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Player reportLa Liga 2026

Sergi Cardona

Villarreal
Defensive full-back FB
15.3 defensive actions/90 · low final-third share 29%
Capability Analysis
Ball-Winning58%vs 33 full-backs
"How actively does he win the ball back?"
Interceptions /901.4791%
Ball recoveries /903.2836%
Tackles /902.0645%
Duels won /900.858%
Breaking Pressure
no action recorded in any high-press match yet
Wide Delivery41%vs 33 full-backs
"Does he create danger from wide areas -- crosses and cutbacks?"
Crosses /900.00%
Cross accuracy: 0.0%
Cutbacks /901.9582%
Ball-Carrying64%vs 33 full-backs
"Does he advance the ball himself when the pass isn't on?"
Progressive carries /904.5776%
Carry distance /9089.68m52%
full-backinverted full-backprogressioncrossing
481
minutes
6 apps
85%
pass completion
353 passes
18
progressive passes
3.4/90
21
final-3rd entries
3.9/90
3
box entries
0.56/90
82
defensive actions
15.3/90
18
tackles + interceptions
67% tackle win
6
dribbles
33% won
Overview

The player

Who he is and how he compares with his peers.

01

What Patterns Define Him?

His repeatable signature. A step only appears if its reliability score (sample size × match coverage) reaches at least Medium confidence — pattern mining, not anecdotes.

RECEIVE
Left Wing, Middle third — wide or inverted — mostly in the middle third (48% of his 353 passes)
85% completion · 353× in 6/6 matches
↓
PROGRESS
carry or combine up the flank
3.4 prog/90 · 18× in 5/6 matches
↓
DRIBBLE
beat his man up the line
33% won · 6× in 4/6 matches
↓
DELIVER
cross or cut-back into the box
5 key passes · 3× in 2/6 matches
↓
DEFEND
1v1 and cover on his side
82 def actions · lost 15% deep · 82× in 6/6 matches
Signature: receive wide/inverted → progress the flank → deliver into the box → recover to defend 1v1. Attack the space behind him in transition.
18

Where is he influential — vs where is he merely present?

Red fill = raw touch territory. Gold rings = zones where his influence (xT added, progression, line-breaks, key passes) outweighs how often he's actually there — one combined map instead of two separate maps to compare by eye. Red with no ring: present but not dangerous. A ring on faint red: rare touches, outsized impact.

own goal left, attacking →
59
passes / match
15.3
def actions / 90
23–86
pass range (matches)
11
clearances
Pass range = his fewest and most passes in any single match this season (23 at the low end, 86 at the high) — a measure of match-to-match involvement, not pass distance.
In possession

In possession

What he does with the ball: build-up, progression, creation, carrying and finishing.

06

How dangerous are his carries?

Real ball-carries

68 tracked carries (12.7/90, 21 progressive, 635m total) — the ball moving with his touches, a different signal from dribbles below (beating an opponent 1v1). even a player who rarely dribbles past a man can still carry the ball forward constantly in build-up; this is that.

1%3%3%3%19%35%16%18%1%
progressivelateral/short% of his 68 carries originating in each zone · own goal left, attacking →
Every carry, exact path — median 7m, longest 43m
By zone — where the carry started → where it ended
3Outside → Inside
26Inside → Inside
35Outside → Outside
4Inside → Outside
First (21)Second (20)Third (19)Fourth (8)grouped by carry pattern (start + end position), largest group first
startendown goal left, attacking →

Beaten in the tackle

How often an attacker gets past him in a 1v1 defensive duel — the closest signal the data has to "dribbled past" (no attacker-beat-defender field exists directly, so this counts tackles he attempted and lost).

12
tackle duels
8
won
4
beaten · 33%
brighter band = more tackle duels · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 17%
OUTSIDE 83%
Tackle-duel location — 2 inside · 10 outside
Right Wing
0 · 0%
Right Half-Space
0 · 0%
Central
0 · 0%
Left Half-Space
2 · 17%
Left Wing
10 · 83%
Vision AI beaten in 4 of 12 tackle duels (33% loss rate) — a solid 1v1 defensive record.
Every tackle duel, exact location
wonlost — dribbled pastown goal left, attacking →

He attempted only 6 dribbles of his own all season — dribbling is not part of this role; his ball-carrying is covered above, his defending against the dribble below.

07

How does he build & move the ball?

How does he escape the first line?

5%
vertical passes
7×
1%
switches
1×
29%
carries
40×
65%
short circulation
88×
Answer: he escapes the press primarily through carrying — stepping out with the ball.

How he moves the ball — his 4 busiest progression routes, not where every pass starts and ends separately. Arrow width = how often, colour = xT gained, dashed = switch of play. The full breakdown is in the lane matrix below.

own goal left, attacking →
Lane transition matrix — when he receives in a lane, where does it go?
TO →RWRHSCLHSLWRW250%150%1RHS0C1718%36%153%912%212%2LHS976%628%2737%3629%28LW1831%14%749%8947%86FROM
Rows normalised: each row sums to 100% of that lane's completed passes. Grey number = passes from that lane.

Primary route: the left wing in the final third → the left half-space in the final third — 10 progressive passes (26% of his progression) at 0.067 xT each. He moves it inside.

His progression is inward: 64% of progressive passes move the ball toward the middle versus 0% going wider — he cuts in rather than holding width.

Only 3% of his passes switch play, so his threat is same-side — contain the flank he occupies and the route closes.

Quality behind the volume: 17 line-breaking passes and 21 final-third entries, 2.8 total xT added.

Origin and destination are measured on the same event row — no receiver inference. Receiver identity is not recoverable from this data source.
All passes — origin zone share
Filter: from to
0%1%1%1%1%2%2%1%3%18%22%22%20%6%
completedincomplete353 passes · any zone → any zone · own goal left, attacking →
353
passes
85%
completed
54
lost
Vision AIIn line with his 85% season completion rate.
09

How does he progress play?

How much he drives the ball forward. Progressive = completed pass advancing ≥15 toward goal.

18
progressive · 3.4/90
21
final-third entries · 3.9/90
3
box entries · 0.56/90
26
progression index /90
Progression index: one composite number — progressive passes + progressive carries + 2% of total distance progressed + 8× positive xT added, all per 90. Weights VOLUME and THREAT together rather than counting progressive actions alone.
08

How does he create chances?

5 key passes (0.94/90), 0 of them assists — where his chance creation specifically comes from, 18 zones (6×3), showing his share of key passes originating there.

Chance creation — key pass origin zone share
Filter:
20%20%60%
chance creation (5)assist (0)% of the selected group's key passes originating in each zone
10

Where does he become vulnerable?

58 times he gave the ball away. For a defender the danger is where — a loss in his own third can turn into a chance against; higher up it costs little.

24
attacking third (cheap)
25
middle third
9
own third (dangerous)
Vision AI 41% of losses are in the attacking third — a notable share happen deeper, which invites transitions.
Mistake danger (proxy): 3.36 danger-index/90 · 0.310 avg/turnover. Weights each loss by threat conceded at that location. True xT-conceded needs the opponent possession model; positional proxy.
11

What is his passing profile?

353
passes attempted
40%
mostly forward
56%
mostly short
Direction
Forward
142 · 40%
Sideways
88 · 25%
Backward
123 · 35%
Length (completed)
Short (<15m)
167 · 56%
Medium
121 · 40%
Long (>30m)
11 · 4%
12

Preferred Progression Routes — xT-weighted

His progressive passes as zone→zone routes, weighted by expected threat (xT) added — arrow width and the number are the total xT generated on each route, not just how often he plays it. This is where he actually moves the needle.

0.430.380.370.320.190.16
own goal left, attacking →
Highest-value routes (xT)
0.43
Left Wing Mid third → Left Wing Att third
4 passes
0.38
Left Wing Mid third → Left Half-Space Att third
2 passes
0.37
Left Half-Space Mid third → Left Half-Space Att third
1 passes · 1 to a shot
0.32
Left Half-Space Att third → Left Half-Space Att third
1 passes
0.19
Left Wing Att third → Left Wing Att third
1 passes
0.16
Left Half-Space Mid third → Central Att third
1 passes · 1 to a shot
04

Where Does He Receive?

The zones where Sergi Cardona gets on the ball — his top three ball-collection areas highlighted (gold = primary). Reception is proxied by where his on-ball actions begin (no explicit receiver is recorded).

123
1 = primary, 2 = secondary, 3 = third · own goal left, attacking →
His collection zones
28%
Primary
Left Wing, Middle third
20%
Secondary
Left Wing, Attacking third
16%
Third
Left Half-Space, Middle third
These are the zones where he collected the ball most.
05

Where Does He Operate? — Every Zone

Every on-ball touch (pass, dribble, shot) binned into a 6×3 grid — raw counts of where Sergi Cardona actually gets on the ball. Hover any zone for its breakdown by action type, its share of all touches, and the exact coordinate range it covers.

Filter:
10637680752445587212
own goal left, attacking → · brighter + higher number = more touches

Passes only — completed vs incomplete, by zone

Same zone grid, restricted to passes so completed/incomplete and match filters actually mean something — a shot or a dribble has no "completed" in the pass sense.

0%1%1%1%1%2%2%1%3%18%22%22%20%6%
own goal left, attacking →
13

Every Pass This Season — completed vs incomplete

Every pass this season, plotted individually — green = completed, grey (dashed) = incomplete, gold = key pass. Filter by outcome or isolate one match below.

5Key pass
6Cross
6Cutback
18Progressive
36Long ball
4Switch
By zone — where the pass started → where it landed
98Outside → Inside
81Inside → Inside
87Outside → Outside
33Inside → Outside
By direction
142Forward
123Backward
88Sideways
own goal left, attacking →
03

Tactical patterns — how his football actually looks

Three clustered sequence diagrams from his own event data — his three busiest routes: the way he progresses, the pattern behind his chances, and where a turnover turns dangerous.

own goal left, attacking →
How does he progress the ball forward?
His most common route for progressing play: he plays straight through the left wing, advancing it forward in the middle third — 4 passes worth 0.43 xT.
Where do his chances come from?
Of 5 key passes, his busiest route is a delivery where he plays inside from the left hs toward the central in the final third — 2 times. The receiver isn't identifiable in this data, only where the pass started and ended.
Where does he lose the ball most?
This is a RATE, not a raw count — the share of his touches in each zone that end in a turnover, so a zone he simply plays in more often doesn't automatically look riskier. His weakest zone is the central in the middle third: 30% of his 10 touches there are lost (3 times).
—0 touches · too few—0 touches · too few—6 touches · too few4%1/25 lost14%7/50 lost—1 touch · too few—0 touches · too few30%3/10 lost7%4/57 lost17%17/100 lost—1 touch · too few—1 touch · too few—6 touches · too few26%7/27 lost17%12/69 lostRWRHSCLHSLWDEFMIDATT
02

Crosses & Cutbacks

6 crosses (1.12/90, 0 completed) and 6 cutbacks (1.12/90, 3 completed) — two separate wide-delivery patterns into the box, each its own map with a completed/failed filter. Neither is a tagged event, so both are inferred from pass geometry — the intended end point of a failed attempt is still real data (an interception doesn’t erase where the ball was aimed): a cross is a pass aimed into the box starting from a wide channel; a cutback starts almost on the byline but is squared back rather than driven forward, aimed centrally around the box. The completed-cross count was checked against this platform’s own real match-level cross totals and lands within about 1 cross of the true count.

Crosses — close-up on the final third
Cutbacks — close-up on the final third
completedfailed (dashed)close-up on the box — attacking ↑ toward goal
Out of possession

Out of possession

Where and how he defends and presses.

14

How & where does he defend?

82 defensive actions across the season (15.3/90). Where he wins the ball, and how — the core question for a defender. Aerial duels are not recorded for this competition, so aerial dominance is not measured here.

click a card to isolate that action type · own goal left, attacking →
12
tackles · 67% won
6
interceptions · 1.1/90
21
recoveries · 3.9/90
11
clearances · 2.1/90
8
blocks
41
avg action height
14
won high (att 3rd)
32
middle third
36
own third
Vision AI A mid-block defender. He wins the ball mainly by stepping in — tackles, interceptions & recoveries outweigh clearances. 39 proactive ball-wins (7.3/90), tackle success 67%. He defends high, stepping out to intercept — suits a high line.
15

Can he play under pressure?

Split by how hard the opponent pressed (opponent PPDA — lower = more intense press). Can Sergi Cardona still play out when the opponent presses high? His build-up quality split by press intensity — the key question for a ball-playing defender. Tiers of ~2-2 matches — directional evidence, not proof.

press tier
completion
prog /90
line-breaks /90
xT /90
High press (PPDA 6.3, 2m)
84%
2.2
7.3
0.82
Mid press (PPDA 6.9, 2m)
84%
0.7
7.0
0.96
Low press (PPDA 8.3, 2m)
86%
6.1
6.1
2.04
Team

Team context

How much of the team runs through him, and what changes without him.

16

Impact on the Team

Villarreal's output per match with Sergi Cardona (6 matches) versus without him (4 matches). Insufficient evidence — the without-sample is only 4 matches; treat every Δ below as noise until more games exist. What his own defending should move — goals conceded and results — leads; attacking output (largely out of a defender's hands) is shown after, for context. A proper on-off model needs many more minutes.

WITH (6)
WITHOUT (4)
Δ
goals against /match
1.17
1.75
-0.58
points /match
1.67
0.50
+1.17
goals for /match
1.67
1.25
+0.42
xG for /match
1.95
1.74
+0.21
17

His Share of the Team

Of everything Villarreal produced this season, the categories where the biggest share ran through Sergi Cardona specifically — his share of the team total, not a per-90 rate.

category
share
him / team
interceptions
11%
42 / 380
progressive passes
9%
189 / 2003
expected assists (xA)
9%
3.2 / 38.1
Recruitment

Style and verdict

Style profile, closest comparables, and the summary.

19

Playing-Style Profile

Not raw event counts — football style scores: weighted models scored 0–100 against the 233 full-backs in the pool (min 450 min). This is what separates players who post similar numbers but play differently. Proxy dimensions are inferred from on-ball data; true off-ball running / under-pressure context is not measured.

Inverted full-back44%Overlapping full-back43%
Why Inverted full-back 44%: a weighted blend of progression 73 (weight 25%) + build-up 47 (weight 35%) + retention 35 (weight 30%) + press resistance 24 (weight 10%). The score reflects how distinctively his profile SHAPE matches this archetype vs his peers.
Elite
—
Strong
line-breaking, creativity, through-balls, box threat, progression, receiving zones
Average
ball-winning, crossing, carrying, final-third threat, defensive aggression, transition, build-up, territory (wide vs central)
Weak
retention, passing directness, press resistance, dribbling
Unknown
aerial ability, marking, off-ball running — not in event data
Line-breaking
83
Creativity
80
Through-balls ~proxy
80
Box threat
78
Progression
73
Receiving zones
71
Ball-winning
58
Crossing
57
Carrying
55
Final-third threat
54
Defensive aggression
52
Transition ~proxy
49
Build-up
47
Territory (wide vs central)
46
Retention
35
Passing directness
34
Press resistance ~proxy
24
Dribbling
11
20

Similar Players — in style space

Closest comparables measured on the style scores above, within the same position family — so it separates how players are alike, not just how much they touch the ball. Each line explains the shared strength and the divergent mechanism. A light physical-profile term (height / weight; this player: 186 cm / 77 kg) is included at a quarter of one style axis's weight — enough to break ties between stylistic twins, not to override style. Scope: pooled across the La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Premier League and Serie A, percentiled within each player's own league before comparing — a match from another league is marked with its league name.

Style, not quality: a high match here means two players tend to produce the ball in similar ways — it is not a ranking, a scouting recommendation, or a claim that they are equally good.

Zachary Athekame Lyon · Ligue 1 · 181 cm / 74 kg
85%
Driven by: creativity (21%), box threat (13%), dribbling (13%).
Maxim De Cuyper Brighton · Premier League · 182 cm / 71 kg
75%
Driven by: creativity (17%), box threat (16%), line-breaking (14%). Different mechanism — Cardona more via passing directness, territory (wide vs central); Cuyper more via dribbling, crossing.
Juan Miranda Bologna · Serie A · 185 cm / 76 kg
66%
Driven by: line-breaking (16%), creativity (15%), progression (13%). Different mechanism — Cardona more via box threat; Miranda more via final-third threat, dribbling.
Youssef Enríquez Alaves · 175 cm / 68 kg
66%
Driven by: creativity (21%), box threat (14%), press resistance (13%). Different mechanism — Cardona more via ball-winning, carrying; Enríquez more via territory (wide vs central), crossing.
Quentin Merlin Rennes · Ligue 1 · 174 cm / 68 kg
66%
Driven by: creativity (29%), line-breaking (15%), through-balls (14%). Different mechanism — Merlin more via dribbling, final-third threat.
David Raum RBL · Bundesliga · 180 cm / 75 kg
65%
Driven by: creativity (25%), progression (14%), line-breaking (14%). Different mechanism — Raum more via final-third threat, territory (wide vs central).
21

Summary

Sergi Cardona is an inverted full-back: 3.4 progressive passes and 3 box entries, delivering 5 key passes. Inverted full-back. [1v1 recovery pace and off-ball overlap timing need tracking.]

Based on 6 matches (481 minutes) — an early read, treat with caution until more minutes are logged. He profiles as an inverted full-back — best used in a system built around that identity. His biggest room for growth is press resistance — even a modest improvement there would meaningfully lift his overall inverted full-back profile.
✨ This report is interactive

Click any stat card to filter its map, hover a dot for the exact match, and use the dropdowns to slice passes zone-to-zone. Nothing here is static.

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