Nestor Diaz – Chivas’ deep-lying playmaking prodigy
Nestor Diaz has rarely been without a football in his life as his father played for Leones Negros while a football was Nestor’s toy of choice as a 4-year-old. At 8-years-old, he joined the Chivas Morelos School before he was invited to train at Verde Valle a year later. Chivas are building a lineage of technically skilled young midfielders with 22-year-old, Fernando Beltran in the first team, 20-year-old, Alejandro Organista who has already made his debut with the first team and is captain of the U20 side while 18-year-old, Nestor Diaz is developing with the U20 side as 17-year-old, Sebastian Perez Bouquet has recently been promoted to the U20 side. Their youth system is one of the most highly regarded in Mexico as they currently lead Mexico’s U20 division.
Diaz originally arrived as a central defender before being moved to the wing as he is now deployed as an intelligent and technically proficient deep-lying playmaker. He has been captain in most of his age-groups as he meshes authority and zeal when he is elegantly distributing possession from the deeper areas as he has led his age-groups into tournaments in the United States, Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, Italy and Japan. At 7-years-old, he watched a Chivas game and decided that he would love to play for the team as he sacrificed two-hour journeys by truck with his grandmother to the Verde Valle academy as they ate on their way after he finished school. He has already been called up to train with the first-team as he will need to improve his decision making and the defensive side of his game before becoming a fully-fledged first-team player.
Nestor Diaz is a deeper-lying midfielder who lives on the half-turn as he enjoys receiving the ball on the half-turn from his centre-backs or his goalkeeper at the top of his own box to swivel out of pressure and try to work the ball forward. There is an inherent risk to this style of play as the 18-year-old can almost single-handedly bypass the first wave of pressure but has had situations where he has lost possession which has allowed the opposition to create high quality opportunities in Chivas’ box. One of his favourite moves is to receive possession and elegantly turn away from his marker by controlling the ball with the inside of his boot to slide the ball past pressure or he will receive the ball with the outside of his boot to turn away from his marker. He is able to follow up these manoeuvres by threading lovely passes in between tight passing lanes to string together attacks and facilitate the creation of opportunities.
His little twist and turn routines not only help him in the deeper areas but also in the opposition half as well as he can receive possession in the higher areas to draw a marker, turn away from him to create space for a switch ball or for him to thread a pass through the defensive lines to create opportunites. His vision and weighting of passes from deep and in the final third are very precise and well-weighted as he can direct and facilitate attacking transitions as a metronome. Against Puebla’s youth side, he was pushing up before dropping deep to receive possession, controlling a pass from the left sided centre-back with his left foot before attracting pressure and releasing the ball to his right sided centre-back with his right foot. He then moved away from his marker to receive the ball from the right sided centre-back to work a pass in between the lines on the half-turn before receiving possession in the final third and working a pass to the left-back to receive possession again and break defensive lines with a ball to an attacker in the left half-space who played a pass for Luis Fernando Puente to shift the ball to the wide areas for a poor cross.
At home to Mazatlan, he received possession on the half-turn in the six-space as he received the ball with his left foot before spraying a pass with his right to work a pass to a teammate in the next line who spread the ball to the right flank before Diaz moved closer to the ball as a passing option. He received a pass with his right foot to then shift the ball onto his left to thread a pass to Organista who flicked the pass through to Benjamin Sanchez who went through on goal and finished with aplomb. Diaz can string things together in the final third, moving into space to evade his marker and receive the ball before moving possession with a well-drilled progressive pass as he has the potential to be a high-level deep-lying conductor.
The 18-year-old also has the ability to receive the ball and pass with both feet as well as his aforementioned ability at turning past markers. This allows him to control the tempo of games as he can hold the ball for a few seconds longer to attract pressure and create space for a pass in between the lines or just allow the tempo of the game to drop to allow his teammates to rest or play out a game with a narrow victory. He will regularly point to gesture to a teammate to the exact foot or area to receive possession, he may want the ball slightly in front of him to work a one-touch back-pass or to put some space in between him and his marker so he can fake one way and turn the other or he can gesture to a specific foot to allow him to receive the ball more easily. At the early stages of matches, he can speed up the tempo with one-touch passes and movement to create spaces in the opposition defensive shape.
His directional first touch allows him to receive the ball with both feet to swiftly shift out of pressure or he can allow the ball to roll across his body to turn past his man. When he receives the ball in the deeper areas like in the six-space or at the top of his own box, he can sometimes turn out of pressure and be muscled off the ball. He has not fully grown into his body yet as he struggles in physical shoulder to shoulder challenges as he can shoved off the ball and be left flailing onto the turf. More experience in the U20 league and training or playing with the first team will allow him to better analyse how to receive the ball and tailor his manoeuvres to certain situations. At times, he can take a touch with his ball-near foot too early giving his marker the opportunity to steal the ball from his toes.
Nestor Diaz reads the game well and has a great sense of anticipation in counter-pressing situations as he can burst forward to regain possession with a timely interception. If a lob is played behind him, he will chase the ball and can make a timely sliding challenge to regain possession or close down a counter-attack. He can also lunge at loose passes to regain possession by putting his body in between the ball and an opponent before turning away from his opponent to push his side forward. However, the 18-year struggles when in 50/50 challenges or standard tackling situations as he doesn’t tackle with the certainty that he is filled with whenever he is in possession of the ball. He fails to regain possession in tackling situations as his lithe physique prevents him from being effective at regaining possession. This is one of the issues that would prevent him from making the step up to the first team as he would need to grow into his body.
The youngster will need to improve his physicality as that is one issue that could see a massive stride in his development and will allow him to progress to the Chivas first team as he may not be ready yet for first team football in Liga MX at the moment. His main goals are to win the Mexican U20 division before joining up with the first team during pre-season to begin his period of adjustment. He will also need to improve his risk assessment and decision making in possession as that will come with more experience on the pitch and being allowed to make mistakes in U20 football before progressing to the first team. Once he filters these shortcomings from his game, he has the potential to be a high-level deep-lying playmaker for Chivas and El Tri.
Nestor Diaz has already won the Mexican U17 Division as captain as he seeks to do the same at U20 level while he has also played with the Mexican youth sides. He idolises Kevin De Bruyne as he models his game on the Belgian with his good overview of the pitch and precise passing. His distribution and press resistance make him next on the production line as Mexican football has a high number of deep-lying playmakers plying their trade in youth football as well as at professional level in the Liga MX. He is another gifted young midfielder that Chivas can look forward to seeing toiling in the famous red and white.
