César Huerta and his out of the ordinary development

Analyzing the most improved Mexican player in recent seasons

Author

Tom Harrison
January 17, 2025

Raw data in the article from fbref.com. Photo from transfermrkt.com.

Thought: Some players are much more productive in specific zones or situations, creating more of these moments can exploit the player’s potential

César Huerta has completed his transfer to Anderlecht, in Belgium, after becoming one of the stand-out Mexicans in Liga MX.

“Chino” is a rare case. In the previous 6 seasons, Huerta is the most improved attacking midfielder in Mexico. In fact, he’s the only attacking midfielder that’s qualified below the 33rd percentile in 3 key concepts, before reaching a level greater than the 67th percentile in the same concepts, in a later season.

In Pumas, Huerta has shown huge development

I explained more about the concept analysis that I have developed in this article- https://cambiodejuego.beehiiv.com/p/3-mexicanos-j-venes-para-seguir-en-2025

How has he developed so much?

Without information from within Pumas, we can’t speculate about the impact of coaching sessions, coaching instructions or mental factors.

What is possible is to focus the details and differences between 2 of Huerta’s tournaments with contrasting success; 2021-22 and 2023-24.

Metrics (from FBRef, per 90 minutes or a percentage)

2021-22

2023-24

xG

0.08

0.25

xA

0.08

0.24

Touches in the middle 3rd

20.1

18.3

Touches in the final 3rd

19.7

22.7

Touches in the box

2.2

5.2

Attempted dribbles

3.1

6.8

Dribble success %

43.5%

41.4%

Carries into the box

0.41

1.68

Progressive passes received

8.1

8.2

% possessions lost by a bad touch

10%

7%

Positioning and volume of actions can be the most important concepts for a player to increase their effectiveness. Chino hasn’t developed his efficiency in 1vs1 situations, and completes less than 50% of their attempted dribbles. His rate of losing possessions through a bad touch has dropped, but Huerta still doesn’t have great ball retention.

However, we can see a huge improvement in his output between 2021-22 and 2023-24. From 0.16 xG + xA p90 to 0.49, Huerta dramatically increased his attacking production, with more touches in the box, carries to the box and dribbles attempted.

By visualizing Huerta’s most important actions, we can see a trend within various seasons. Whilst his total generation increased between 2021-22 and 2023-24, his production zones are similar; inside the box, on the left side.

It seems simple, but sometimes the challenge to develop a player with specific attacking output zones, like Huerta, is to create more situations where the player can find themselves with the ball in those zones. Volume and location of actions can be more important than efficiency on the ball.

Heat map showing Huerta’s key passes and shots, Chino generated more from the darker purple zones, as a percentage of all of his key passes and shots.

His most effective zones haven’t changed much, but the frequency at which Huerta has arrived in this zones has increased significantly. With Pumas, Chino progressed and received the ball more often inside the box.

The scatter plot shows that in 2023-24, Huerta was one of the best players in Liga MX at progressing the ball through carries, even though his didn’t improve his dribble success rate. Without developing his 1vs1 efficiency, Chino had to attempt more dribbles per game to increase his amount of progressive carries, and has to receive the ball in space more frequently. With more space, Huerta can exploit his speed, and carry the ball directly towards his most productive zones.

Huerta isn’t that efficient in 1vs1 situations, but stands-out for his amount of progressive carries

Team play style can have a large impact on the amount of space that a player has when receiving the ball. Whilst there isn’t a huge difference in the amount of long balls (adjusted for possession) from Chivas and Pumas in 2021-22 and 2023-24, Pumas were more effective in creating quick progression. Pumas completed more progressive passes as a percentage of their total passes, and it’s possible that a more vertical idea exploited Huerta’s abilities.

To conclude, Huerta’s development has been out of the ordinary, and there may be personal factors involved that we can see through public information. However, by understanding a player’s most impactful zones and situations, and thinking more about the volume of key actions and how team play style impacts their game, clubs could better help individual development. Huerta’s improvement

Thank you for reading, if you’d like to contact me regarding any questions, comments or to consult my services, you can contact me on:

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