After wallowing around the Seguda División for five years, Las Palmas made their return to Spain’s top flight last year. Not much was expected of García Pimienta’s men, with computer models like Opta’s projecting them dead last, with the second highest odds to be relegated.

However, they surprised many by not only surviving pretty comfortably, but doing so by playing the way they wanted to. Despite finishing 16th in La Liga (7 points clear of relegation), they had the second-highest possession share of any team in the league. It was truly an outlier across the top levels of Europe last season.

No team that finished with fewer points per match than Las Palmas had a possession share of greater than 50%, and Las Palmas had nearly a 60% rate.

There were many reasons, both on the touchline and on the pitch, why they became one of the stories of the La Liga season. García Pimienta’s tactics and leadership were a major contributor, leading to his departure for Sevilla this summer. Between the white lines, players such as Alberto Moleiro, Mika Mármol, Kirian Rodríguez, and Álvaro Valles grabbed many of the plaudits, and deservedly so. However, I believe one of Las Palmas’ best players last season was the relatively unsung Sergi Cardona.

Despite his successful season, he was allowed to leave the club as a free agent this summer, and signed with Villarreal. Rather than dwell on the negative of what Las Palmas has lost, let’s focus on the positive the Yellow Submarine will be gaining this season.

Sergi Cardona Player Profile

Using my full back radar chart template with data from the 2023-2024 club season, we can begin to visualize the type of player Sergi Cardona will bring to Villarreal’s left flank.

• High defensive activity metrics, both from a “work rate” perspective with defensive actions, and from a “positioning” perspective with interceptions.
• Cromulent, but not outstanding in terms of defensive duel winning
• Above average passer in possession
• Could use some work improving cross accuracy
• Below average ball carrier for a traditional, overlapping fullback
• Sensational in the air

On the radar chart, I’ve outlined two data points for each statistic. The yellow line represents Sergi Cardona’s percentile rank for each metric in the traditional, non-adjusted sense: better numbers means a mark closer to the outer bound than the center circle.

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The red line is my attempt at visualizing the impact of team environment on a player’s metrics, especially counting stats that can be heavily influenced by possession, team tactics, and many other things outside the player’s control. The “team adjusted” red line is a quantitative approach to displaying this, where if red line > yellow line, the player’s statistical mark might be held back by team environment. When yellow > red, it is possible the metric is inflated. 

To communicate it functionally within Sergi Cardona’s chart, the red line data point for chances created being closer to the 75th percentile, and the yellow line data point being closer to the 50th percentile means that he could be a better chance creator than the Las Palmas set up allowed him to show last season. As well, the fact that his defensive action and interception metrics are equally high in both aspects mean he is genuinely a defensive beast.

Cardona’s Fit in Marcelino’ Villarreal

Sergi certainly has easily-identifiable strengths, and I believe he was sought out by Villarreal specifically for these. To illustrate what I mean, let’s compare him to the left backs that played the most for the team last year, with Alberto Moreno first and Alfonso Pedraza second.

The former Liverpool man does not have the best analytical profile in general, but he is certainly lacking in the defensive and physical areas that Sergi Cardona specializes in. This is probably a contributing factor to Moreno being allowed to leave the club this summer for free without a contract renewal.

Alfonso Pedraza has a much more appealing data profile, but one that is the polar opposite of Cardona’s. He is much better going forwards and doing the traditional overlapping fullback things like crossing into the box and carrying, but like Moreno, lacks Sergi’s defensive presence. Their respective profiles pair extremely well together, providing tactical flexibility depending on what the opposition, planned tactics, or game state dictates.

When you start to look at the bigger picture of what Marcelino appears to value in the fullback position, Sergi Cardona looks even better. The below graph showcases all of the fullbacks in Europe’s Top 5 Leagues with 900+ club minutes this past season, plotted by defensive duels and interceptions:

I have highlighted the current fullbacks in Villarreal’s squad (left backs are circles, right backs are triangles), plus Johan Mojica (he spent this past season on loan at Osasuna, and would have been available to the squad for this coming campaign, but was sold permanently this summer to Mallorca). The three left backs, excluding Cardona, score poorly, the two right backs score well, and our protagonist stands out as exceptional.

The same sample group, but through the lens of aerial ability:

Cardona and Juan Foyth stand out above the rest. This makes sense though, as Cardona is 185cm (6’1”), and both he and Foyth have played as center backs at different points in their career.

All of this evidence leads me to believe that Marcelino’s ideal deployment is a back line of four center backs, with two of them playing in wide areas. In fact, he did exactly that at points last season, like during Villarreal’s April 1st La Liga loss to Atlético Madrid.

Photo: FotMob

Conclusion

Alberto Moreno was allowed to walk on a free transfer this summer, Johan Mojica was sold, and Sergi Cardona was brought in. All of these are pretty obvious indications that Marcelino values a physical, defensive presence in his fullbacks. In my estimation, there is not a better fit for this, that would realistically be available to Villarreal, than Sergi Cardona, especially for free.

After his breakout campaign for Las Palmas in 2023/2024, the 25 year old Sergi Cardona is ready to take his game to the next level at Villarreal. Despite missing out on European qualification by only four points, and seeing the departure of long-standing club stalwarts such as Étienne Capoue, Frances Coquelin, and José Luis Morales, I believe there is much to look forward to at the Estadio de la Cerámica this season, and additions seemingly tailor-made for Marcelino’s system like Sergi Cardona lie at the heart of the optimism. 

By: Spencer Mossman / @fc_mossman

Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Angel Martinez / Getty Images