Carlos Soler: "Football evolves towards a stampede game"

Carlos Soler is about to take a corner in San Mamés. AFP7 via Europa Press (AFP7 via Europa Press)

Along with Christopher Nkunku, Mason Mount, Kevin de Bruyne, Bruno Fernandes and Mario Pasalic, Carlos Soler (Valencia, 1995) has been among the top scoring midfielders of the season in Europe.

“Last year I did 12 counting Copa del Rey;

now I have ten,” he says.

“If a midfielder gives you between ten and 15 goals, it's key for any club.

I will try".

This Sunday at the Camp Nou (4:15 p.m.) his friend Pedri and his admirer Frenkie de Jong will face each other in midfield duels.

Ask.

Liverpool, Bayern, and especially City, have made their interiors the most unbalancing weapon.

Do you feel familiar with this type of midfielder-scorer?

Answer.

Soccer has evolved into more of a stampede game.

The one that has shown it the most is Bayern, with Müller, with open wingers and continually facing, the interiors stepping on the area and gathering many people in the lateral centers... They seek to overwhelm the rival, be more physical, go one after another, make 70 chances and score five.

It's like more damage is being done.

Q.

Do you notice the confusion caused by your movements when you go up?

R.

I think I know how to detect moments very well.

I know that if my tip has fallen a little bit between the central and the lateral, that central will usually go for it and it will create a huge space.

Either the other central one closes and the channel with its side is left free, or that other space is left free.

That was my second goal against Levante.

Our defense played with Guedes, the center-back came out with him but without hitting him, he let him think, and I saw that I would be left alone.

Heading and technique can be improved, but not the goal.

No one has taught me.

I always looked at Gerrard, Lampard, David Silva... and now Frenkie de Jong

P.

Marcelino and Bordalás have built a Valencia of fast transitions.

Do you enjoy thinking little and pressing a lot?

R.

I have been on both sides: with the U-21 and senior teams, where more is made, and in my club.

I say this as a Valencia fan: here what has fit the most has been a direct attack, a very pressing defense, with blocks very close together to come out very quickly in transitions.

Mestalla feels identified with that.

Perhaps ten or fifteen years ago football was more leisurely.

Now intensity and rapid activation are more in demand.

That does not mean that the teams that have more of the ball cannot adapt.

You can touch it and you can also trample the opponent.

Guardiola's Barcelona was that: a team that had the ball and ran over you because it drowned you upstairs.

I wouldn't let you out.

Now football is that with players much more prepared to withstand that rhythm.

P.

There are soccer players who enjoy contact with the ball less than running to depth.

Do you feel more comfortable organizing in 360 degrees or reaching the goal?

R.

In this Valencia I feel comfortable running or throwing.

I like to launch Guedes, Gayá into space... That's also organizing.

It's not organizing like Xavi used to organize, who organized all of his teammates all over the field.

I feel more like a shooter, a defensive connector with the forwards and also a player who joins the attack by going into space when the other midfielder receives the ball.

Q.

We often see that you are the first midfielder to join the central defenders when Valencia lose the ball, and after the recovery you sometimes position yourself as the second man up front with the opposing central defenders.

Are these tours for you a torture or a pleasure?

R.

They are our comings and goings.

When we play 4-4-2 or 5-3-2, one of the pivots has to shoot to be on the rebound or the penalty spot, because the forwards tend to drag the near post.

Guedes, although he plays

He is not a center forward who is going to finish you off in the lateral centers.

He falls a lot to the band and that position is freer.

Someone has to occupy it.

Or he occupies a winger or a pivot.

They ask me to arrive because I have that physical capacity, in the same way that they ask me to return to my area if the rival counterattacks us, where the most positional pivot usually occupies our penalty spot and I have to help him from the front.

A midfielder today has to travel at least 11 to 12 kilometers to be able to cover these situations.

Not everyone can do it because it takes a lot of physique and a lot of desire.

Sometimes it gets long.

But reaching the opposite area is how he is most surprised in football and it is what I enjoy the most.

P.

It is surprising to see the interiors look for unchecks typical of strikers.

R.

In the national team, we insiders stand out a lot between the opposing midfielders and central defenders, between the lines;

in Valencia we look more for the back of the defenders.

P.

You scored more than 500 goals in the quarry.

To stand out between center backs and full backs, do you have to have the soul of a striker?

A.

Yes. A player who has never played up front will not have that nose or know where the ball can land on a cross or after a clearance.

If you have not been in those areas it is difficult.

Heading and technique can be improved, but not the goal.

No one has taught me.

I have seen a lot of football.

I saw the Premier, the Champions, the League.

And I always looked at those types of players: Gerrard, Lampard, David Silva... and now Frenkie de Jong.

They all do those things that defined midfielders, a position that has disappeared today.

I say it as a Valencia fan: here what has fit the most has been a direct attack.

Now everywhere more intensity and rapid activation are demanded.

You can touch it and you can also trample the opponent.

Guardiola's Barcelona was that.

P.

Should the goal be a requirement for midfielders?

Do you think it's fair that Pedri is required to score goals?

R.

Pedri is a crack.

We play in the same space on the field but we don't have many similarities, apart from the route.

When Pedri receives the ball from behind surrounded by opponents, he always knows where the space is to get out.

That is very complicated and Pedri has it as a base.

I am one more midfielder to ride, to arrive.

Pedri is more about association, about the last pass, about looking for the ends, and not so much about reaching the area.

He once said that the goal must be believed.

There is something to that.

Say: "I'm going to get to the area to do damage, not to cast a shadow."

But be careful: how many midfielders are there right now who run, defend, organize and also score 15 goals per season?

Maybe it doesn't exist.

Q.

You have inherited the role of Dani Parejo as the first set-piece shooter.

What does that mean for you?

R.

I always took fouls and penalties in the quarry and now that Dani is not there, it has touched me again.

He has a free kick that goes up and down very quickly.

In corners and lateral free kicks I try to give it that effect because that way the defense has fewer possibilities.

If you throw a flatter ball to a defender it's easier.

If he goes up and down a lot, it still goes two meters over him and he falls into the danger zone.

P.

Is being Valencian and from the quarry an advantage or is it added pressure?

R.

Four years have passed since I established myself in the first team and I have more and more weight in the squad and in the club.

People identify with those of us who are from the house and right now I am the third captain.

I have much more responsibility.

Every year people want to see different and better things.

In football the past has never been highly valued.

The most important thing is the present.

Being Valencian and being from here helps me in many things, it makes me feel identified, it makes me understand that those people who are behind us watching each game are spending a lot of money.

That is a responsibility that forces us to give everything.

The fans have helped me a lot and that is a pressure because it forces me to always have sharp teeth.

I feel like I can't go wrong.

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