League Cup: Rio Ave's x-ray

It is a rebuilt Rio Ave the one that visits the Estádio da Luz, this Saturday, at 6 pm, in a match from the opening round of the League Cup group A.

Starting with the man at the helm… José Gomes, 48-year-old, returns to Portugal after an adventure in the Middle East – Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – which started in 2014/15.

Predominantly playing in 4x2x3x1, Rio Ave fielded eight new signing in the starting XI in the last encounter, with Portimonense (V 2-1), for gameweek 4 of the Liga NOS. Léo; Júnio Rocha, Buatu, Borevkovic, Matheus; Tarantini (79’ Diego Lopes), Leandrinho (46’ Nikola Jambor); Gabrielzinho, Gelson Dala, Galeno; Bruno Moreira (70’ Vinícius): this was the starting XI used against Portimonense, with the new signings appearing in bold.

Even so, the players under José Gomes are doing a good season. In fact, the early elimination from the Europa League, still in the qualifying round, against the Poles of Jagiellonia Bialystok, had an impact, but the team knew how to respond in the National Championship and in the League Cup. In the Liga NOS they are in the 7th place, with seven points, fruit of two triumphs, one draw and one loss; in the competition in which they will lock horns with Benfica, they eliminated Portimonense in Algarve and sealed the passport to the group stage. So far, the record in official competitions is seven matches, three wins, two draws, two losses, 12 goals scored and 10 conceded.

Ball possession and attacking mentality

Rio Ave is a historic club of Portuguese football. José Gomes was to live up to the club’s history by trying to implement a football with an offensive mentality for 2018/19. The “vila-condenses” made, in average, 13 shots per match and they only di not reach the two figures in shots in one match, according to data from the platform Wyscout.

But, more than just shoot, the offensive dynamics can be analyzed by the way a team presents itself in the pitch or how it feels with ball possession. In this two aspects, Rio Ave shows itself to be a team that privileges the ball possession.

They have an average of 55% in the seven matches, they make around 420 passes per encounter  (the opponents they faced did not reach 300) and registers an efficacy of 85%. They don’t usually use long passes, but they have a success rate around 50% ins this particular aspect. Always ready to launch the attack, the “vila-condenses” have an average of 146 front passes (efficacy of  79%).

Rio Ave's transfers

Text: Marco Rebelo

Pics: Liga Portugal