Cruz Azul dominates Liga MX with offensive mastery

90% of the Apertura 2024 tournament of the Liga MX has been dominated by a single team: Blue Cross. This is confirmed by his statistics at the end of Matchday 11 as the maximum reference in terms of points and offensive potential.

Cruz Azul beat Necaxa 3-0 this weekend and reinforced first place in the general classification with 28 points. He can even afford to lose on his visit to Puebla on Matchday 12 and still continue as the best in the game. Opening 2024since their closest pursuer, Tigres, has 27.

“This is the most complete game we have played,” diagnosed the Cruz Azul coach. Martin Anselmi.

“There are rivals that are complicated and, beyond the fact that it is not great, even in certain aspects Necaxa was more complex. “I was tenth, but I hadn’t lost many games, so for me this match was transcendental.”

Anselmi’s Machine has won 9 of 11 games in the current competition and only lost against Atlético de San Luis (1-3 as a visitor). Thanks to that, it has remained at the top of the general table consecutively since Matchday 2.

Against Necaxa, it barely took 7 minutes for midfielder Alexis Gutiérrez to open the rival goal, one of those who is experiencing a transcendental moment under the technical direction of the Argentine Anselmi.

Gutiérrez Torres is 24 years old and debuted in Liga MX in 2019 with Cruz Azul, despite being trained in the basic forces of Chivas. In 2022 he lost so much prominence in the La Noria team that he had to be loaned to Tapatío of the Expansion League.

When Martín Anselmi took over Cruz Azul, Alexis Gutiérrez surpassed 800 minutes in the first division for the first time (Clausura 2024) and this tournament has already accumulated 717 and 2 goals. He changed his position from contention to offensive interior on the left and is one of the recurring attackers of the celestial locomotive so far in Apertura 2024.

“We always lack something to continue improving, so I think we corrected a lot (compared to Matchday 10, against Pachuca). What we have to achieve now is to sustain it every game. If we are able to hold all the games seriously, we will surely go very far,” added Anselmi.

Alexis Gutiérrez is just one of the examples of key players in Anselmi’s schemewhich is becoming insurmountable after beating Necaxa 3-0, Pachuca 2-4, América 4-1, Tijuana 3-0 and Monterrey 0-4 this semester.

Another of the individuals that stands out is the Greek striker Georgios Giakoumakis, runner-up in scoring in the tournament with 5 goals and also runner-up in terms of goals and assists with 8, only surpassed in both areas by the Portuguese Paulinho of Toluca (7 and 12, respectively). ).

The goalkeeper also stands out, Colombian Kevin Mierwith 6 clean sheets and second place in save effectiveness percentage among all goalkeepers in the MX League with 74.2% (first place is Tiago Volpi from Toluca with 77.6%).

Midfielders Carlos Rotondi and Carlos Rodríguez also stand out in statistics within the first 4 places in opportunities created in this tournament. Rotondi has 5 goals, like Giakoumakis, and that has elevated his offensive hierarchy to the point that Anselmi is already a candidate for the national team of his country, Argentina.

“He is one of the competitive players until the end. When he is in that mode, I would dare say that he is the best in the league in his position and when he maintains that, he gives us everything he gives us. The truth is that it has a level that I would even say is national team,” Anselmi said after the match against Necaxa, in which Rotondi scored 2-0. The third goal was Lorenzo Faravelli.

Cruz Azul is not only the general leader in points. It also leads the offensive table with 26 goals and is the second best defense with only 8 conceded (Tigres leads that area with 6).

In deeper data, according to the specialized Statiskicks portal, La Maquina is the leader of the Apertura 2024 in goal probability, defensive intensity, long possessions, recoveries in the final third of the field, attacks through the center and positional attacks (each of these items is measured in actions per 90 minutes).

A total of 8 players have scored at least 1 goal for Cruz Azul this semester, highlighting the youngsters Bryan Gamboa and Amaury Morales. Rotation is also part of the scheme, since only 2 elements have played the 990 possible minutes: the goalkeeper Kevin Mier and defender Willer Ditta.

The only debt is that it is still the worst team in terms of minutes for young people with 387.4, so it still has 612.6 to complete. However, if Mateo Levy and Amaury Morales reach 180, Liga MX will automatically pay them 360 more for the participation of this pair of elements in the Under 20 World Cup with the Mexican National Team.

Liga MX will enter a 12-day break for the October FIFA datein which all the teams in the world will be active. Cruz Azul will return to activity on Friday, October 18 to visit Puebla on Matchday 12 and will return home on the 23rd of that same month to receive Bravos de Juárez.