Thoughts on... Celta Vigo

Celta are miraculously back in Europe, where a challenging campaign awaits. Can Giráldez's system overcome their shortages and improve the team again?

The “Thoughts on…” series by La Pausa comes out of our ongoing conversations about Spanish football. Robbie and Jamie are always breaking down team projects, players and tactical nuances, so we’ve turned those chats into clear, edited articles, complete with graphics, for a sharper, more engaging read.

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It feels like a long time ago since Jose Mourinho's Manchester United knocked Celta Vigo out of the Europa League at the semi-final stage — it is a long time ago. But they'll be back in Europe this season, under the watchful and ambitious eye of Claudio Giráldez after a number of years floating aimlessly in mediocrity.

Where do they go from here?

Under Giráldez last season, they leaned heavily into a possession-based style with three at the back, Fran Beltrán at the base of midfield and Ilaix Moriba beside him, behind a typical line of five attackers stretching the pitch. After Real Madrid and Barcelona, they were the team with the third most build-up attacks in LaLiga (127).

Will he lean further into the possession-based style after last season's success? They have replaced Vicente Guaita with Ionuț Radu, a 28-year-old goalkeeper signed from Venezia (we don't know much about Radu), but the initial thought is that he will be slightly sharper with the ball than Guaita without revolutionising the position or Celta’s build-up.

In their first pre-season game against Braga, they had the same build-up shape with three at the back but dominated much of the ball higher up the field so Radu wasn't needed. The second pre-season game did involve the Romanian more, but it's too early to say if he's a significant upgrade on Guaita with his ball at his feet.

Manu Fernández, promoted from Celta Fortuna, started at the right of a back three against Braga with Carlos Starfelt in the middle and Marcos Alonso to the left. Fernandez is 24 and has yet to make his debut for Celta, but that should change this season. He will likely join the rotating cast of centre-backs Giráldez tends to lean on, and it feels like they have a raft of centre-back options now — albeit without a clear and obvious core of three.

Maybe that's why Giráldez rotated so often last season (a theme which is all but sure to continue in 2025-26 with European football on their calendar).

Or maybe, he just likes to rotate. Here’s an excerpt from Jamie’s article on Fer Lopez for The Analyst.

Even with the best part of a week between most games, Celta would average just under four starting XI changes per match in La Liga (3.9) last term; the second-most in the league. In short, Giráldez puts a lot of stock into player profiles and what is needed on an individual game basis, depending on their opposition analysis. He has no problem disposing of a starter who had played notably well a week earlier (which never feels any less surprising when it happens).

Elsewhere in the back line, Óscar Mingueza looks locked in at right-back and set to be supported by Javi Rueda, who comes with glowing recommendations from Albacete fans where he spent last season on loan. He started against Nacional in Celta's most recent preseason friendly and looked aggressive out of possession, while flashing signs of creativity on the ball.

Does the midfield limit Celta’s possibilities?

They have sold a couple of players and do have some money to play around with, but Óscar Méndez, who covers Celta, says not to expect too much in that regard (Giráldez is counting on at least some attacking arrivals as we will discuss later). That ought to be somewhat of a concern, given that they're in the Europa League next season and those Thursday-weekend-Thursday games come at you fast.

One area they could certainly improve in is central midfield. The three current options in deeper areas are Fran Beltrán, Damian and Hugo Sotelo, while the later two are more likely depth options with Fran as the starter. If they want to take it to the next level, an upgrade on Fran is probably necessary even if he's a solid but unspectacular option.

(Dani Ceballos anyone?…)

Having said that. one bonus is that they have Ilaix Moriba signed up until 2028 now and will have him doing an entire pre-season with them. Last summer it felt like we weren't sure if we'd ever see him at his best again, but he certainly developed a lot over the course of the campaign and is somehow still only 22 (he broke through at Barcelona as a 17-year-old).

Striker Options

Are Celta Vigo lacking central attacking options? Óscar Mingueza takes care of the right-hand side, allowing whoever it is that's playing on the right to drift inside and it’s pretty similar on the opposite side. We can see from the Braga match how the wing-backs provide width and the two wide midfielders drift inside to play alongside the striker in a 3-2-5 shape.

They're being linked to a lot of players who can play on the left but drift inside — the likes of Bryan Gil, Álex Calatrava and Bryan Zaragoza. In fact, Juan Cruz is said to be pretty nailed on to join from Leganés, but Giráldez is pushing for more.

Borja is gone now, even though he could be back as Giráldez continues to push for his return. Iago Aspas will turn 38 in August and showed signings of slowing down last season — he only started 20 games and played in 31, while he only played an entire 90 on nine occasions. Not one of those came after December of last year.

They have signed Ferran Jutglà from Club Brugge, however, and he is a different proposition entirely to Borja. Expect Jutglà to be a far more involved striker with runs into the box and lots of touches in the opposition penalty area, or maybe a combination of the two if Borja returns with Jutglà playing in one of the central attacking positions.