The 'Why'
- Spoiler: show
- Having an spot in your all life team ain't easy nowadays. Unless you have a coach that trusts the youth team (or at least the youth) you have not guaranteed success. Some players are worth IT, many of them could even be on the starting eleven being a key piece of some of the best teams in European football, but football has became anything but sports anymore, envolving mainly money and political intentions under the roof of an Sport. In some cases, those players are lost forever, never to be seen by the average sport fan. But there are also miracles. How could young Borja call the attention of RCD Mallorca when he wasn't even shining at england? That season, along with other footballers that soon left the Balears, was one of the best in the last years by an Spanish footballer out of the big two or that huge Valencia. Borja Valero was It who shown the team the way. A bunch of full of illusion footballers that faced everything leaded by this young midfielder. Even tough their campagin was impressive, that season we could not see them in Europe due to their economic problems. After such a succesful season he called up some teams like Barça, Sevilla and Villarreal's attention ,finally joining the Yellow Submarine.
Here's where he developed into one of the best footballers In our country and our league. Borja changed his position from CMF to AMF to serve as a more offensive midfielder, using his ability to deliver killing passes but without sacrificing his fantastic work at the middle of the field. Gifted with a vision of the game only possible for some to imagine, Borja Is the machine that along with Bruno creates the football of this fantastic team called Villarreal. Borja Is the link up between the defense and the attack, he's the first to track back, recover the ball, take It out controlled and begin the construction.
The main changes on this new set are physical and technical. Overall an improvement and tweaking of the first post after some watching on him together with own playing experience. Here we go
Balance: 75 ->Even had my doubts about a green value. Borja Valero Is a player that does not have any physical strenght. He's really prone and you'll easily see him fall down when oponents press on him. Sometimes It's due to the fact that he's tried to be well covered, but he's actually like a leaf. It's possibly one of the reasons he went up foward on the field, to leave the muscle to other players, but still Borja Is a player that covers a lot of field. Will talk about that next
Stamina: 85 --> Like I said Borja might have advanced on the field, but he covers a lot of field. You'll see him on both boxes often. His defensive work Is not to be destimated and he's easily one of the players you'll see still running at the end of the match. Still he's not a machine and he also gets tired. Also increased his mentality by one point.
Top Speed / Acceleration: 84/81 / DS: 82--> Now this might seem strange. I've got the feeling that Borja Is a really fast player, but he does not usually show It. Borja's runs are short, he does some acceleration and then calms down. His dribbles are usually like that with spaces, so we rarely get to see him at the top of his speed. But there are some cases when you see how fast he Is. And also with the ball. He's not slow neither. Borja Is the first one to command the counter attack, being both ellegant but also covering terrain fast until he finds the spot.
DA: 84 --> Well I just found 83 pretty average. He's a good dribbler. Not a trickster or anything, but his control Is pretty decent. You can see him get rid of the oponents by a simple yet effective dribble and he's pretty nice at It.
Agility: 85 --> That's when I had my doubts about his body balance, when I saw his agility. Sometimes you'll see him using his body pretty well, surprisingly solid for what you get used to see when watching him for a while. And then a twist, a sudden twist he does and he gets rid of the defender like before you can say 'Dribble'. I'm not talking about the situation I mentioned when rating his DA, but when he's more at the construction. What I meant to say In the upper stat Is at the attacking duties, specially when you see him fall to the right wing or play as SMF and look for the cross. This is pretty Xavi-esque, but Borja Is not at all a Tactical Dribbler with all the words. Found It suitable, imo. But, as I said, I found this as one of the hardest things to rate.
Short passing / Long passing: 86/85 - 85/83 --> No here Is where I had some deep confusion within myself. I ended up realizing the thing Is pretty much all matches like this. Borja Is one of those midfielders that behaves a bit like Xabi Alonso, with long - and often- precise passes from the middle and with deadly killer passes when up in the box. He's one great passer on both, but realized that on short he's even more dangeours, leaving the long passing mainly for the Pinpointing when taking out the ball controlled or when changing the ball to the other wing. Sometimes you'll see Borja playing as SMF and see how easily he delivers the pass to Cazorla on the left too.
Shooting: 74/79/77 --> Weak. He Isn't a shooter. He takes a bit sometimes to aim the shoot and not always succesful. His main problem I guess Is that his shoots are usually really weak and bad directed. But he Isn't a bad volleyer as he has shown more than once. About his shooting under pressure we got little data, as you'll see him falling to the ground before even having the minimal chance. Still he's got a deadly curling that allows him to do some nice shoots. I link you here an example that shocked me when I watched the match back then:
Teamwork: 90 --> Now this Is without any doubt Borja Valero's best asset. He might be more or less precise on his passes but his intention and his ability to read the spot, to know where his mates are, to build up together some amazing things up near and in the box, to know when there's a pass or when he should just send the ball back to start again. Borja Is impressive. His vision of the game Is almost at the level of the best, there's just not anyone In La Liga besides the Blaugrana wonders and Xabi Alonso that can get close to him in terms of teamwork.
Here I bring you some videos I used for the last tweaks. Enjoy!
Great at organizing and he is on pair with Gago and Toure for sure.