Nico Williams opens Athletic's horizon
The 20-year-old is one of a number of young assets that returning manager Ernesto Valverde has to guide into the future.
For the second away game in a row, Athletic Club scored four times en route to victory. Their win at Elche was similiar to that at Cádiz, putting them to bed in the first half through a version of football better described as vertical than direct. And in his third spell at the club, Ernesto Valverde’s responsibility is exactly that: to develop a team who can manage the ball with more control, without losing the forward thrust that Athletic have long been characterised by.
In returning to the club five years on, Valverde’s vision is distinct to his previous time round. The squad he left in 2017 was, although a successful one, an ageing one that required fairly swift interventions over the intervening years. Perhaps more so in Bilbao than anywhere else at the top level of football, managing the succession plan from the present to the future is a process which cannot afford to fail (owing to their Basque-only player policy).
Fortunately for the new coach, his separation from Bilbao saw the regeneration of a new patch in the time it took him to return. Here in 2022, Valverde’s Athletic are different to what he left behind. The squad is younger overall and there are more players within the younger group that occupy important roles in the present. But it’s not just the names and the faces that have changed and got younger — it’s the different ways of doing things that their presence affords.
Against Elche at the weekend, it was Nico Williams showing Valverde precisely what that could be. His performance was the type of defence-bending impact that makes a manager’s life easier. And the fact that it was the first one — at least in the new Athletic era — makes it all the more intriguing for what might follow this season.
Unfortunately for Elche, it was they who discovered the hard way what happens when trying to defend one-v-one against Nico Williams. All day long, they persisted with hoping Nico Fernández would be able to hold up, and again, the 20-year-old blew past him. For his goal (0:11), note how Gerard Gumbau thinks twice about shading away from his marker to provide some help for Fernández, decides against doing so, and then watches as his full back gets left in the wake of a player about to put one in the top corner.
In essence, this is what Nico projects to be: a player who opponents can’t address as a simple one-v-one match-up. The effect that has on the defending team is that they have to make concessions and tilt their defensive shape in ways that they wouldn’t normally do — and haven’t done previously against Athletic. A midfielder who is conscious of leaving his full back alone with Nico might leave space inside once he’s tempted outwards, or a centre back might open lanes in the back line once he has to react off his full back being beaten.
Even if his decision-making isn’t as precise as it could be yet, Nico’s existing qualities alter the scenarios that Athletic attack in. One could cite the current example of Xavi’s Barcelona, who despite having a long-standing tradition of midfield play and the fact they now have a master of the position at the top, still lean heavily on Ousmane Dembélé’s ball-carrying to generate gaps in the opposition shape.
Much like Xavi, Ernesto Valverde will know that when a team has a player with Nico’s ability to carry the ball and beat his man on both sides — especially when doing it at an unmatchable speed for most defenders — the opponent will always have a problem in more than one place. Even if the winger doesn’t beat his man but has attracted attention that another player wouldn’t have done, the team have enforced the movement of opposition pieces. The attacking landscape has changed.
Against Elche, Nico carried the ball on 17 occasions, with the majority from a touchline starting point. In particular, he had a strong balance between attacking the outside and cutting inside, with the latter producing his first league goal for the club. This is a key aspect of how Nico looks set to differentiate himself from the simple reputation of being a ‘fast winger’. To compare him to his brother Iñaki — who was used in the same role in Valverde’s previous time in charge — Nico presents a more fluid direction of attack, between his comfortability in using both feet and his closer control on the move.
An interesting quirk to Williams’ style is the way in which he mixes in carrying the ball on his left foot, versus his stronger right. One can only speculate if he’s taken inspiration from Ousmane Dembélé in this sense, but it’s another way in which he adds to the sense of doubt in opposition players. Nico’s strength is in not being as telegraphed a threat as many other wingers, as his pace is not only served for making movements off the ball or down the outside when dribbling.
His arrival in the Athletic first XI also comes at a great time, for him and his teammates alike. In Nico’s case, the more expansive style in the 4-3-3 has seen Valverde move his two most creative players — Iker Muniain and Oihan Sancet — into the middle as a pair of number eights in possession. His avenues to receive quality service have increased greatly with this move, with Athletic gaining much better movement of the ball by putting their best talent in the middle of the pitch.
In return, Nico’s developing threat from a wide starting point permits the team to stretch the pitch and force the opposition to defend bigger spaces — the benefit of which for Muniain and Sancet is that they can pick up on the openings left by a team either scrambling or over-reacting to Nico’s threat. And of course, the 20-year-old is a prime receiving option for their range of creative passes. Both in transition and in general play, Athletic’s midfielders operate with Nico’s availability as a priority.
It’s early days for Ernesto Valverde in his third spell at Athletic, but the start has been very positive. The style of play has accomodated a number of the club’s top young assets more than they previously were, and their attacking play has cut a more fluid figure than it did last term. In what’s expected to be his final term at the club, however, Valverde’s biggest impact this time would be in ensuring the immersion of Lezama’s latest class of stars, whose contribution can live on well beyond the manager’s last stand.
And well, as we saw against Elche and in the season so far, Valverde also stands to gain plenty from them in the present too. In the likes of Nico Williams and Oihan Sancet especially, the 58-year-old has some tools he didn’t have last time round. And they’re in very safe hands now.