Moisés Isaac Caicedo Corozo is a 19 year old Ecuadorian footballer who plays as a midfielder for Independiente del Valle.
His club, Independiente del Valle, is managed by Miguel Ángel Ramírez Medina. This is his first job as a head coach for a first team but he was previously a manager for various youth sides all around the world, especially the ASPIRE academy, as seen below.
Independiente del Valle reached the final of the 2016 Copa Libertadores after defeating River Plate, Pumas UNAM and Boca Juniors. Under their new manager, they went on and won the 2019 Copa Sudamericana, South America’s secondary club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL (i.e. our Europa League). This was their first ever historic title.
The club wants to prioritise the academy and the promotion of academy players to the first team and their manager’s profile fits the bill perfectly. And Caicedo is probably the best example of this. While he was travelling with the senior team, the 19 year old would go on to be an important part of the Independiente del Valle side that won the U20 Libertadores at the start of 2020.
Caicedo joined the youth academy of Independiente del Valle at the age of 13, and joined their first team in 2019. He debuted for Independiente del Valle in a 1 – 0 Ecuadorian Serie A win over L.D.U. Quito on 1 October 2019.
On an international level, Caicedo debuted for the senior Ecuador national team in a 1 – 0 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification loss to Argentina on 9 October 2020. He scored the first goal in a 4 – 2 home win over Uruguay on 13 October 2020 at the Estadio Rodrigo Paz Delgado, becoming the first player born in the 21st century to ever score in CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifying.
Since the start of his professional career, the midfielder has played 2,367 minutes while providing four assists and scoring seven times in all competitions.
His performances caught the eye of Manchester United that are reportedly close to agreeing a deal for him as early as January.
In this article, I will go through his strengths and weaknesses but also where he does play on the pitch for his current club.
Tactical fit
Independiente del Valle mainly play in a 4–1–4–1 or a 4–3–3 with two 8’s positioned between the lines like what Guardiola or even Sarri played during their time in England. Within this setup, Caicedo either play as the right-sided midfielder of the 3-man midfield or at the base where he drops between the two centre-backs, often being the deepest player in his side.
As a right-sided midfielder, he tends to take up spaces in the right half space or the centre of the pitch, depending on the position of the ball.
With Ecuador, he plays on the left-side of a double pivot. He is most often the highest player of the two while playing in this pivot.
The heatmap above is his heatmap in the Copa Libertadores whereas his heatmap below is his heatmap when he plays with Ecuador.
From a deeper position, Caicedo is able to switch the play either off the left or off the right and does it pretty often. This is conveyed below.
The midfielder has already played a variety of roles (three to be exact) in two different teams for two different managers. This versatility is important for the development of a young talent and he hasn’t shown being less capable of playing a position than another.
On the ball
Wherever he plays, Caicedo often scans his surroundings to find space and makes himself available to the ball-carrier. This ability helps him more further up the pitch as it is where the areas will be more crowded. When he plays deeper, he often doesn’t receive under pressure, which could be a worry because it will not be the case in a better league.
In the still below, Caicedo finds a way to be alone in an area where the opponent should be. He will receive a pass from his teammate highlighted in yellow and that will result in a chance for his side.
Despite not often finding himself under pressure in deeper areas, Caicedo is still able to use his body to get out of a tight situation. This is depicted below.
In more crowded areas however, Caicedo combines well and tries to release the ball as quickly as possible.
To highlight my point about the lack of pressure in deeper areas, you can see the GIF below. When Caicedo receives, he is alone but is still able to find a teammate by breaking the first defensive line.
The Ecuador international equally has good instincts higher up the pitch, he combines well in tight spaces and is able to identify space to run into at already a good level. He has an efficient shot as well, already scoring from outside the box on two occasions. These instincts could be further improved and become an exciting feature of his game.
Below, his teammate receives the ball to then find him but Caicedo decides to let the ball slide through his legs to make a third man run and score.
While Caicedo can find his teammates between the lines, he doesn’t do it enough but also does make some mistakes, due to his age, in his passes. His passes with his weaker are good. If he was to come to United, he would instantly become the second most ambipedal player of the squad after Fred when it comes to passing with both feet (Fred was at 28% of passes with his weaker foot last season, Pogba around 12%).
On one hand, he picks up teammates between the lines despite the crowded area.
On the other hand, he can misplace passes that are easy to execute and he does it on a regular basis.
Finally, I will talk about his intensity (or lack thereof) of the ball when he should ask for the ball. The way he handles himself on the pitch makes him calm upon receiving but it means he could come across as not willing to ask for the ball if his teammate needs a passing option. That costed him multiples times, against Argentina or in the GIF below.
I highlighted you where he stands before watching the GIF to be more aware of where you should look. Caicedo receives the ball and misplaces his pass because he is too complacent.
While he still has some work to do on his intensity and his focus, Caicedo has evident qualities that a manager could further develop as there are some interesting ones.
Without the ball
Independiente del Valle often man-mark in midfield, which admittedly makes it harder to properly judge Caicedo on this end of the pitch, hence why I decided to look at how he handles himself with Ecuador.
The intensity he provides when not having the ball is as inconsistent as the intensity he has when one of his teammates has the ball. Caicedo can lose track of his runner.
Firstly, I will talk to you about his lack of intensity that could cost his team and has already cost Ecuador once.
Before looking at GIF, look at the pic below to see where Caicedo is. After the ball-carrier passed the ball, Caicedo should have followed him to close the channel between him and his teammates inside. He didn’t and Bolivia scored from this.
On the GIF below, Uruguay recover the ball and Caicedo is the closest player to the ball-carrier. Instead of attempting something, he does nothing and is bypassed quite easily.
Finally, here, he follows his man high up the pitch but fails to recognize space between him and his partner in the pivot. The Uruguay player easily finds his teammate highlighted in yellow in the hole.
However, Caicedo rarely loses a duel, whether it is in the air or on the ground. According to SofaScore (sorry, I don’t have the money for Instat), he wins 4.4 duels per 90 minutes for a success rate of 56%.
On the GIF above, he hassles his opponent but makes a foul. However, he stays focused and regains the ball back and immediately plays the ball forward for a quick transition.
On the GIF depicted below, Caicedo recovers the ball and immediately releases the ball forward, another quality of his.
Conclusion
After reading this article, you need to understand that he isn’t even playing in a top 20 league in the world while only being 19. He will learn when playing at a higher level and will improve both his strengths and his weaknesses. Is he a good player for his price? Yes. Is there better for a higher price range? Yes, but he could definitely become a really good player if he has the willingness to do so.
