Why do so many of Luka Romero's shots get blocked?

Two-thirds of his shots have been blocked, as Romero's only scored one Liga MX goal

Author

Tom Harrison
April 11, 2025

Data from Golstats, Fotmob and Wyscout, photo from Claro Sports.

Luka Romero arrived in Mexico with high expectations. According to reports, Cruz Azul beat Chivas to sign the 20-year-old attacker, who already has experience in La Liga and Serie A. But Romero is yet to make a major impact in Liga MX, with just one goal and one assist in 11 matches (seven as a starter).

Luka’s play style has been fairly similar to what we saw during his minutes in Spain and Italy. As an inverted winger, Romero primarily looks to attempt his own shots rather than creating chances for teammates. Luka averages more than three shots per game, but less than one pass to the box.

The concept analysis shows Romero’s strengths and weaknesses. His intensity to help without possession and ball carrying ability aren’t major surprises for a young attacker, but are still strengths.

The bars and numbers show his percentile ranks vs other players in his position this season

Romero’s biggest weakness is clearly his finishing. According to Fotmob, he’s turned 1.48 xG into 0.89 xG post-shot, a model that takes into account the end location of shots to work out the chance of a goal being scored after the shot was taken (an off-target shot would have a xG post-shot of 0).

Romero’s main issue isn’t that he’s been shooting off-target, but that most of his shots have been blocked. In total, 14 of his 21 shots, or 67%, have been blocked. For comparison, Mateusz Bogusz, his teammate who plays in a similar role and also shoots around three times per game, has seen seven of his 20 shots blocked.

So what does Romero have to do to reduce his number of blocked shots?

Develop his right-foot

Of his 21 Liga MX shots, 20 have been with his left-foot. Romero actively tries to avoid shooting with his right-foot, and therefore he often needs more time to adjust his body and shoot with his left.

For example, Romero has space in the box in this situation against Pumas.

But the time he needs to get a shot off with his left-foot allows a Pumas player to get back and block the direct route to goal. The action would’ve been quicker had Romero controlled with his left and then shot or passed with his right-foot.

Reduce the time between his control and shot

Taking too much time before his set-up touch and the shot has been a common problem when Romero’s attempts have been blocked.

Luka uses a similar technique with nearly all of his shots, trying to generate more powerful attempts. This technique has led to a few golazos in his career, but with a heavier touch to give him a run-up and a high back-lift, his shooting process takes a long time. In reduced spaces, Romero regularly hasn’t had enough time to complete the shooting process without giving a defender the chance to block.

Here’s an example against Tijuana, with the first screenshot showing his last touch before shooting. Romero’s in a one vs one situation and can create the angle to shoot towards the far-post.

But with his large back-lift, and the attempt to shoot with power, another defender can recover and position himself in-front of the shot, which was blocked.

This is a great example to show how much Romero can let the ball get away from him before shooting, to get himself a large run-up and shoot with more power.

Once again, the process takes too long and the shot is blocked.

Improve his decision making

Romero also needs to improve his final third decisions to become a more complete and productive attacker. Specifically, he needs to be aware of the best moments to shoot, and when it’s better to look for a teammate or try to get into a more dangerous position.

There’s a couple of good examples against Querétaro. This long-shot is extremely difficult to score from, considering the distance, angle and the pair of defenders positioned in the direct line towards the goal. Romero has passing options on the left and right, or could trick the defender close to the ball. The Querétaro sticks out a leg to try to block, making him lose balance, and Romero could easily change direction and carry the ball to the right.

Here, Romero doesn’t recognize that his ball carry and intention to shoot has attracted a large number of Querétaro players towards the ball. It’s very difficult to hit the target with a shot here, but there’s a Cruz Azul attacker moving unmarked towards the far-post. Romero should cross the ball, but ends up with another blocked effort.

Whilst Luka Romero hasn’t had a huge impact with Cruz Azul in his first matches, he’s still just one of six attacking-midfielders under 21-years-old that’s played over 600 minutes, and has shown some key strengths.

To increase his attacking output, it’s key that Romero works specifically on his decision making, and his shooting technique and process, reducing the time between his set-up touch and shot. His technique is correct to try to shoot with a lot of power, but generating quick, powerful shots, without such a big back-lift or run-up, is important to reduce the possibility of a block and the time that a goalkeeper has to adjust. For example, a Jon Mackenzie study showed that the time between the set-up touch and shot is an important factor in goalscoring in the Premier League. Erling Haaland was the best ranked striker in his study, with the lowest time between touch and shot.

Romero has a lot of potential, but he, and Cruz Azul, have to develop some details in his game, if he’s going to become one of the most productive attacking-midfielders in Liga MX.

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/