COLUMN: Consistently intense, inconsistently brilliant – the unique case of Rayo Vallecano | OneFootball

Intensity has become synonymous with modernity in the Premier League. In England, the general trend is to accelerate the tempo, and football in the British Isles has always prized physical capacity at all levels.

That seemed to to fit perfectly with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, or Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea, who redefined playmaking by placing increased emphasis on what happened without the ball. Under Andoni Iraola, Rayo Vallecano were one of the few teams in La Liga to successfully implement the idea. Only a few months after his departure to Bournemouth, his assistant Inigo Perez took his seat in Vallecas. Since then, a word remains from his tenure: intensity. 

Historically characterised by a local and left-wing fanbase with a stadium located at the heart of Vallekas, Rayo Vallecano isn’t a club like any other. Likewise, it is a club run like no other. The President, Raul Martin Presa, of the opposite political wing, has regularly clashed with the fanbase. Perez, like his predecessor, is aware that as a result, Rayo is a club with deep logistical flaws. Often been labelled as one of the worst away grounds in La Liga, the aged infrastructure has been the subject of prior analysis, but is entirely different article. 

There is no denying that those deep flaws create a mysterious romanticism around the club. Perez knows it better than anyone. “Because of the lack of structure, the coach is involved in decisions across many different areas and departments… Rayo is maybe the best club in La Liga to develop as a coach. I could not find these particular conditions anywhere else,” he recently told The Athletic. Those conditions do allow a fanatical pursuit of Perez’s methods, who is just as animated on the touchline as any of the Bukaneros ultras behind the Rayo goal. For Perez, pace and intensity comes first. His belief is that his side should look to steal the ball high, at which point they can eat up the space with fast-paced attacks.

Rayo are the antithesis of what many La Liga clubs have been doing in past years. In a world of Getafes, where Alaves and RCD Mallorca have sought solidity before thinking about being incisive, since the Iraola era, Vallecas has opted for the opposite approach. What allows the support to get behind them so fervently is the basic requirement of the players, the one they value most – heart. If players do not give it their all, at all times, those gaps appear in their own side. The issue? Sometimes, a few individual mistakes can upset a carefully planned out domino effect, the prime example coming against Lech Poznan in the Conference League, where Rayo found themselves two goals down, but overturned the deficit to a 3-2 victory in the last minute.  

For Perez, everything must be intense. That much was evidenced by a recent bust-up with right-back Ivan Balliu. “You play like you train” fits snugly into football’s long list of tropes, but Perez lives it. “It’s important for each exercise to be very dynamic with a very high load and lots of tactical density.” Adapting his exercises according to the opponent, Perez has caused palpitations for both Barcelona and Real Madrid. Los Blancos have taken just three points from their last four visits. The Catalans have a singular win in five visits since Rayo returned to La Liga in 2021. For a club with the capacity to spend 16 times less than Real Madrid, and 7.5 times less than Barcelona, it’s punching a whole team of boxers in the mouth.

Rayo players enjoy a unique relationship with the fans, which Perez is familiar with from his native city, Pamplona. Both can lay claim to genuinely unique relationships, bonding the area with the club, due to the increasingly rare stadium location at the social heart of the neighbourhood. Perez’s style draws in the 12th man, and sets them sprinting forward in pursuit of the opposition. It also explains Rayo’s inconsistencies, when ultra group ‘Bukaneros’ boycott the stadium, be it due to disenchantment with Presa, or other regular offences such as La Liga’s scheduling of games on weekdays. Yet, when they are there, in full voice, the club is more united than ever.

Clarity is another key component of Rayo’s success. Perez is incessant, and demands that his players must ‘understand why’ they play in this way, his philosophy dictating that faith in the capacity to make the right decision comes ahead of general strategic indications. This is a club that feels as it thinks, a culture that is felt first and foremost by the players on the pitch. Combining physical intensity with psychological clarity, Isi Palazon and Andrei Ratiu best represent this interpretation of football.

Image via Juanjo Martín / EFE

Rayo Vallecano may not have the best squad, which refreshingly in the modern game, has not stopped them from giving the best teams a hard time. Perez saw the flaws in Barcelona’s current defensive struggles, and targeted them in such stark fashion that his approach became commonplace for every side for facing Hansi Flick’s high line. Aware that Xabi Alonso is still formulating his ideas at the Bernabeu, Rayo did not just combat Rael Madrid’s approach, but forced them into an entirely different game. The understanding of the options available, along with the reference point of his plan, and the non-negotiable tempo, gives their players an advantage from the first minute.

There is nothing ‘typical’ about Rayo Vallecano. Yet this is what created its charm, and what has been weaponised by Perez against the rest of La Liga. Vallekas is one of the few barrios in Madrid with such a staunch rejection of the two largest sharks in the city. Its inconsistencies make it one of the most exciting clubs in Spain. After their draw with Real Madrid, the Rayo fans demanded Perez return to the pitch after going down the tunnel, and upon his return, was greeted by chants asking him and Balliu to ‘kiss’, and in effect consummate their make-up. It’s an imperfect world in Vallecas, and yet in this imperfection, Perez has found a deeply engrossing football romance.