What Can Alberto Moleiro Provide to Villarreal?

Despite Las Palmas’ relegation, Alberto Moleiro has had a great season, scoring 6 goals and giving one assist, which has led Villareal to invest more than €15 million to sign the 21-year-old. In this article, we will be looking at Moleiro’s performances this season and how he may fit into Villarreal.

Name: Alberto Moleiro

Position: Left Winger/ Attacking Midfielder/ Right Winger

Country: Spain

Age: 21

Height: 171cm

Preferred Foot: Right

Context: Las Palmas signed Moleiro at a young age from Sobradillo until he broke into the first team in the summer of 2021, and has played there ever since.

Data Analysis

This chart shows us that Moleiro is a great player when it comes to dribbling, with high values for successful take-ons, carries into the final third, and progressive carries. However, he is not a very creative player, with his passing being below average for key passes and passes into the penalty area.

Nonetheless, he is also above average for shot-creating actions and is in the 83rd percentile for shot-creating actions after a take-on, which means his decision-making is quite good in the final third.

Though we can also see that he is below average for npxG + xAG, which shows he is not decisive for his team, but looking at his xAG values, we can assume his npxG numbers are above average, which shows he is able to get into favourable positions to score goals.

Also, we have to take into account that he played in a club that got relegated and has the 18th least xG generated this season, according to FotMob, which decreases his numbers.

Heatmap of Alberto Moleiro. (Sofascore, 2025)

In this heatmap, we can observe that Moleiro likes to hug the touchline but can also invert inside into more central positions to receive the ball between the lines and turn, which shows he is unpredictable and can adapt to different situations.

Video

Moleiro is a player who likes to participate in possession and receive the ball between the lines or move inside with the ball from the wing, where he can combine with other players. He is a very direct player, using his dribbling ability as he loves to run at defenders with the ball at his feet and take them on, successfully running past them more often than not. 

This is thanks to his low stature and therefore low center of gravity, which makes him agile. He can do this either on the wing or through the middle, where he also tends to be, as we saw in the heat map, where he is also excellent, given his incredible ability in reduced spaces.

Furthermore, when close to the goal and coming from the left, he likes to cut inside to take shots off rather than reach the byline to cross the ball.

These two actions are the ones he does the most. When it comes to crossing the ball or making killer passes, we can see that he lacks the technique and vision to do both of these things.

Out of possession, Moleiro can be easily beaten at times against stronger and bigger opponents who are quicker than him, especially since he is a winger. When there are stronger or bigger full-backs, he has a hard time keeping up when they overlap.

Overall, Moleiro is a fantastic player, excelling in his dribbling and able to get past many players to initiate attacks and break lines. In fact, he is the player who dribbled the most for Las Palmas last season, doubling that of the second player on the list. However, he lacks the ability to make killer passes or dangerous crosses, and at times can be beaten in defense.

Move to Villarreal

When analysing Villareal’s left wingers with over 800 minutes this season:

Radar chart of Alex Baena (FBref, 2025)

Before analysing these numbers, it is important to note that these values are compared with midfielders rather than wingers and attacking midfielders, so they are somewhat inflated. Nonetheless, Baena’s numbers are still astonishing, especially when it comes to his productivity in the final third, ranking above the 96th percentile for npxG + xAG, goal-creating actions, and shot-creating actions among others.

Furthermore, he also ranks very highly for key passes, passes into the penalty area, and crosses into the penalty area, as well as different types of carries. Overall, we can observe that Baena has simply been exceptional this campaign for Villareal, topping many metrics.

However, when it comes to taking on players, he lags behind and shows that this is not one of his characteristics as a player. For next season, with Baena probably moving on to Atlético Madrid according to the most recent reports, Moleiro will be asked to be his replacement.

Moleiro has a different profile from Baena as he likes to generate opportunities through passes, while Moleiro tends to generate opportunities through dribbles; however, he does seem like he can fit in this system as he likes to invert just like Baena has done this season. Nonetheless, moving from a team getting relegated to being a starter for a Champions League side may be too big of a step; either way, I do think he is a phenomenal player and will play well for Villarreal.

By: Juan Fernandez Valencia / @ScoutLaLiga

Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Quality Sport Images – Getty Images