Valencia started the season last year with Gabriel Paulista, Mouctar Diakhaby, Cenk Özkacar, and Cristhian Mosquera as their first-team center-backs. Of these, Paulista departed to Atlético in January, Diakhaby’s injury will see him be left out until April of 2025, and Cenk has joined Real Valladolid on loan. 

Now, Valencia is stuck with 20-year-old Cristhian Mosquera who had his breakout season last year, and 19-year-old Yarek Gasiorowski key to Spain’s Euro U19 triumph but with just 800 minutes in La Liga. They also have 22-year-old César Tárrega returning from a successful loan spell at Valladolid and now 27-year-old Maximiliano Caufriez joining from Clermont Foot.

In this article, we will investigate Maximiliano Caufriez and what he can offer to Valencia.

Name: Maximiliano Caufriez

Position: Center Back/Right Back/Defensive Midfielder

Country: Belgium

Age: 27

Height: 189cm

Preferred Foot: Right

Last Club: Clermont Foot

Caufriez began his career in Standard de Liège’s academy until he was signed by SK Beveren where he spent 5 years and then joined Sint-Truidense VV for €1 million. There he stayed just one year and joined Spartak Moscow for €2.5 million where he played for one season until joining Clermont Foot on loan which would become permanent for €3.5 million and he stayed for one more season.

Forward Passing

Forward passes are crucial for center-backs as they are the ones who have to initiate the play.

Here we can observe that Caufriez is great at playing forward passes with the second-most passes attempted and the most precision. This suggests that his ability to progress the ball is quite good and can be something useful for Valencia when in possession though it is true, that the playing style may be the reason Valencia’s center-backs have fewer passes attempted. 

Progressive Passing

This passing metric gives us more depth into the danger of each player’s passing rather than just passing the ball forward 5m. This is because this metric only includes more specific passes such as a pass 10m closer to the opposition goal if the pass comes from the opposition side of the pitch.

In this image, we can observe that Caufriez has the ability to play progressive passes with the second-most of these passes attempted and the highest precision. Overall, his passing is quite good and can be a major asset for Valencia in possession as they lack center backs with this ability, even though their data may be affected by the playing style.

Defensive Duels

Dominating defensive duels is essential for any defender, as their fundamental purpose is to defend his goal, and for that, winning duels is key.

This image tells us that Caufriez is great in his defensive duels with a high precision considering he attempted almost 7 defensive duels per 90. This is something essential for the manager, Rubén Baraja as he prioritizes clean sheets over high-scoring matches and for the center-back, it is very important to dominate his defensive duels.

Aerial Duels

Aerial duels are essential for any defender who wants to succeed and even more, for those who press high and recover the ball up the pitch, as the opposing team will look to play long, and for that, aerial duels are required.

From this image, we can deduce that Caufriez is quite poor in his aerial duels with the lowest success rate and just above 2 aerial duels per 90. This is something that he lacks and will have to improve as Valencia suffers many crosses and aerial duels, so he will have to modify this or else he will find difficulties having many minutes.

This chart compares Maximiliano Caufriez with the rest of the Ligue 1 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 he is not a player that is often involved in possession which is not a requirement to be a center-back under Baraja. Nonetheless, we can see that he excels in dribbling being in the 92nd percentile for progressive carries which can be used to Valencia’s benefit.

Furthermore, he is decent in his 1vs1 defending being in the 73rd percentile for the percentage of dribblers tackled which can be useful to defend the counters though this doesn’t usually occur. In addition, he is quite average in his other defensive aspects such as tackles + interceptions which is something he will have to improve if he is to play. Finally, he is only in the 22nd percentile for the percentage of aerial duels won which is awful for a center-back and something he will have to improve substantially.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Maximiliano Caufriez is a player who does not improve the center backs already present at the club in the most important requirements which are defending and ability in the air. Caufriez is better in possession with many forward and progressive passes, as well as progressive carries which tells us that this is one of his strengths. However, this is not one of the crucial aspects for Baraja as they will be defending for large periods of matches. Furthermore, he does not dominate his aerial duels which is something crucial for Baraja as he will be exposed to them and lastly, he has no experience in Spain.

By: Juan Fernandez Valencia / @ScoutLaLiga

Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Franco Arland / Getty Imagess