backs. However, because he doesn’t always take the time to recognise the space around him, as well as the pressing structure of the opposition, he does more damage playing into the deeper, wider centre-back than he would if he attempted to turn his marker.

The same goes for passes into space between the lines. Once he has broken away from his marker, his intention, albeit good, is to immediately play into one of the receivers between the channels. But, given the resulting situations, it’s clear that he might be better served to try to further draw open one of the half-space channels than to just play directly into the centre, where the receiving #9 can easily be closed out and dispossessed. That is evident in one of the clips from this video where he doesn’t scan the whole of the pitch, even though he has plenty of time to do so.

What’s also depicted in the clips from the video above is that his awareness – which can be very much up to scratch – isn’t always the best when he first receives the ball. Taking more time to scan the pitch for better options would allow him to not only choose better options but to also control the tempo better. In doing this, he can better decide whether he should maintain the quick tempo of possession or slow things down more.

Doesn’t always take enough responsibility with the ball

In a lot of ways, this ties into his general role in possession and how much responsibility he is given as well as how much responsibility he allows himself.

Whilst his own inclinations and the instructions he’s given to constantly play short and from side to side are useful to the team’s possession play, they can also limit Lobotka’s own effect on the game and cause him to make these quick, unthoughtful decisions with the ball.

It would be nice to see him take a moment to assess situations and realise he does have more time than he thinks he does, that way he can better learn to judge what he should do and can be more adventurous with the ball, drawing out players and waiting for the right time to play into the attackers.

Equally, doing this when receiving from the goalkeeper can mean, like in the way Busquets does, he can take out opposition pressers through his manipulation of the ball. By using dummy moves and analysing the situations of his teammates, he can be just as adventurous taking the ball out from the back and eliminating opposition lines much more effectively.

What, overall, his main role is

Generally speaking, he might not be a player who can alter the tempo of a game with his passes, but he is most certainly a player that can maintain momentum and keep things ticking over. Although the vast majority of his passes are short – averaging only 4.1 accurate long balls per 90 minutes – he ensures play can move from side to side effectively, with most of his long balls being switches to the far-sided winger.

This season, he has a 90.96% pass success rate, completing 1,882 passes of his attempted 2,069. Just 7.33% of his completed passes were accurate long balls.

He isn’t necessarily an aggressive ball-carrier and he hasn’t directly contributed to any goals this season, but that’s understandable with him featuring predominantly as a #6. In defence of this, his performances as interior never made him look completely out of sorts, it’s just that the emphasis has largely been on him to keep the ball moving quickly.

A positive of him not looking to contribute heavily to attack is that he doesn’t take wasteful shots very often. Almost always preferring to recycle the ball instead, it means Celta can sustain pressure better. The midfielder averages 0.24 shots per 90 this season.

Without the ball

A willing receiver

One of the perks of Lobotka’s amazing athleticism and mobility is his intensity without the ball when Celta are in possession. This is evident in the ground he covers to provide options for his teammates.

Often playing as the sole #6 – although he is sometimes provided by support from a second midfielder when play stagnates – Lobotka eats up a lot of ground in the second line trying to make the angle for the centre-backs/full-backs/interiors.

Usually, the holding midfielder in a team might go to offer support on one side and then casually drift back towards the centre during a switch of play, but Lobotka is no ordinary holding midfielder. You can almost guarantee that by the time the ball reaches the opposite side, he’s made his way over to provide a second/third link into the wide receiver. He runs tirelessly, moving from side to side, up and down, and yet never looks like slowing down.

He isn’t just a willing receiver in the #6 position either; he’s a willing receiver all over the pitch.

Dropping into the first line to create a temporary back-three or moving up into the spaces between the lines, if Lobotka identifies a vacant space where he can offer much-needed support for the ball-holder and fill a gap in Celta’s positional structure, he will do just that.

He will also choose to venture forward after a dribble or after an attempt at a give-and-go exchange, aiming to exploit the opposition’s block by using the momentum he’s established in these previous actions to make runs from deep.

However, this is not to say Lobotka is positionally indisciplined. Despite the occasional movement up the pitch, the Slovak is very good at maintaining his deep position. This is most noticeable when Celta hold possession in the final third. Sitting on the periphery of the opposition’s mid/deep block, Lobotka will patrol the areas surrounding it and look to orientate his position slightly towards the ball-side where he can then either recover a lost ball and/or recycle play.

Despite being at the centre of the team, his total passes attempted per 90 minutes only stand at a surprising 60.8. However, it’s worth bearing in mind how persistently teams aim to block all paths of entry into him/the #6 spot in general. With Unzué’s Celta usually focusing on wide combinations, it’s then also less of a surprise that Lobotka isn’t afforded too much of the ball.

Out of possession

Defending as part of a mid/deep block

Lobotka’s aforementioned athleticism is an invaluable asset to Unzué’s side. With Celta shifting to a fairly compact 4-4-2 that is both zonal and man-oriented, the manager asks a lot of his central-midfielders.

Usually sat in the right of the central-midfield pairing, Lobotka has been known to cover ground on both sides.

What Unzué demands as a coach is that his players press high up the pitch. The task of the central-midfielders is usually to sit off their respective opposite numbers until they receive and then aggressively press them from behind. All things considered, Lobotka is quite good at this, and he doesn’t give away too many fouls either. That is clear in the number of bookings he receives; in his thirty-eight appearances this season, he received no red cards and only received two yellow cards.

The same rule applies for when an opposing midfield ball-holder has time and space with the ball in front of the block. Using his cover shadow and good defensive awareness, he will step up to force the ball-holder into a wider area of the pitch or will try to force play backwards.

It’s to be expected that Lobotka’s aggressive, over-commitment to challenges can leave him exposed to quick turns but his recovery pace is very good and can make up the ground without any problems. Equally, if you leave that much space behind you, eventually you will get beaten, which he has been on a few occasions through the opposition’s heavy blindsided movements. That being said, it would be interesting to see if he would be as aggressive and as keen to press in a side that wasn’t so clearly instructed to close down the opposition so vigorously.

Capitalising on tiny mistakes

Because of how quick and nimble he is, as well as how aggressive he can be, Lobotka is also great at pouncing on small errors from opposition attackers.

Holding off until the player makes a loose touch, Lobotka will then step out and reclaim possession of the ball. Following this, he’ll often make driving runs, looking to start up new attacks.

Tracking deep runners

One of the impressive things about Lobotka’s work rate as a midfielder is the fact he endlessly tracks runners through the channels. Once again displaying a good level of defensive awareness, Lobotka will frequently fill the gaps left between Celta’s full-backs and centre-backs, whether that means filling in the open space to block crosses coming into the box or tracking runners that are trying to exploit the open channels.

Every so often Lobotka does lose track of a marker or two but switching off every once in a while is something of an inevitability.

Defensive technique

The main way in which Lobotka positions himself against someone is through crouching whilst positioning himself on the half-turn. In doing so, he can close the angles inside much more efficiently and block off larger areas behind him thanks to how quickly and aggressively he can alter his cover shadow.

The midfielder is adept at coming across to the flanks and closing out his opponent by blocking the inside lanes and recovering the ball on the outside.

In the clips above, Lobotka uses this kind of stance to block off entries inside by creating something of a shield-like posture where he can effectively shift from side to side with his teammates squeezing the remaining angles.

Whilst he maintains this shape to block off the route inside, he is also able to cover the outside route in duels down the flanks thanks to his great recovery pace and strength. Occasionally caught out by his opponent’s initial burst of pace away from him, the Slovakian’s ability to get his body back across his opponent is excellent, and it allows him to recover the ball more often than not.

What’s more, his ability to transition quickly from slow and steady to fast and aggressive enables him to maintain complete control over his opponent’s run. This allows him to slightly overcommit in his initial challenge towards his opponents.

Something that comes as a result of Lobotka’s incredible balance is that he rarely ever goes to ground. Having watched through every single one of his games this season, I can’t recall him every committing to a sliding challenge. That he is able to approach players in this way undoubtedly contributes to him staying out of the referee’s bad books.

Shielding to dispossess

One of the most impressive things that Lobotka has come to develop is his ability to shield the ball away from his opponents as a way of reclaiming possession. Using his incredible body strength, the midfielder is able to successfully, and legally, come across his opponent to push the initial ball-holder out of the way and regain possession.

He often does this as a way of pouncing on loose touches and as a way of making sharp turns in the opposite direction in the process.

Defending counter-attacks

As I alluded to earlier in the piece, Lobotka looks to sit deep when Celta has possession high up the pitch and orientates himself towards the ball-side. As a result of this, not only is he able to simply recycle the ball, but he’s also able to prevent opposition counter-attacks from progressing.

In most cases, Lobotka is the first to the loose ball/first pass out and, if he isn’t, he’s the one to break up the attack. This is common both in open play and against set pieces.

Often having to come from behind to force the turnover, Lobotka is particularly adept at nicking the ball away without having to go through his opponent too aggressively.

As shown in the clips above, he also uses the ball recoveries as a way of evading pressure against the grain of his opponent(s) by catching them off-guard and thus making it easier to progress through the lines and also to maintain pressure in the final third.

When it comes to defending more developed counter-attacks, Lobotka is also very good at breaking these up and slowing these down too. In the same way I described his defensive approach in wide areas earlier, he’s also able to restrict the ball-holder’s open passing lanes and force them wide or backwards on numerous occasions by continuously closing the gap whilst maintaining the awareness to know how to position himself to block off entries into the joining attackers.

Not only this but his ability to shift across quickly from side to side means players are less willing to commit to playing direct passes by him in case he intercepts it, resultantly slowing the momentum of the counter-attack.

A key piece of information relevant to this is that he never goes in too hastily; his aggressive defensive actions always seem well thought-out; he assesses the situation around him and makes the move when he knows he can trap his opponent. And, with the recovery speed to catch just about any player you can name, the scenario often results in Lobotka shielding the ball away from the player’s grasp where he can then draw the foul, play a simple pass or making a driving run forward with the ball.

Although he might not show up too well statistically on sites like WhoScored, the Slovakian midfielder is a much better defender than his stats let on.

Issues with his defensive technique

With this type of body stance, Lobotka is occasionally caught out by his opponent, usually when he isn’t quite ready to adjust properly in order to close off the different routes inside/outside.

Sometimes this is down to the fact he has to press so high up the pitch, meaning that, if the opponent is aware of the oncoming press, they can attempt to knock it around him before he gets there. But it can also be down to him not quite altering his body shape well enough.

In the examples below, his body position isn’t always prepared enough to block off one side and he can even be caught flat-footed.

Thankfully, these clips come from much earlier in the season and he has since progressed well and rarely makes these kinds of errors now.

Conclusion

Somewhat overshadowed by the pure brilliance of Iago Aspas this season, Stanislav Lobotka’s overall performance inside his first season in a big-five league should not be underestimated. To have appeared in every single game, playing the equivalent of 34 90s, is some testament to his fitness given the amount of ground he is able to cover every single game, from start to finish.

As a character, he’s very calm, his fitness record is spotless, his athleticism is exceptional and his disciplinary record is almost perfect. Match that with the fact he’s press resistant, his combination play is superb, his intensity is unmatched and he can break up play just about anywhere on the pitch, then you begin to realise you have a very special player on your hands – and one that is incredibly fun to watch, too.

It’s easy to see why Celta were so keen to up his release clause mid-season. Now going for €50m, that price should not dissuade any top clubs from taking a relatively low-risk chance on a player that can play a number of midfield positions and one that can still develop in just about every area of his game, under the right circumstances.

Thanks for reading, you can find me here. Also thanks to James, for helping to edit over at the end.