At 26 years of age, it’s safe to say that Carles Pérez hasn’t quite hit the heights expected of him during his time at La Masia. Having won the UEFA Youth League in 2017/18 and the La Liga title in 2018/19 with Barcelona, Pérez made the move to Roma in January 2020 on loan with an obligation to buy for €11 million, where he would make 75 appearances before heading back to Spain and joining Celta de Vigo on loan in the summer of 2022.

Pérez quickly emerged as a key player in his debut campaign, convincing the Galicians to invest €5 million in Pérez, but his minutes took a turn for the worse in 2023/24 — having amassed 38 appearances the previous year under Eduardo Coudet and Carlos Carvalhal, Pérez played just 19 matches under Rafa Benítez and Claudio Giráldez. Desperate to find regular game-time, the Spaniard has taken his talents to Getafe on loan.

Name: Carles Pérez

Position: Right Winger/Left Winger

Country: Spain

Age: 26

Height: 173cm

Preferred Foot: Left

Last Club: Celta

Carles Pérez began in Espanyol’s academy before signing for FC Barcelona in the under-16s. He ended up reaching the first team, however, he only stayed for 6 months before moving on loan to Roma which later became permanent for €11 million. At Roma, he spent two seasons before moving on to Celta on loan which became permanent for €5 million, and has been there for one season.

Before we begin the data analysis, it is important to mention that Carles Pérez is going to be compared with Mason Greenwood which was the best player by far of Getafe and was only at the club for special reasons. For these reasons, it is important to consider that Carles Pérez will logically be worse than him and it is not fair for him to be compared with the Englishman.

In this image, we can see that Carles Pérez has far lower numbers than Greenwood which indicates that Carles Pérez is not the type of player that likes to enter the box and try to score goals. 

Here we can observe that Carles Pérez has more expected assists than Greenwood, this shows that his ability to create chances is better than the Englishman. Nonetheless, he has just 0.1 xA which shows that his ability to generate opportunities is actually not that high even if it is higher than that of Greenwood.

In this image, we can see that Carles Pérez’s dribbling ability is very impressive with more than 6 dribbles per 90 and more than a 50% success rate. In addition, his numbers are very close to those of Greenwood which is a player that was at Getafe for special reasons and by far the best player in the squad. This is important for Getafe as José Bordalás likes to attack on the counter so he will be exposed to 1vs1 situations that he can exploit.

From this image, we can deduce that Carles Pérez’s crossing is quite effective with more than 2 crosses per 90 and more than a 40% success rate.. He may even be better in this aspect than Greenwood, though, it is true that he averages fewer crosses. This is important for José Bordalás’ side as he likes his wingers to be able to put dangerous crosses into the box for the many players that enter the box.

This chart compares Carles Pérez with the rest of the La Liga players in his position using percentiles in different aspects of the game. The percentiles work in the way that whatever the number, he is better than that percentage of players. If it is 70, he is better than 70%.

In this chart, we can see that Carles is quite decent in all the aspects related to goals and assists which shows that he can be decisive for his team. In addition, he is in the 79th percentile for shot-creating actions showcasing his ability to generate opportunities. 

In the possession-based aspects, we can observe that he is not a player who gets very involved in the possession but rather waits for the ball to come to him, being in the 91st percentile for progressive passes received. In addition, we can see his great ball-carrying and dribbling ability being in high percentiles for progressive carries and successful take-ons. This indicates that he is a very agile player with the quality needed to be able to dribble past the opposition players.

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Finally, we can see that he is in very low percentiles in all of the defensive aspects except for blocks. This indicates that he is not a player that is very committed to defending which is something he will have to modify if he is to be important for the Getafe manager, José Bordalás. This is because he is a very demanding manager when it comes to defending and expects all of his players to be intense and participate off the ball.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Carles Pérez can add a lot of quality to Getafe’s side and can be a replacement to the departing Mason Greenwood as he is a similar player to him with his same attributes. Nonetheless, he must improve his defending and his determination as this is a very important aspect for the manager. In addition, he has experience in La Liga having played at Celta for two seasons so he shouldn’t have many issues adapting.

By: Juan Fernandez Valencia / @ScoutLaLiga

Featured Image: @GabFoligno / NurPhoto