Scouting Report: Luca de la Torre

Luca de la Torre was not a name I was expecting to be typing often. He had been a part of the 2017 U20 World Cup and looked decent there. He wasn’t a standout performer in a good or bad sense. From there he went back to Fulham’s reserve team and some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for three and a half years, Luca passed out of all knowledge. (please tell me a few of you got that ref/quote🤓)

This season he turned up with Heracles Almelo. While there, he managed to play 2,500 minutes for the first division Dutch side and lock down a starting role in central midfield. He then got a national team call up and proceeded to look pretty good (in limited minutes) against Jamaica and Northern Ireland. If you are like me though, you haven’t seen DLT play 90 minutes in a really long time. I watch a lot of Bundesliga and Chelsea matches, but not so much Eredivisie since Dest moved to Barca and Ledezma got hurt just as he was getting a shot with PSV. =(

I was curious about his game and decided to watch a few matches (h/t to the helpful person that provided some game footage) to see how he looked. If you’ve read one of these “scouting reports” before then you can skip this, but here’s my process.

Quick Explanation

I try to watch at least three games and focus solely on the player I’m interested in. I clip out or write down plays that stand out positively or negatively. Events or types of event that repeat I try to categorize into a strength/weakness. I’m not a Heracles fan and a devoted supporter of the club will probably pick up on nuances to de la Torre’s game that I missed. If any Heracles fans happen to see this and disagree please feel free to correct me if I screwed anything up @blharreld.

For this piece I watched Heracles against: Ajax, Feyenoord, AZ Alkmaar, and Willem II (plus the 40 some odd NT minutes).

Link to other scouting reports I’ve done

Strengths

Playing Quickly

Honestly, watching him play made me think de la Torre would have been absolutely perfect for version 1.0 of Berhalter’s national team. De la Torre seems to always know where his teammates are and where he’s going with the ball before the ball gets to him. It doesn’t stick on his foot very long and he rarely turns the ball over. In the matches I watched he hit a loose pass or two, but never got caught on the ball and turned over that way. For a team that wants to possess the ball and move it around quickly DLT is a nice cog to have in the midfield.

Hair

When you are watching soccer there are different strategies for keeping track of players if the video quality isn’t great or the camera isn’t zoomed in enough to distinguish players easily. Shoes, odd running style, hair, etc. Usually if you can keep track of someone because of their hair it’s because they’ve got some kind of crazy cut or dye job. Not the case in this instance. Just look for the darkest, fullest head of hair on the field and de la Torre is probably that dude. This may not be relevant to his national team chances, but it certainly doesn’t hurt anything. Plus, I know this is the type of hard-hitting analysis everyone is looking for.

Keeping the Ball

I mentioned this above, but DLT doesn’t lose the ball and is very effective at keeping it for his team. He has quick feet and is frequently able to come out of tight situations with the ball or flick/touch it to a teammate. He doesn’t win many physical battles due to his size, but if a ball is pinging around a couple players’ feet then there’s a better than average chance de la Torre is going to come away with it. It’s not exactly the “knife fight” situation that the Scuffed gents like to talk about, but related and a handy skill to possess.

Throwing a “Catchable” Ball

Sorry – stealing from American football here again. If you have spent any time watching this type of football you’ll have heard an announcer say a quarterback throws a “catchable” ball. This means it’s thrown with good touch, in the right spot for the receiver to catch it and run, or stop so he doesn’t get killed.

This isn’t exactly the same thing, but Luca de la Torre tends to hit his passes with the right weight and in stride – so the player receiving the pass can do something useful with it. And TBH, this sort of felt like a characteristic of the Heracles team in general. It makes me wonder if they work on it specifically somehow or if I’m just being an idiot again. 🤣

Wild Tangent

I think Heracles has a sponsor that makes outdoor furniture. There was specifically one game where they kept showing all the coaches sitting in these awesome outdoor thrones/chairs. I think every team should have outlandishly comfortable patio furniture on the sidelines for their coaches. Let’s make this happen.

Room to Improve

Defensive Awareness

I don’t want to make it sound like DLT is a bad defender. He gives honest effort on the defensive side of the ball. It seems like he loses track of the opposing players sometimes though. Mostly where I saw this was in not following runners closely enough or in failing to cut off angles for passes. It’s a little odd because de la Torre seems very aware of his teammates in possession – I think that’s a big part of why he keeps the ball well. However, it doesn’t appear to transfer over to the defensive side of the ball.

Physicality/Athleticism

Part of this is simply his size. Wikipedia has him listed at 5’10” and 139 lbs. I believe the 139, but the 5’10” I’m not so sure about. It’s not only the size thing though. Luca de la Torre is about the same stature as Tyler Adams. I don’t think anyone is going to bring up “physicality” in a list of things Adams needs to improve upon. De la Torre could get into attackers and hassle them more aggressively imo. He’s in the right area, but not making them “feel him” to quote Jesse Marsch. I think Berhalter is now looking for plus athletes for the midfield and I don’t think de la Torre is quite at the level of guys like Adams, McKennie, Musah, Acosta, etc.

Here’s a couple good defensive plays so you know he isn’t a bad defender. He just has room to improve there.

Luca de la Torre Overall

I’m sort of happy Luca isn’t on the Nations League roster. If he was on there he’d get very limited playing time and we wouldn’t learn very much. If he’s on the Gold Cup roster (that’s a safe assumption, right?) then he’ll get extended training time with the team and hopefully substantial playing time. Like I said at the top, I think he fit the team better in the previous midfield configuration where the emphasis was more on ball retention than ball winning/pressing, but I’d like to see how he looks in this setup too.

At the very worst, he is a competent professional playing solid minutes in a quality first division side. It’s been a long time since the USMNT has had that sort of depth available. Let’s hope he keeps growing and makes Berhalter’s midfield decisions even harder going forward.

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