5 common mistakes in the Liga MX transfer market

Raw data from Wyscout. Photo from Récord.

Whilst Liga MX can still register players until March, the majority of transfers for the Clausura 2025 season have now been completed. Some signings have already made positive impactas, such as James Rodríguez and Rodrigo Echeverría in León, Jhon Kennedy in Pachuca and Adonis Preciado for Querétaro. However, the winter market showed us some great examples of common errors made when signing players.

Not taking into account the style of play

It’s an over-simplification to say there are “good” or “bad” players, and they tend to have different strengths and weaknesses. In many cases there are “right” or “wrong” players for a club, depending on the style of play, specific tactics and the roles of different positions on the pitch.

Romulo Zwarg to Tigres is a good example. With his defensive abilities, Romulo is certainly not a bad player. However, taking into account his limitations on the ball, there are doubts over Romulo’s capability to replace Rafael Carioca/Guido Pizarro in the medium-to-long-term.

Tijuana is another team that don’t seem to have thought enough about their play style, or, it’s possible that Juan Carlos Osorio was too fixated on the need for height within the squad that he didn’t pay enough attention to the on ball qualities of his additions.

Xolos have had more possession than any other team during 2024-25 and Osorio asks for patience in the build-up, attempting to play through the press, and creating positional rotations, for example with his full-backs moving inside and at times occupying spaces in-between the lines like a “number 10”.

New signings Jackson Porozo and Frank Boya have added height to Osorio’s squad, but both are weak in the build-up phase, with little ball retention or progression. These limitations could worsen the effectiveness of Xolos’ play style and result in more dangerous defensive transition moments, after losing the ball whilst attempting to play through an opposing press. We’ve already seen key errors from Porozo whilst trying to build-out from the back, under pressure.

Jackson Poroza in possession analysis, from the 2023-24 season in Türkiye, compared against centre-backs. The red bars show lower rankings against other centre-backs, and the numbers inside the bars display his percentile ranks.

Frank Boya in possession analysis from the 2024-25 season in France’s 2nd division.

Not taking into account a player’s role

More specifically, we can focus on the type of player and the role that they will be asked to occupy on the pitch. Every position has a variety of roles and teams need to consider which types of players they need, in order to produce a successful play style.

A simple example is the case of full-backs, which can be more attacking or more defensive. Tano Ortiz has used attacking full-backs for the majority of his career, asking his wide attackers to move inside, leaving the wings for his full-backs to occupy and create from. In recent Santos matches, Tano has used a back-5, with wing-backs, and therefore there’s an even greater need for attacking full-backs.

Right-back/right-wing-back has been a problem position for Los Guerreros in recent seasons, with Nacho Ambriz trying 5 different players in the position during Apertura 2024. Santos have signed two new right-backs in this market, but neither José Abella not Edson Gutiérrez are attacking full-backs. For example, both ranked below league average for their ability to play passes into the box last season.

Not considering age curves, or what the last year of a contract will look like

Age won’t have exactly the same impact on performance levels for every player, but we can observe fairly clear historic trends to give us an idea of future development and regression. At times, teams can underrate how quickly players can drop their performance levels after peak age.

It’s crucial to consider how age influences different game concepts. For example, dribbling ability is often the first concept to regress and therefore peak age for wingers can be younger than other positions.

Brayan Garnica is only 28, but it seems that he’s already post-peak. His chance creation numbers have already dropped, as has his ability in ball carrying and 1vs1 situations. Reports suggest he’s signed for 3 years, and taking into account how age impacts wingers, I doubt that Garnica will be able to perform at a sufficient level for the duration of his contract.

Brayan Garnica concept analysis in recent seasons, he’s no longer in the top 33% in Liga MX for chance creation (the green zone).

Overrating league experience

Sometimes, teams can look for the safety and confidence of bringing in a player that “knows” the league, instead of trying a player from another division. One problem with bringing-in experienced players within the same league is that it can lead to signing lower performance players, especially for teams with lower budgets. The stronger players will normally stand-out in the league, and end up at clubs with more financial power.

Fernando Arce is a good example. He’s racked-up almost 7,000 Liga MX minutes in his career, with Tijuana, Juárez, Necaxa and Puebla. This experience may have been an argument in favour of Puebla adding him to their squad, however by analyzing his performance levels in recent seasons, we can see his limitations.

In possession, Arce has little impact, unable to retain the ball much or progress play frequently. He’s lost his intensity out of possession (perhaps an age-related impact, earlier in his career he was more active defensively) and doesn’t stand-out for his ball recoveries.

Arce concept analysis, percentile ranks versus other Liga MX midfielders.

Lack of preparation for key departures

Ricardo Chávez has been a key part of San Luis’ success in recent seasons, and whilst he has now passed peak-age, finding someone to replace his impact, in attack and defense, was never going to be easy. Iker Moreno has performed well in his few Liga MX minutes, but has struggled with injuries and hasn’t been available for months.

Therefore, it was crucial for San Luis to have options ready to strengthen the position. But, no new wing-backs arrived for Domenec Torrent’s side, and he’s used four different players in the position this season (two wingers, Jhon Murillo and Benjamín Galdames, and two Sub-23 players). None have worked particularly well and San Luis have struggled on the right-wing throughout the season.

Thank you for reading, subscription to the newsletter is free if you haven’t already signed-up, and if you’d like to contact me regarding any questions, comments or to consult my services, you can contact me on:

• Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/tomh36.bsky.social

• Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-harrison-a682a2175/

• Twitter/X - https://x.com/tomh_36

También, se puede leer este artículo en Español- https://cambiodejuego.beehiiv.com/