The Jupiler Pro League has established itself from a lesser-known league to a relevant league with huge talents, progressive clubs, and a ground for young prospects to develop themselves. In this article, I will look at one of those players that has grown in the league: Jack Hendry.
The player moved to Club Brugge this summer which sees the Scotsman be on the national top in Belgium and participating in the Champions League. In this analysis, we will focus on his key passing during the ongoing season.
I will use Wyscout data and video to assess how well Jack Hendry does perform in the 2021/2022 season so far. In the end, I will use video to look at some of their through passes in this season.
If we look at the progressive passes per 90, we see that Hendry has 5,78 progressive passes per 90 in the 2021-2022 season in the Belgian Jupiler Pro League. When we look at the passes to the final third per 90, we see that Hendry has 4,84 passes to the final third per 90. In terms of performances against his peers, he has average stats as a central defender, but he is definitely not the worst in terms of those metrics.
If we look at the key passes per 90, we see that Hendry has 0 key passes per 90 in the 2021-2022 season in the Belgian Jupiler Pro League. When we look at the through passes per 90, we see that Hendry has 0,28 through passes per 90. In terms of performances against his peers, he has below-average stats as a central defender. For a central defender that many passes forward and to the final third, his actual key passes are not included in this season – he didn’t attempt them according to Wyscout.
In the image above you Jack Hendry from Club Brugge, compared to central defenders in the 2021-2022 Jupiler Pro League. This shows us the rank of his key passing data compared to his peers. He scores way below average on most metrics, only three metrics are in the region of average: Assists per 90, xA per 90 and passes to the final third per 90.
Now I will look at the passes from the last 4 games Hendry has played in Jupiler Pro League to assess his passing qualities: Charleroi (A), OH Leuven (H), Anderlecht (A) and Antwerp (A).
These are the last four games played by Jack Hendry in the Jupiler Pro League with Club Brugge. These colormaps show us where Hendry operated in those fout games and give us a heatmap of the central defenders. As you can see in all of the maps, Hendry is a progressive central defenders who loves position himself high up his own half to progress the play as directly as possible.
This can also be seen in the passmaps of Hendry during those four games, which can be seen below:
You can see the passes conducted by Hendry in the games against Charleroi, OH Leuven, Anderlecht and Antwerp. You can see that he likes to pass to the right, especially to any right back making runs down the line or wide midfielder. He attempts to reach those players on the flanks and usually tries to attempt a progressive pass: the passes progress the play and it means that the ball will go from the defensive third to the middle third, initiating attacking sequences.
Video analysis
In the four fragments below you can see four different types of passes that Jack Hendry has made in the last four games. It illustrates the way he contributes to this Club Brugge side and where his passes come from.
In the video above you see Club Brugge in their game against OH Leuven with Club Brugge in possession of the ball. They are dominant on the ball and that means that their back four will have a high line. By doing so the quality on the ball of the central defenders need to be there. Hendry gets the ball in the middle third and his pass here isn’t progressive in terms of meters, but his pas leads to the next phase of the build-up: constructing the attack. That pass is positive in the sense that it doesn’t go to a left/right back.
In the video above you see Club Brugge in their game against OH Leuven with Club Brugge in possession of the ball. They are dominant on the ball and that means that their back four will have a high line. By doing so the quality on the ball of the central defenders need to be there. This is a similar kind of pass going forward, but Hendry immediately receives the ball back and looks for the long pass to the left flank in order to go the attacking third on the flank.
In the video above you see Club Brugge in their game against Charleroi. Again, Club Brugge is dominant on the ball and play with a high defensive line, which means that Hendry gets the ball in the middle third. In the aforementioned examples he progresses the ball through the central zones, but this time he progresses it via the flank on the right. This is a good pass, because it’s not sideways, but moves the play into the attacking third via his right back.
In the video above you see Club Brugge in their game against Charleroi. Again, Club Brugge is dominant on the ball and play with a high defensive line, which means that Hendry gets the ball in the middle third. This time Hendry is put under pressure by the opposition’s pressing, but he remains calm and still executes a pass through the central zones, which potentially can lead to another positional attack.
Final thoughts
Jack Hendry has moved to Club Brugge over the summer and some people have questioned his ability to keep up with the level that is asked of him. Looking at the data and video, one can say that he’s doing reasonably well so far, but he has not been outstanding – however, if his key passing can progress, he might be one of the better players for the club in the near future.
