Gabri Veiga: Celta Vigo’s homegrown hero eyed by Liverpool & Chelsea

Neel Shelat

• Updated: 25 Jun 2023 13:46 BST
• 8 min read

Celta Vigo had a pretty terrible season in La Liga. Although they finished 13th in the end, they looked in real danger of relegation. In fact, they would have gone down had they lost against Barcelona on the final day, but they did not.

One Gabri Veiga bailed them out with a match-winning brace, which could well be his last on-pitch contribution for the club.

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You could see what keeping his side meant to him at the end, as he broke down in tears at the full-time whistle. Given the fact that he was born in Galicia and came through Celta Vigo’s academy as a boyhood fan of the club, it is easy to understand why.

At this point, though, his talents might have outgrown the club. His €40 million release clause is almost certainly going to be triggered by a major club if they want to sign him, and the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle United have already been linked with him.

Livewire midfielder

This has very much been Veiga’s breakthrough season at Celta, having only made 13 league appearances over the last couple of campaigns of which almost all were off the bench. In 2022/23, though, he featured in all but two of his side’s La Liga matches and played over 2,200 minutes, establishing himself as one of their most important players.

Veiga almost always started on the right of a midfield trio in a 4-3-3 or most often 4-3-1-2, where he had a pretty free role. His heatmap shows how he popped up in all sorts of places on the right – often starting in his own half to receive the ball from the defenders and ending up in the final third to create chances or finish off moves.

Clearly, Veiga had to excel at a lot of things to help keep Celta up, and luckily for them, he did just that. His attacking contribution of 15 goals and assists was obviously immensely valuable, but he also helped out in terms of creating chances and progressing the ball besides obviously doing his share of defensive work.

The young Spaniard netted 11 times in the league over the course of the season, making him the highest-scoring midfielder in the competition. Two things stand out as far as his goal-scoring is concerned, his long-range shots and his ability to get into dangerous positions in and around the box.

His shotmap suggests that he pulls the trigger from range a little bit too much, but it is hard to blame him when he got into double-digits in terms of league goals for a team where the third-highest scorer only managed four. A bigger team may want him to tone this aspect of his game down a little, but they should be very impressed by his shot volume from inside the box.

Moving on to the other major aspect of Veiga’s game – ball progression – we see that he does well in all three aspects – passing, carrying and receiving.

He always looks to play forward passes when possible, especially after dropping back to take the ball from the defenders.

His carrying unquestionably stands out the most, as he always looks to drive forward or into space with the ball.

His dribbling technique is quite interesting. He always looks to get past opponents one on one but is not one to pull out a bag of tricks, instead simply looking to knock the ball past them and use his speed to get to it first. He has a pretty lean frame which helps him with his pace, but at the same time he manages to use his body to shield the ball from his opponents very impressively and can turn out of tight situations quite well.

This quality also helps him in receiving the ball between opposition lines, as he looks to spin away from defenders that try to step up to him.

These were all instances where Veiga managed to pull off what he wanted to, but of course, things do not always work out. He is quite ambitious with his dribbling in particular and tends to give the ball away a fair bit. On average in the league this season, he miscontrolled or was dispossessed well over thrice per 90. This was alright for Celta as they often looked to him for inspiration, but a bigger club may want him to take better care of the ball.

Veiga should have no problems adapting to any defensive system after his work for Celta, where he had a good deal of responsibilities. Especially in the 4-3-1-2 formation, he had a lot of ground to cover as they looked to press which meant he had to step up to support the front three, but also help the right-back defend on the wings.

What club would best suit Veiga?

Veiga’s role for Celta was fairly unique and will likely not be recreated like-for-like at another side, so that is the first thing to consider. In broad terms, the 21-year-old midfielder seems to be best suited as a right-sided number 8 with a good deal of attacking freedom, though he also likes to drop back and help progress the ball.

The closest match to this sort of role might be at Liverpool, where Jurgen Klopp is moving towards a 3-2-2-3 system. With the right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold inverting alongside the defensive midfielder, the right-sided number 8 is freed up to push forward, so Veiga’s goal-threat might prove very handy for the Reds.

Newcastle United’s interest in Veiga seems to have died down, but he should be able to do a pretty good job on the right of midfield in Eddie Howe’s 4-3-3 system too. Chelsea might be one to avoid if Mauricio Pochettino does end up using his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation because Veiga is not the right profile to partner Enzo Fernandez in a double pivot. He might be able to slot in as the number 10, but he would be expected to improve on his chance creation for a side that seemed to lack in all attacking departments last season.

Veiga almost certainly should leave Celta given his relatively low release clause, so he certainly is a player to follow in this transfer window.