After a season on loan at Cádiz, Robert Navarro saw his contract expiring in 2025 at Real Sociedad and wanted to join Athletic Club for free. Before he can join them, he will be spending one season at Mallorca for less than €1 million and then join the side managed by Ernesto Valverde. In this article, we will be investigating Robert Navarro and what he can offer Mallorca.

Name: Robert Navarro

Position: Attacking Midfielder/Left Winger/Right Winger

Country: Spain

Age: 22

Height: 178cm

Preferred Foot: Right

Last Club: Real Sociedad

Born in Barcelona, Navarro moved to Pamplona at an early age and made his way through the youth ranks at Osasuna before returning to Barcelona in 2013. After five years at La Masia, he headed to Monaco, where he would spend one year before returning to Spain and joining Real Sociedad for €6 million. However, he struggled for first-team minutes before being loaned out to LaLiga side Cádiz in 2023/24.

Goals + Assists

How many goals and assists a player has shows how decisive he is and this for attacking midfielders is key as they are offensive players counted upon to have high figures in these aspects.

Here we can observe that Robert Navarro is more of a goal threat than Dani Rodríguez with more than 0.1 xG. Nonetheless, these numbers are not outstanding, however, the ability to get into goal-scoring positions is scarce and can be an asset for Mallorca.

In this image, we can see that Robert Navarro does not have Dani Rodríguez’s ability to generate chances with just above 0.1 xA. This is something that he does lack as all attacking midfielders must have high numbers in their assists as their principal role is to create goal-scoring opportunities.

Dribbling

Dribbling for an attacking midfielder is not essential, though, the capacity to get past your marker through a skill differentiates good players from great players.

With this image, we can identify that Robert Navarro is an agile player that is confident in his dribbling ability with more than 7 dribbles per 90. In addition, he has just below 50% success rate which is quite good and can be a very good addition to a squad that lacks this type of quality apart from Takuma Asano.

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.

This image tells us that Navarro has the ability to play dangerous passes to create chances which is something valuable for a team that lacks this quality. This is something that can help Mallorca go to another level as last year it lacked the quality needed to fight for Europe and although they reached the final of the Copa del Rey, they finished close to relegation. 

This chart compares Robert Navarro 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 Navarro is in a high percentile for expected assists which tells us his ability to generate opportunities, even though it is worse than that of Dani Rodríguez. Furthermore, he is in the 94th percentile for shot-creating actions which tells us that he has an exceptional ability to act as a playmaker. 

Moreover, we can see that he is a player that is great on the ball being in the 93rd percentile for progressive carries and in the 97th for successful take-ons. This talks well about his ability on the ball which can be a huge asset for Mallorca who doesn’t have many players with these characteristics.

Finally, in the defensive aspects we can observe that he is committed with a high percentile in blocks and being above average in dribblers tackled and tackles + interceptions. This is something important to play under Jagoba Arrasate, the Mallorca manager, as they will be defending for large periods of the game.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Robert Navarro is an excellent signing for Mallorca as he has the quality and ability that Mallorca lack in their squad. He is able to create goal-scoring opportunities and his dribbling capabilities are outstanding which could improve Mallorca’s game and give them more options. Furthermore, he is determined in defense and has experience in La Liga having played at Cádiz last season. 

By: Juan Fernandez Valencia / @ScoutLaLiga

Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Fran Santiago / Getty Images