Sheffield Wednesday have completed their second signing of the season, Juan Delgado from PAÇOS DE FERREIRA.
We take a look at the Chilean winger-cum-right back, how he has performed over the past few seasons. How he compares to Sheffield Wednesday’s current squad. And how he might fit into Xisco Munoz’s plans.
Who is Juan Delgado
Delgado is a Chile international who has made 13 appearances for his national team. Starting his career as an attacking right winger, Delgado transitioned to right back in 2021 and has since made the position his home. Playing 86% of his minutes since occupying the conventional right-back position.
The below heatmaps show Delgado’s change in position and how it has increased his output, noting the darker colours on his heatmap from 2022
How does Delgado perform vs other Portuguese Premier League full backs?
The dashboard below perhaps shows what you would expect from a converted winger, impressive attacking output but perhaps less than inspiring defensive output.
It must first be caveated that Delgado played in a relegation team that averaged just 47% possession and 0.74 goals. Looking at such high attacking output in a struggling side is even more impressive.
It is fair to say that Delgado was key to his team’s style, with Ferreira, despite coming second bottom with just 6 wins, coming 5th on the rankings on crosses from the right flank. However, it looks like the opposite is true defensively, with Ferreira conceding more attacks down their right side than their left, as teams seemed to target the right back.
Delgado’s passing style metrics show that the defender likes to play forward and passes in the middle-length range. He has a little below-average passing output, but that is to be expected in a relegation team.
Delgado is up against some impressive fullbacks in this dataset. Whilst English fans have a tendency to overstate the Championship vs other leagues, the truth is that the Portuguese League is a good European League with high-quality players. As such, the Portuguese Liga finished just 38 coefficient points behind France’s Ligue 1 in the 22/23 season.
Delgado vs SWFC players
Whilst it must be noted that the style and quality of leagues may impact some of these metrics, I have looked at Delgado’s 2022/23 data points vs SWFC players across a range of attacking, running, and defensive metrics, to show you how Delgado looks alongside the current crop of players.
I have noted many times on social media that the key difference between the Championship and League 1 is that there are significantly more progressive runs in the Championship and the ratio of progressive runs to long balls is higher (for progressive runs) in the Championship.
This bodes badly for Sheffield Wednesday, who sat around the middle of the league for progressive runs in League 1, and sat on top of the rankings for long balls.
The chart on the right side shows Sheffield Wednesday players and Delgado on accelerations and progressive runs. Delgado sits second in the team on both metrics, and above the median line.
The second chart shows the Expected Assists vs Second assists, with Delgado again above the median on both metrics.
Crossing output is something that Delgado sits on the 90th percentile on in the Premier Liga, and only Marvin Johnson and, surprisingly, Jack Hunt, are above Delgado when it comes to crosses per 90. On the right chart, you again see Delgado over the median line on dribbles and successful attacking actions.
I have mentioned this before, but across each of these metrics, Delgado finds himself above the median line on all attacking metrics vs SWFC players. Finishing above key attacking players on most metrics.
This is astonishing, considering one team attained 96 points, winning a record number of games, and one team finished second bottom and won just 6 games.
Whilst Delgado finds himself in the exceeding quadrant on attacking metrics, he finds himself on the wrong side of the median lines on defensive metrics.
How might Delgado fit into Xisco’s team?
Xisco has mainly operated a 4141 fluid system in his preseason matches, less a failed 4231 last time out in Spain.
If Delgado is to play right back, then it may be prudent to play a recognised defensive midfielder to support the right-hand side, allowing Delgado to overlap the left footed Wilks as he moves inside from the right flank into his favoured shooting position.
Delgado is an overlapping RB rather than Inverted. The 30 second reel below shows his proclivity to get forward, and highlights how he could link in with Wilks.
In the clip above, you see two high quality crosses wherein the attackers should have done better.
In the above still, you see an example of how an overlapping fullback allows the wide midfield player to take a position in the pitch. Could this be a focal point of Sheffield Wednesday’s attack in 2023?
What about Liam Palmer?
Liam Palmer won nearly every award last season and it will be hard to displace the vice-captain. However, it is worth noting that Palmer finished last season displacing Vaulks in central midfield, with the Welsh midfielder on the bench.
I would be lying if I said I was not concerned by Delgado’s defensive output. And this would be compounded by potentially playing in a set with Wilks, who also does not have high defensive output.
Would Liam Palmer, a versatile and dynamic defensive player, support a combination of Wilks and Delgado through a central midfield role dropping into false fullback and supporting a transition to 442?
The reason Liam Palmer might be better suited to this position than Vaulks is because of Palmer’s increased running output and ability to cut out threats as they present. Plus, and this is a big advantage, the understanding and ability to play RB so he understands the role in the transition.
Upon losing the ball high up the pitch, the team would be able to switch back to a 4141 fast with Palmer at false full-back, with the striker or right midfielder dropping into false CM and Delgado playing false RW.
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Thanks
Tom