It really is the most daunting thing alive, goalkeeper analysis – but I am still going to write it. The debate of who should be the Swedish number one goalkeeper for the national team is an interesting one. In this particular analysis I will look at Zećira Mušović’s performances in 2021/2022 and whether she has a good chance of being the number one in goal for Sweden for the WWC 2023.
Mušović plays for Chelsea in the WSL and to properly analyse her in that league, we will look at 4 different categories to assess with data and video how good she really is. These categories are important when we look at the modern goalkeeper.
Shot stopping
Ball handling & reflexes
Aerial command
Distribution
The data and video come from Wyscout and were collected on September 3rd, 2022.
Shot stopping
In the scatterplot above you can see two different metrics combined. We want to measure the quality of the shots faced and we can do that with expected goals against per 90 minutes. Then we want to see how the goalkeeper do in saving shots in percentages.
We see that Mušović has 0,45 xGA per 90 minutes which is quite low in comparison to keepers with more shots faced. This can be easily explained by the fact that those goalkeepers play for teams that concede more shots due to their quality. Chelsea is the best team in the league and therefore will face fewer shots. Mušović’s save rate is 72,31% and is only below 3 other keepers: Berger (Chelsea), Roebuck (Manchester City), and Zinsberger (Arsenal).
In the bar graph above you the metric of prevented goals. With this metric, we can measure the quality of saves with the likelihood of goals. Expected goals against minus conceded goals = prevented goals. You can see that Mušović scores 4th with 0,12 prevented goals per 90 minutes.
Here Mušović plays against Lyon with Chelsea and she keeps close to her near post and doesn’t give them space. She knows the defenders have the far post, but even in case of a cross, she can defend the near post and central areas.
In the game against Spurs she sees a ball from deep and anticipates not correctly at first, but still manages to make a safe.
Ball handling and reflexes
A closer look at saves makes us aware of ball handling. With this, I mean the way they handle the ball when it comes toward them for a save: are they going for the catch or are they going for the parry to the sides? This all depends on what is needed and essential in those moments.
In the game against West Ham we see a situation where a deep ball goes towards a goal and seems easy to catch, but it’s not always the right choice. In this example, she could have positioned herself better for the catch or immediately chosen for the tap over the goal.
This example is one of how she not only positions herself well to catch the ball but also puts her weight behind the ball to get a better stance. By catching it instead of parrying it, she can continue to play quicker and start a counter-attack.
How well does she react to unexpected balls or balls where she doesn’t have a lot of time to decide what to do? In other words how well does she do with reflexes? You can see that in the clip above when she played against Wolfsburg with Chelsea. She anticipates well on the bounce in the ball and makes a good save, with parrying to the side — so it will lead to less danger.
Aerial command
In terms of style we can also look at the two different metrics portrayed in this particular scatterplot: exits per 90 and aerial duels per 90. Exits indicate how many she has left her line and the aerial duels speak for itself.
What we can see is that Mušović doesn’t like to leave the line too much or engage in aerial duels. You can see that she has the lowest number in both metrics of all goalkeepers in WSL — indicating she is move of a line-keeper.
Distribution of the ball under pressure
So far we have seen Mušović is good on her line and can make saves from there pretty well, but we have also seen that she is not very prone to leave her area and commit to aerial commands.
Another important part of goalkeeping is how the ball is distributed via passing when under pressure. Mušović struggles with that as she has a clear idea what to do, but her execution is poor at times.
She gets the ball back here from her central defender and there is press from Lyon on the ball. She chose to kick it long as the full-backs are wide, but the execution is poor and it means loss of ball.
We can see the same here. She gets the ball back and Spurs press her. Her first touch is a tad disappointing meaning she limits herself in options and has to kick the ball long with her left foot. In doing so she uses her only options and it goes for a throw-in.
When we look at modern keepers we want them to feel comfortable on the ball and be press resistant. They should act as the 4th or 5th defender in possession of the ball. Mušović can do that when there is no pressure and that’s a sign of something to think about.
Final thoughts
These are just a few things we can assess a goalkeeper on, but these categories and metrics give us insight into the playing style of a goalkeeper. Mušović is great with saves, reflexes and balls on the line, but doesn’t engage in exits, aerial duels much. Also, she doesn’t feel as comfortable on the ball when being pressed.
All these things don’t mean she isn’t a good goalkeeper, in fact she is one of the best at shot-stopping in the league. In terms of a modern goalkeeper, she qualifies as a shot-stopper than a sweeper keeper/ball-playing keeper. In these series, I will look at the Swedish goalkeepers of the national team individually and finally assess whether they fit into the mold of the national team wants to play.
I remember the final days of the summer transfer market in 2020. PSV managed to sign Mario Götze and Ibrahim Sangare. While we don’t have to share Götze’s story, the majority of the Dutch Eredivisie fans, and in particular PSV fans, had absolutely no idea who they signed.
Now, I don’t pride myself in a lot — but seeing Sangare moving from a relegated Toulouse side to a title contender in the Netherlands, I was so excited. And with me, a lot of data nerds and football manager aficionados. The defensive midfielder was rumored to be great and even make the step to a bigger league, but he has done remarkably well in the Eredivisie.
In this scout report I will go into detail about his 2021/2022 Eredivisie season, concentrating on the following aspects:
He’s an impressive midfielder to come across with a physique to match that image. He’s a player that will demand presence and will easily gravitate toward the ball. But he’s more than just a strong physical presence, he does very well in progressing the ball from the defensive third into the middle third by carrying it.
His passing profile allows him to bring the ball into the final third to construct attacks in the final phase of attacking play. He is the best when he passes simple and straightforward, but does get himself into difficult situations when he tries complex passing.
While he is strong on the ball and progresses the play via passes, he does have difficulties in positioning himself well, when build-up starts from the back. He often seems lost or too conservative on the pitch, which leads to ineffective build-up. When the ball is higher up the pitch he links up well with passing triangles on either flank, as well as seeing runners from deep and reaching them with long balls.
We will go into details for the specific stats later for the absolute data, but in this part, we will look at how well he is doing in certain metrics and what that tells us about his playing style.
In terms of passing, we see that he scores quite average on the expected assists metric and on the passes into the penalty area — but he he does very well in the passes to the final third metric, which tells us he wants to get the ball there. This is also backed up by the fact that his progression stats are very good, as he scores above the 80th percentile for this metric.
The same position was assumed for the 4–2–2–2 PSV employed. While the position is the same, the role for the progression of the ball changes. More responsibility is given to the double pivot for attacking actions as they need to participate more in the attacking play.
You can see that he recovers most of the balls on the left side between the middle third and the defensive third. The same area is roughly the area where he does intercept the ball, indicating his proactive thinking leads to recoveries of the ball. His tackling does happen all over the pitch and is mainly targeting at the last attempt to get the ball. The high volume of tackles in the opposition’s half indicates that these are attempts to break counter-attacks.
So how high does he score when looking at the defensive midfielders in the league? You can see that in the scatterplot below.
In the scatterplot above you can see how well he performs in terms of the PAdj metrics of sliding tackles and interceptions.
He doesn’t commit a lot to sliding tackles per 90 minutes, as you can see he scores below average with his 0,2 sliding tackles per 90 minutes. In terms of interceptions, he does score very high and above average. His 9,14 sliding tackles per 90 minutes are only bested by Edson Alvarez (Ajax).
In the video above you see a compilation of his defensive actions with PSV in several games. They light his ball recovering ability, his strength in defensive duels and in the defensive awareness of Sangare.
BALL PROGRESSION
The modern defensive midfielder isn’t only concerned with defending and producing defensive actions — but he/she also needs to be comfortable on the ball and progress play from it.
In the scatterplot above you can see the progressive metrics of progressive passes per 90 and progressive runs per 90. Sangare does really well here as he scores above average in both metrics. He is a complete player and finds himself surrounded by a player like Kökcü, who is another great prospect in the Eredivisie.
Ball progression can have via different aspects of the game, but I wanted to look at his abilities on the long ball. He can use it to connect with the attacking third or to get out the press of the opposition.
In doing so, Sangare not only proves his defensive worth — but also manages to show the worth he has in terms of the progression of the attack and connecting the defensive lines to the attacking third.
KEY PASSING
Every player makes passes in a game, but which passes actively contribute to the progression and construction of an attack? You can see some of these metrics in the beeswarmplot below.
What’s interesting is how he makes through passes. He scores in the high average, but the intent of his through passes does tell a lot about how he can help in an attack.
In the scatterplot below you can see the shots per 90 and the expected goals with those shots. This shows us the volume and the quality of the shots — it shows the likelihood of a shot being converted into a goal.
Apart from shooting in the box, he loves to shoot from zone 14 — as that is the zone where comes frequently and tries to shoot from distance. He has scored twice from there and in the video below we will show some of his shots. I’ve also included games with Ivory Coast to give a more complete idea.
I’m a great fan of Polish domestic football and of the products they have produced of the two decades. It’s great to see recognition of the footballer in the top 5 leagues in Europe for example, but there are so many great footballers just below that level. Obviously, I pay special attention to the Eredivisie and that’s why this article is all about Sebastian Szymański who has been signed by Feyenoord.
Feyenoord has done well to sign him from Dinamo Moscow on loan with an option to buy. He will play the 2022/2023 season with Feyenoord in the Eredivisie and the attacking midfielder will be one of the most exciting signings in the Eredivisie.
In this article, we will use data and video from the 2021/2022 season to illustrate how good he is and how he can use that in the Eredivisie. The data is collected via Wyscout and Opta. The video comes from InStat.
Contents
Biography
Seasonal stats
Ball progression
Dribbling
Key passing
Goalcontributions
Final thoughts
Biography
Name: Sebastian Szymański
Date of birth: 10–05–1999
Nationality: Polish
Position: Attacking midfielder
Contract expires: 30–6–2026, on loan with Feyenoord until 30–06–2023
Current club: Feyenoord (L)
Previous clubs: Legia Warschau, Dinamo Moscow
International: Poland (15 games)
The 23-year-old midfielder is 1,74 meters long, which isn’t very tall. He doesn’t have the physical profile to go into duels and win them, but he is quite mobile,agile, and fast — which helps him get into better situations in defence.
He is great at receiving the ball and move with the ball into more progressive areas. By doing so he allows himself and his teammates to be more attacking-minded, and in extensions of that — to be more of a threat. His passing is secure and breaks lines, which we can see in his key passing.
In defence he is quite aggressive as that is his way of regaining control of the ball, but that’s also one of his flaws — as other way are quite difficult for him to master. In ground duels and in aerial duels he isn’t great and part of it is that his height doesn’t help. Nor does his timing.
As a central midfielder with strong attacking tendencies, he also can play in an attacking midfielder role — where he is used more, but also on the right wing in attack. He’s quite versatile in his roles, but what connects him with all these things is his strength in attacking actions.
Seasonal stats
We will go into details for the specific stats later for the absolute data, but in this part, we will look at how well he is doing in certain metrics and what that tells us about his playing style.
He is not someone who crosses a lot. While he does get in the position to cross, he likes to keep the ball low. He scores in the top 25% of every other metrics and bar the xA per 90, shots on target % and xG per 90 — he scores in 84th percentile and higher. In terms of data, he does exceedingly well in the Eredivisie at his position, compared to his peers.
This doesn’t signify performances, but talks mostly about the style of Szymanski. That’s why most of the times there isn’t taken an accuracy metric, but an attempted metric.
In the attacking metrics we see that he scores above the 80th percentile for Goals scored (83rd percentile), for progressive runs (81st percentile) and even above the 90th percentile with dribbles (92nd percentile),
in the defensive metrics he scores quite poor, except for possession-adjusted sliding tackles (71st percentile) and defensive duels won % (77th percentile. In the other metrics he scores below average.
When we go to the key passing metrics, he does very well. Passes to final third (62nd) and progressive passes (59th) are not that exciting, but the rest is exceptionally high. Especially xA (98th percentile), key passes (98th percentile) and passes to box (92nd percentile).
Ball progression
As a central midfielder it’s of great importance that you are not only comfortable with the ball at your feet, but also progress play from the different thirds.
In the scatterplot above you can see the progressive metrics of progressive passes per 90 and progressive runs per 90. Szymanski does really well here as he scores above average in the progressive passes metric, and above the progressive runs metric. There are only a few players better in progressing the ball.
Szymanski has 6,71 progressive passes per 90 and 1,78 progressive runs per 90 in the 21/22 Russian Premier League. This is an indication of him doing well in relation to his peers.
Dribbling
Szymanski is excellent at dribbling as we have seen in the stylistic pizza plot above, but how does he do that? What makes him so good at dribbling? You can see that in the GIFs below.
In this GIF you see how he receives the ball in the middle third and three players challenge him and try to get him off the ball. In the end he moves from the central areas into the left half-space and delivers a through ball to one of the strikers.
Similar kind of dribble here, where he will within the middle third with open space and look for the runners behind the defensive line. Yes, his through passes can have a higher accuracy, but the intention is always there.
As stated above, Szymanski can also play on the right wing and this illustrates why he also can be a threat on the wing in the 1v1. He can easily beat an opponent on the right flanks, progress and spot a teammate in the box.
Key passing
Every player makes passes in a game, but which passes actively contribute to the progression and construction of an attack? You can see some of these metrics in the beeswarmplot below.
As you can see in the graph above, Szymanski scores quite high above average in almost every metric, only passes to final third are slightly more to the average.
What’s interesting is how he makes key passes. He scores in the high average, but the intent of his through passes does tell a lot about how he can help in an attack.
Goalcontributions
Szymanski does sometimes come in the position to shoot, but how does he do in the quality of shooting?
In the shot map above you can see from where Szymanski has conducted his shots in the 2021/2022 Russian Premier League season. He had 41 shots of which 6 went in goal. He generated a total xG of 3,33 — the latter meaning that he is overperforming with +2,67.
Apart from shooting in the box, he loves to shoot from outside the penalty area as most of his shots come from there. Not very successful, but he loves to take a shot from the central areas.
Not only did he score 6 times, but he also provided 8 assists during the season.
Final thoughts
Szymanski is an exceptionally exciting central midfielder. While he might seem light and not great at the defensive side of the game, he does add so much in attacking. His passing contribution, the goalcontributions and his dribbling — these qualities will help Feyenoord a lot in this Eredivisie season.
If you are a follower of Dutch football or the Champions League in general, you will have heard of it: Ruud van Nistelrooij is PSV’s new head coach. It was announced a few months ago, but for me it’s time to look at it more closely from a tactical perspective. What does Van Nistelrooij bring to PSV? How does he differ from his predecessor? And, what can we expect from this team and his pivotal players?
Contents
Biography
Jong PSV — data
Jong PSV — tactics
PSV — tactics
Differences with Schmidt
Eye for youth
Final thoughts
Biography
Ruud van Nistelrooij hardly needs ian ntroduction as he was a world class player, but to sum it up:
Name: Ruud van Nistelrooij
Date of birth: 01–07–1976
Nationality: Dutch
Position: Striker (player)
Contract expires: 30–6–2025
Clubs (player): FC Den Bosch, SC Heerenveen, PSV, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Hamburger SV, Malaga
Clubs (coach): Dutch team assistant, PSV Youth, Dutch team assistant, Jong PSV, PSV
So what can we expect from Ruud van Nistelrooij at PSV? Most of it is based on how he let his Jong PSV side play in the Eerste Divisie. He has been labeled as a coach that has a style that mixes Bobby Robson, Diego Simeone, and Marcelo Bielsa. But how does he do that? This article hopefully is the answer to that.
Jong PSV — Data
Before we look into the tactics of Van Nistelrooij, we will look closer to what his Jong PSV side achieved in the Eerste Divisie 21/22. They ended the league on a 12th position which was fairly okay considering their average age is 19,9 years old.
Not my best data visual, I must admit — but interesting nonetheless. Jong PSV with an average age of 19.9 years old, managed to finish 12th on points. In goals scored they ranked 8th, expected goals 15th — which can be concluded as a structural overperformer in those metrics. The same goes for conceded goals vs expected goals against — more goals went in than expected.
What is important for Van Nistelrooij is that his teams are attacking teams that are dominant on the ball and dominate play from possession. In that regard, his Jong PSV side did very well with the 4th place in possession.
Jong PSV — tactics
The information on the data is very brief, but the question arises: how did Ruud van Nistelrooij accomplish this? We will take a brief look at his tactics at Jong PSV.
First of all, the build-up. For Van Nistelrooij it’s of extreme importance to have control of ball possession and making sure you always got an overload against a pressing opposition. So you are playing against a 4–2–3 or a 4–3–3, they will likely press the central defenders with their striker and their ‘10’. What PSV always wants to have in these situations is that they have one defensive playermore than the opposition — to create an overload and surpass the press. This is usually done by a midfielder dropping deep. When the opposition uses three players to press, PSV will do the build up with four defensive players — in this case it will be the back four and the midfielder will not drop deep. It also has an advantage in rest defence, because you already have a decent defensive organisation in there. It’s in this ideal of building up, he has watched Bielsa a lot.
Next step, is the conversion of ball possession to creating chances. PSV have a lot of possession but keep it long too — which can lead to non-efficient attacks. To come to chances, PSV is very reliant on the wingers to create something and for that the positioning of the backs is vital. Before we touch upon that, we have to stress that the diagonal balls from the defensive/middle third are of vital importance in this way of play/
In the image above you can see how PSV operate when they have the ball with their central defenders. Initially he full backs move up down the line in this 4–2–3–1 and the double pivot drops deep. Van Nistelrooij want his full backs to invert to allow more space for his wingers in the next attacking phase.
The reason why Van Nistelrooij does this is that he likes his full backs to operate in the half-space in a playmaker role. But, more importantly, he wants his wingers to have space to make the 1v1 and have space to dribble. If you play in these positions/roles — dribbling ability is very important to him in attack.
For a striker, it’s of great importance to make yourself available via third-man runs, but also be able to play the target man role in Jong PSV.
When entering the transition phase from attack to defence, there are a few interesting things to be seen in Jong PSV. When losing the ball, there are two task to be carried out. The first one is for most forward players to press with the intention of making sure all depth is cut out of the ball possession. The second task is for the defensive players to drop deep so that the defensive organisation is restored. This might be seen as a bit more conservative idea of play, but it also leads to the fact that counter-attacks aren’t dangerous in this approach. Defensively solid, but regaining possession in the midde third, doesn’t happen a lot.
In terms of defending when the opposition has the ball, Van Nistelrooij favours to play deeper and play man-marking. He likes pure defensive actions and the ability for defenders to stick tight to the opposition and defend their player. This again, might be considered as a slightly more traditional approach — but it also leads to the notion that Jong PSV recovers many balls in their own defensive third.
PSV — tactics
So translating this view to PSV is obviously admirable, but does it work 1-on-1? Short answer: no. Let’s have a look at how PSV likes to start. They like to start in a 4–3–3- formation in which they have three pure attackers and a three-man midfield. This midfield often consists of a single pivot (Sangare) and two attacking midfielders (Veerman and Til).
In defence, the formation changes. This is not only because of how Van Nistelrooij wants to maximise the opportunity to regain the ball, but also because of the man-marking — so the system needs to be flexible. He often changes his 4–3–3 into a 4–1–4–1 defensively, as you can see below.
The 4–1–4–1 is formed by the wingers dropping deep to assist the two attacking midfielders who become central midfielders. The defensive midfielder in this scenario will drop deeper to form a bridge between the four-man defence and the four-man midfield.
Against more attacking qualitative sides, PSV will play a 4–4–2 in defence as well. It means that Sangare will get a partner in central/defensive midfield.
The 4–4–2 is formed by the same movement of the wingers. They drop deeper to aid the double pivot or central midfield duo. In this case the attacking midfielder will go up the pitch (Til) and aid the striker. The likely scenario in the rest of the season will be that Til will help De Jong — which is going to be a very important duo up front.
So will PSV defend or press the side where the ball is. Under Schmidt there was ball oriented pressing meaning that the whole team would shift to the side where ball was. The whole team would move as an unit to one side to press and regain possession of the ball. This could be quite effective and give you ball recovery high up the pitch, but it also left you exposed on the other flank.
Van Nistelrooij does this differently as you can see in the image below.
As you can see this is different from the other approach, but this also means less risk. When the opposition comes through behind Gakpo the left full-back can go higher up the pitch to confront the player. The rest stays in their position giving it more defensive solidity and no chance of attacking quickly over the other flank with a lot of space. A big disadvantage is that the ball is less likely to be recovered in the attacking final third and it gives the opposition chance to re-organise their defences.
Going forward the vitality of the wingers is essential. As illustrated above, the build-up will frequently end with dribbling wingers who will engage in a 1v1 one with the opposition.
In the image above you see the triangle on the right side when PSV attack over the right flank. They do this with the right winger, the right full back and the ‘10’ who will drop the side where the ball is. They trie to overload a certain area and come to a chance from that play.
This we also can see in the game vs Ajax recently.
In the image above you see Ajax highlighted, but notice how PSV (in grey/black) attack from the right with their triangle. They want to gain advantage by luring Ajax to that side.
Van Nistelrooij likes his wingers to engage in 1v1s, which also means that their will be movement in the two attacking lines in the attacking third. Here we see Til and De Jong high in the box, but also Veerman and Gakpo moving up on the pitch — unmarked.
By luring the opposition to that side again, PSV opens up space in the middle because Ajax doesn’t react adequately.
The three players on the right have occupied time and space for the Ajax defenders and this means PSV can attack through the central zones and move up the pitch. This can lead to attacking, dangerous situations in which they can profit.
Strengths and weaknesses
PSV can be really dangerous through the early cross. That early cross can give the striker and the attacking midfielder a good position to score. This is often done via De Jong and Til. To do that, it’s important for the full back to give the cross while the winger will invert and come into the central zones, ideally zone 14.
One of the major vulnerabilities is how PSV act when they lose the ball. As we have seen previously, the moment of ball recovery is mostly in the defensive third. This can be good when the opposition starts the build-up from the back, but when the ball is lost in the central zones and in the middle third, this gives problems for the defence. PSV has a really good defensive midfielder in Sangare, but when Veerman or Van Ginkel lose the ball in the central areas — the counterattack can lead to very dangerous situations. It’s something we have seen in pre-season and in the recent games against Monaco. Partly it’s because they are used to ball-oriented press and that a loss of the ball doesn’t mean a dangerous situation. But with the system Van Nistelrooij employs — this is exactly such a liability.
Van Nistelrooij speaks a lot about rest-defence and in those situations, the rest-defence isn’t properly utilised. When losing the ball on the flanks, the rest-defence is organised quite well, but in situations where it happens in the central zones against a quick, direct opposition — this leaves big questions. The defence is one of the most vulnerable aspects of this PSV side, so the rest-defence should be optimal to combat any threat through the middle.
Differences with Schmidt
The core difference between Schmidt and van Nistelrooij is that Van Nistelrooij goes back to more conservative values in terms of ball possession. Where Schmidt played a 4–2–2–2 with high ball-oriented press to get the ball in the attacking third, Van Nistelrooij is about being dominant with and on the ball, longer sequences of possession and only using one particular player that is tasked with regaining possession of the ball.
That difference is noticed with the players who are in a transition phase, especially in midfield. Chasing the ball instead of trusting the system to handle it defensively, has put PSV in some difficult situations — but with a few weeks time, I think this transition will be dealt with.
A keen eye for Jong PSV
Van Nistelrooij has a keen eye for the youth of Jong PSV, having worked with a few of them. Due to the unfortunate injury of Madueke, he has been forced to play more inexperienced players such as Bakayoko and Saibari, of which the latter has shown his potential a bit more — but both youngsters are doing quite well so far.
Given the fact that Van Nistelrooij has worked with Young PSV and with the U19s, he knows the culture of the academy as well as what the new prospects might be. That knowledge can help him in the long term going forward.
Final thoughts
It’s hard to tell how good Van Nistelrooij as a coach is. He has clear ideas of how he wants to progress, what roles and profiles he needs in his squad and the philosophy of football he wants to play. In many ways, he is the opposite of Schmidt and that means a lot of adapting by the players. We have seen that they are transitioning and are quite vulnerable in defensive situations — especially against Monaco.
But, if key players like Gakpo and Sangare stay in Eindhoven, with the arrival of Luuk de Jong and the talent in various areas on the pitch — this could be a very exciting season for PSV. It’s hard to say if they can compete with Ajax in the long run, but PSV can challenge — although Feyenoord will be a worthy adversary as well. It seems that Van Nistelrooij can grow in his role and in 2–3 seasons time, this might be a title-winning manager.
I started writing this piece as a general scout piece, but in the meantime it has come to everyone’s attention that Luis Sinisterra has made a move to Premier League club Leeds United for a record fee for Feyenoord. In this article we will look closer to his 2021/2022 Eredivisie season with Feyenoord.
Luis Sinisterra has been instrumental to this year’s Conference League success for Feyenoord in which they reached the final, but also in the Eredivisie under Arne Slot — Sinisterra has proven himself to be one of the better players in the Eredivisie.
We will use data and video to illustrate how Sinisterra has done in the Eredivisie 2021/2022 and we will focus on the winger position.
Contents
Biography
Seasonal stats
Positions/roles
Ball progression
Expected threat
Key passing
Shooting
Final thoughts
Biography
Name: Luis Sinisterra
Date of birth: 17–06–1999
Nationality: Colombian
Position: Left winger
Contract expires: 30–6–2024
Current club: Feyenoord
Previous clubs: Once Caldas, Feyenoord
International: Colombia (5 games)
Luis Sinisterra is a funny footballer in the sense that he can be described as having two different styles when is on the ball. He is good with the ball at his feet and is a master at dribbling. Beating his direct opponent(s) in a 1v1 is one of his strong suits, and after he uses his pace to get into a good position in order to provide a cross. In that sense, he looks like a classical winger.
But he can also be described as a playmaker on the wing. On the occasions that he does beat his direct opponents, but inverts — we see his ability as a playmaker. Going into the halfspaces, he allows full backs to overlap and provide passes there. Or, he tries to spot a runner from the central zones and provides the through ball and set the runner in a 1v1 with the goalkeeper.
Off the ball, he tends to be lost in his positioning and awareness. With being a winger at Feyenoord, he needs to be doing his defensive duties as well. There is no lack of mentality or drive, but due to his positioning being off — he gives himself a disadvantage going forward.
Seasonal stats
When we look at his season stats, we can see a few interesting things with Sinisterra. In the graph above you can see a percentile radar of Sinisterra based on a winger/wide midfielder template. It shows us how well Sinisterra is doing in certain data metrics compared to his Eredivisie peers in the 2021/2022 season.
We will go into details for the specific stats later for the absolute data, but in this part, we will look at how well he is doing in certain metrics and what that tells us about his playing style.
He is not someone who crosses a lot. While he does get in the position to cross, he likes to keep the ball low. He scores in the top 25% of every other metrics and bar the xA per 90, shots on target % and xG per 90 — he scores in 84th percentile and higher. In terms of data, he does exceedingly well in the Eredivisie at his position, compared to his peers.
Positions/roles
In the image above you can see the positions in a 4–2–3–1 where Sinisterra can play. He is the best suited for the wide midfield/wingers role, where he needs to make runs down the line and in doing so provides passes for the attackers in Feyenoord’s side.
In the image above you can see a 4–2–3–1, but he can play as a wide midfielder in a 4–4–2, 4–5–1 or 4–1–4–1 too. If you play with three attackers in a 4–3–3, he will play higher up the pitch as a left winger.
Ball progression
The modern winger isn’t only concerned with dribbling and crosses — but he/she also needs to be comfortable on the ball and progress play from it.
In the scatterplot above you can see the progressive metrics of progressive passes per 90 and progressive runs per 90. Sinisterra does really well here as he scores above average in the progressive passes metric, and just above the progressive runs metric. There are only a few players better in progressing the ball.
Dribbling
Sinisterra is excellent at dribbling, but how does he do that? You can see that in the video below.
The basic idea behind xT is to divide the pitch into a grid, with each cell assigned a probability of an action initiated there to result in a goal in the next N actions. This approach allows us to value not only parts of the pitch from which scoring directly is more likely, but also those from which an assist is most likely to happen. Actions that move the ball, such as passes and dribbles (also referred to as ball carries), can then be valued based solely on their start and end points, by taking the difference in xT between the start and end cell. Basically, this term tells us which option a player is most likely to choose when in a certain cell, and how valuable those options are. The latter term is the one that allows xT to credit valuable passes that enable further actions such as key passes and shots. (Soccerment)
So how does Sinisterra contribute to attacking threat in the Eredivisie?
If we look at all these actions we can see Sinisttere is the third on the list of highest xT generated throughout the season via carries. He has an xT of 1,95. Only Tavsan (2,66) and Gakpo (2,00) are better.
Key passing
Every player makes passes in a game, but which passes actively contribute to the progression and construction of an attack? You can see some of these metrics in the beeswarmplot below.
As you can see in the graph above, Sinisterra scores quite high above average in almost every metric, only not the passes to final third. He scores excellent in the assists per 90 and the key passes per 90.
As you can see in the heat map of passes above, Sinisterra does the majority of his passes on the edge of the attacking third and in the middle third. As we see here is that he passes the ball close to the line and roughly in the same zones on the pitch.
What’s interesting is how he makes key passes. He scores in the high average, but the intent of his through passes does tell a lot about how he can help in an attack.
Sinisterra does sometimes come in the position to shoot, but how does he do in the quality of shooting?
In the shot map above you can see from where Sinisterra has conducted his shots in the 2021/2022 Eredivisie season. He had 73 shots of which 12 went in goal. 46,6% of his shots were on target and he generated a total xG of 7,56 — the latter meaning that he is overperforming with +4,44.
Apart from shooting in the box, he loves to shoot from the left side inside the penalty box. More than half of his goals come from this area.
Not only did he score a lot in the Eredivisie, but he also provided 6 assists during the season. In the video below you can see his assists during the season.
I have compared Sinisterra to three players of rivals. As you can see Antony and especially Gakpo are better in most metrics. When compared to Karlsson, we can see that Sinisterra scores a lot better in the possession metrics.
Final thoughts
Luis Sinisterra has had a difficult start at Feyenoord, but after adjusting to the culture of Rotterdam and Europe, he has started to become a very prolific player in both goals and assists. He also poses a great threat to any defence with his pace, 1v1s, and dribbles.
In terms of providing and contributing directly to a goal, he does really well with his goals and assists, and he is ready for a step higher considering his progress over the last 2 years.
Finding a good attacking left-back can be very tricky. The Eredivisie has Owen Wijndal — who I spoke about earlier, but another great young talent in that position as well. Feyenoord’s Tyrel Malacia is both linked to Manchester United and Olympique Lyonnais at the moment.
In this article, I analyse his performances in the 2021/2022 Eredivisie where I focus on data and video. The data and video has been collected on June 12th, 2022, and comes from Wyscout. The event data comes from Opta.
Contents
Biography
Seasonal stats
Ball progression
Key passing
Dribbles
Shooting
Comparison with Wijndal
Final thoughts
Biography
Name: Tyrell Malacia
Date of birth: 17–08–1999
Nationality: Dutch
Position: Left-back
Contract expires: 30–6–2024
Current club: Feyenoord
Previous clubs: Feyenoord (Y)
International: Netherlands (5 games)
Tyrell Malacia is your top athlete in a full-back role. He can cover ground from the attacking third to the defensive third and back, which makes him a threat in attack, but also sound in defence. Because he likes to engage in attacking activities on the pitch, this also means he needs to cover a lot of ground in defence and all this comes down to his pace. This allows him to be everywhere in that wide area of the pitch.
He is good in the 1v1 duels and doesn’t get dribbled past often. He engages in proactive defensive actions via interceptions and uses his speed to tackle when he is out of position. This happens quite regularly, after the transition has started, his defensive positioning is off and he needs to cover a lot of ground to correct it. His speed allows him to cover that ground and use a tackle, but this will be different in a top 5 league.
He can be considered as a player who likes to make runs down the line all to the backline, with a good cross. He likes to progress the ball via his passing and he interacts well with the left winger in that left wide area.
He’s quite predictable in his runs and actions, but because of the quality of his actions — he can be rather successful in doing so, combined with his work ethic to get it right.
Seasonal stats
In the pizza plot above you can see Malacia compared to full backs with 900 minutes in the Eredivisie 2021/2022.
He scores quite average on the defensive metrics, with the exception of the PAdj sliding tackles. In the passing metrics he scores in the 73rd percentile for xA, but 85th and 88th percentile for passes to the final third and passes to the penalty area. When we focus on the progression metrics, we see that he scores in the 80th and 88th percentile, which is quite good as well.
This data does explain a bit about his overall scores in comparison to his peers, but how and where does he make these actions? I will attempt to illustrate that below.
Defensive actions
Malacia seems to be doing well in the tackles metrics, but not so well in the interceptions metrics. But we need to delve deeper into this.
So where does he conduct these defensive actions?
In the pitch plot above you can see where Malacia commits most of his defensive actions. It’s interesting to see that his recoveries relate a lot to transitions and high up the pitch, which do relate to his interceptions. What’s interesting about his tackles is that he attempts to try counter-attacks high on the opponent’s half, but also deeper — which is a last resort tackle.
But how does he defend? We have seen where he defends, but what do successful defensive actions look like?
In the video above you see a compilation of his defensive actions with Feyenoord in several games against Twente, Ajax, AZ and PSV. They showcase his ball recovering ability, and how complex (or not) these are.
Ball progression
The modern defender isn’t only concerned with defending and producing defensive actions — but he/she also needs to be comfortable on the ball and progress play from it. Especially when you are an attacking full back or wing back.
In the scatterplot above you can see the progressive metrics of progressive passes per 90 and progressive runs per 90. Malacia does above average on the progressive passes per 90, and also above average on the progressive runs per 90.
Key passes
Every player makes passes in a game, but which passes actively contribute to the progression and construction of an attack? You can see some of these metrics in the beeswarmplot below.
As you can see in the graph above, Malacia scores quite high in most metrics, only in the assists per 90, he scores quite average. He is not the best in passing in his position but excels in the through passes, passes to the final third, and passes to the penalty area.
What’s interesting is how he makes key passes. He scores in the high average, but the intent of his key passes does tell a lot about how he can help in an attack.
Malacia is known to get forward a lot and into the wide areas of the final third. He is quick, agile, and knows how to beat his direct opponent in a 1v1, but also carries the ball into the half-space to orchestrate play.
Shooting
In the shot map above you can see from where Malacia has conducted his shots in the 2021/2022 Eredivisie season. He had 53 shots of which 1 went in goal. 17% of his shots were on target and he generated a total xG of 3,34 — the latter meaning that he is underperforming with -2,34.
Apart from shooting in the box, he loves to shoot from zone 14 and left from that zone — as that is the zone where comes frequently and tries to shoot from distance. This happens a lot from cleared balls from set pieces. But the most shots come from outside the penalty area, just like where he scored his only goal.
Comparison with Wijndal
Now we have looked at the individual qualities of Malacia, I would like to compare him to another very exciting left back: Owen Wijndal
Owen Wijndal has been regarded to have an excellent season and in an attacking sense he really has with his assists, and the xA is higher in this radar. But in every other data metric, Malacia scores better than his rival from AZ. The data is clearly in favour of Malacia in this particular profile.
Final thought
Tyrell Malacia is an incredibly exciting left back as he has shown at Feyenoord. He was instrumental to the way Arne Slot’s team was playing, both domestically and in Europe and he has shown to be a good match for top opposition. He isn’t starter material yet for a top club in a top 5 league, but in 2 years he will be ready.
He needs to work on his defensive positioning and his physical fitness because that is required in a league like Ligue 1 or the Premier League. This doesn’t mean he isn’t fit, but the impact of these leagues is bigger than the Eredivisie.
The Eredivisie is a league of developing and producing talent. While I spoke about developing talent in Jesper Karlsson, last time — I will now focus on a teammate of his: Owen Wijndal.
The left-back is doing great at AZ and is captaining his side. While the season might not have been most successful for AZ, Wijndal remains a beacon of hope and he will surely make a move in the near future.
In this article, I analyse his performances in the 2021/2022 Eredivisie where I focus on data and video. The data and video has been collected on June 12th, 2022, and comes from Wyscout. The event data comes from Opta.
Contents
Biography
Seasonal stats
Ball progression
Key passing
Assisting
Shooting
Comparison with peers
Final thoughts
Biography
Name: Owen Wijndal
Date of birth: 28–11–1999
Nationality: Dutch
Position: Left-back, left midfielder
Contract expires: 30–6–2024
Current club: AZ
Previous clubs: Haarlem (Y), AZ (Y)
International: Netherlands (11 games)
Owen Wijndal is a very progressive and attacking-minded full-back in the Eredivisie. He is strong on the ball and is comfortable in making runs down the line, moving up to the middle third, and distribute passes from there. He works well in the half-space to reach the striker but also plays very close on the wing with the winger. His combination-style of play with Jesper Karlsson has done wonders for both, as Karlsson loves to invert and then Wijndal can overlap. Creating attacking overloads is one of his specialties.
He does exceedingly well in a possession-based attacking side, but as too many progressive full-backs, the purely defensive side can be tricky. He covers a lot of ground and does well in the transition from attack to defence, but when he has to play in a defensive formation — he is easily exploited in these areas. Sitting in deeper blocks does exploit his average defensive positioning and awareness without the ball.
He often attempts passes into the final third and into the penalty area. His passing accuracy in doing so isn’t impressive, but his intent to always thinking offensively is. He is a very capable technical player who always want to seek the ‘football’ option, but this does also mean he doesn’t like to commit to tackles and challenges. Which, in the pure defensive side of the game, can get him into trouble.
Seasonal stats
In the pizza plot above you can see Wijndal compares to full backs with 900 minutes in the Eredivisie 2021/2022.
The first that pops up in the head is: it’s not exactly impressive data. If we look at this data from the point of view of a more traditional full back, we can see that the xA per 90 is very impressive and he scores is the 95th percentile. Next to that he only scores above average in the passes to penalty area per 90 and the progressive runs per 90.
While this might not be very impressive, it also isn’t too representative of him as a player, as he loves to play very attacking football. We will look into that in the next few paragraphs.
Defensive actions
Wijndal isn’t famous for his defensive actions as we have seen in the radars. Although he isn’t the best in defence, he will have to make corrections and intercept the ball.
So where does he conduct these defensive actions?
In the pitch plot above you can see where Wijndal commits most of his defensive actions. It’s interesting to see that his recoveries to relate a lot to transitions and high up the pitch, which do relate to his interceptions. What’s interesting about his tackles is that there are so few of them and all of them are on the half way line. This indicates this is often done to break a counter-attack by the opposition.
But how does he defend? We have seen where he defends, but what do successful defensive actions look like?
In the video above you see a compilation of his defensive actions with AZ in several games against Feyenoord, Ajax and PSV. They showcase his ball recovering ability, and how complex (or not) these are.
Ball progression
The modern defender isn’t only concerned with defending and producing defensive actions — but he/she also needs to be comfortable on the ball and progress play from it. Especially when you are an attacking full back or wing back.
In the scatterplot above you can see the progressive metrics of progressive passes per 90 and progressive runs per 90. Wijndal does below average on the progressive passes per 90, but does above average — albeit slightly — on the progressive runs per 90.
Ball progression can have via different aspects of the game, but I wanted to look at his abilities on the long ball. He can use it to connect with the attacking third or to get out the press of the opposition.
Key passes
Every player makes passes in a game, but which passes actively contribute to the progression and construction of an attack? You can see some of these metrics in the beeswarmplot below.
As you can see in the graph above, Wijndal scores quite high in the most metrics, he does do okay in the passes to final third third and passes to penalty area — but in general he does very well in these key passing metrics.
What’s interesting is how he makes key passes. He scores in the high average, but the intent of his key passes does tell a lot about how he can help in an attack.
In the video above you can see the assists given by Wijndal in the 2021/2022 season.
He has a very high number of assists during the 2021/2022 season in the Eredivisie. He has 10 assists in the Eredivisie with an xA of 4,81. Obviously he needs his attackers, but that’s a very impressive stat for the young defender.
Shooting
In the shot map above you can see from where Wijndal has conducted his shots in the 2021/2022 Eredivisie season. He had 23 shots of which 1went in goal. 21,7% of his shots were on target and he generated a total xG of 2,04 — the latter meaning that he is slightly underperforming with -1,04.
Apart from shooting in the box, he loves to shoot from zone 14 and left from that zone — as that is the zone where comes frequently and tries to shoot from distance. This happens a lot from cleared balls from set pieces. But the most shot come from the left side in the penalty area, just like where he scored his only goal.
Comparison with peers
Now we have looked at the individual qualities of Wijndal, I would like to compare him to three left backs from rivals.
In the comparison radar above you can see Wijndal compared to Blind from Ajax, and it’s quite clear that Blind is superior in the standard full back template. But, it has to be said that Blind really stands out in the Eredivisie — so this comparison doesn’t hold too much weight — but yes, Blind is good.
In the comparison radar above you can see Wijndal compared to Max from PSV, and this is a more even comparison. While they are quite comparable, Max is more of a conservative defender to Wijndal — which also can be seen in the xA per 90 and progressive runs per 90.
Also in comparison to Feyenoord’s Malacia — the traditional template for Wijndal, doesn’t look good. Only in the xA per 90 Wijndal does perform better.
Now, this doesn’t look too good for Wijndal compared to these peers — but Wijndal’s strength also lies in his combination play with the wingers, and the more attacking side of the passing game. As we have seen in the key passes.
Final thoughts Owen Wijndal is a fantastic player in attack. He links up with the wingers, can invert and operate from the half space and has a fantastic cross — look at his assisting stats. While he does well in the the attacking stats, his defensive coverage and intelligende do come with worries if he makes the step up to a T5 League.
He definitely has the ability to play as a left back in a back-four or as a left wing-back, but he does need defensive assistance, as that is not his best side.
It seems to be a common theme, but again — a Dutch player is being linked to Manchester United. Frenkie de Jong is a household name in elite European football, but there are so many who aren’t actually convinced of his abilities in certain roles. In my opinion, he is world-class and he is rather a unique player.
In this analysis though, I won’t be focusing on my opinion too much. But, I will use data and video to illustrate his season with FC Barcelona, and to illustrate how he could do under Ten Hag once more.
Contents
Data collection & visualisation
Biography
Strong and weak points
Positions/roles
Seasonal stats
Defensive profile
Ball progression
Dribbles
Key passing
Passing profile
Shooting
Frenkie de Jong — Donny van de Beek double pivot
Final thoughts
Data collection & visualisation
For this article, I will be using different data to illustrate his different actions on the pitch. The event data is collected from Opta. The match data is collected from Wyscout and so is the video material. The data has been collected on June 9th, 2022.
The programs used are Tableau for the scatterplots and bar graphs, Python/R for creating the pizza plots, the pitch plots, and the radar plots. The reason I focused on the match data at the club level is that gives a more accurate representation of what he could be like for another elite club.
Biography
Frenkie de Jong at Willem II
Name: Frenkie de Jong
Date of birth: 12–05–1997
Nationality: Dutch
Position: Central midfielder, defensive midfielder
Contract expires: 30–6–2026
Current club: FC Barcelona
Previous clubs: Willem II/RKC (Y), Willem II, Jong Ajax (Y), Ajax (Y)
International: Netherlands(41 games)
Strengths and weaknesses
Frenkie de Jong is an exciting talent but has evolved into a more mature role on and off the ball. He can be classified as a deep-lying playmaker with strong carrying and progressive abilities on the ball. His passing is excellent and he carries the ball into areas to create chances, but in the process also aims to create space for other players.
His strong game is his positioning and awareness. He knows where his teammates are in relation to him and the opposition. He scans frequently before engaging in an action, which gives him the advantage in what to do in the next few steps in his game. Although he does pass a lot within the defensive third and the middle third, he does pass with the intention to progress the ball and does that quite successfully.
He is instrumental in recognising and organising pressing in the defensive third and is great at dribbling. He is very much involved in collecting the ball in the defensive third, progressing it, and providing a vital pass that can be a second assist, a through ball or a cross pass.
While he is fantastic at progressing the ball and progressing in play, there are a few weaker points about his game. For a central midfielder that often plays a deeper role and likes to progress the ball, he is quite vulnerable in defensive actions. He often gets caught in the transition and has to correct his defensive positioning at times. He is great at tackling, but that’s because he needs to correct his positioning.
Positions/roles
In the pitch above you see a 4–2–3–1 situated. I’ve taken this formation, not because Barcelona play in it, but because it’s quite likely that Ten Hag will use a 4–2–3–1.
If we look at the position in the midfield, we can say that a few things. Frenkie de Jong isn’t good on the wing, so he will not play as a left-winger or left midfielder, same goes for the right-winger or right-midfielder position in a 4–2–3–1.
He could figure on the #10 role, but he has both positives and negatives in that particular role. He does well in creating chances, opening up space for others, and providing key passes. But, however, the actual final phase of an attack is something he isn’t great at. His shooting, for example, is suboptimal, which we will say later on in this piece.
The best option for Frenkie de Jong is in the double pivot. He could figure as a single defensive midfielder, but that would require more defensive duties and fewer progression events. So playing in a double pivot with a more traditional #6 and Frenkie next to it, with more progression — that would be his ideal role in a 4–2–3–1 under Ten Hag.
Season data
In the pizza plot above you can see how well Frenkie de Jong is compared to his peers in midfield. These are all midfielders in La Liga who have played a minimum of 900 minutes. Here we encounter the first problem when look at data, we always have to make a selection. Not always is does the template do justice do the quality of the players. For example, progression is not always even easy to measure — as we will see later on.
What you can is that he doesn’t do well in the shooting metrics, does above average to well in the passing metrics, but he does relatively good in the defensive metrics — even though that is not what he is famous for.
In the bar graphs above you can see Frenkie de Jong compared to his peers in midfield. The difference here is that he is compared to midfielders in the top 5 leagues in Europe: Bundesliga, Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1, and Serie A.
When we look at the attacking data he scores below average on the volume of shots per 90. He performs on average on the xG per 90, Goals per 90 and Non-penalty goals per 90, but in all the other metrics she scores relatively good to very good.
Focusing on the defensive data he scores below average in the shots blocked per 90 and PAdj interceptions per 90, but scores very high in the defensive duels, aerial duels, and PAdj Sliding tackles.
In the passing metrics — where we are most focused on, he scores under/on average on half of the metrics. But he does quite well in the key passes per 90 and does great in the passes to final third per 90, second assists per 90, and through passes per 90.
Defensive profile
If we want to learn more about his defensive profile, we can look at how he ranks in the possession-adjusted defensive actions of interceptions and sliding tackles. In the scatterplot above we can see that De Jong is quite average in both. He underperforms in PAdj Interceptions with 4,43. He slightly performs above average with PAdj Sliding tackles with 0,81.
But where does he make such actions? In the pitch plots below you can see this.
In the plot above you can see where Frenkie makes his defensive actions. In terms of interceptions, you can see that they are more sporadic and slightly higher up the pitch than the tackles. But if he has to commit to tackles, it’s either on the edge of the back line or between the defensive and middle third.
In terms of recovering the ball, you can see that he gets the ball the most on the left half-space between the defensive third and the middle third. This can also be seen in the video below of his recoveries in La Liga 2021/2022.
The modern defensive midfielder isn’t only concerned with defending and producing defensive actions — but he/she also needs to be comfortable on the ball and progress play from it.
In the scatterplot above you can see the progressive metrics of progressive passes per 90 and progressive runs per 90. De Jong does okay here as he scores above average in both metrics. He does quite well actually, but a bit distorted image due to Vinicius and Chukwueze.
Dribbles
In the scatterplot above you can see the dribbles per 90 and successful dribbles. You can see that FDJ has a success rate of 60% and score above average, but doesn’t participate in many dribbles compared to his peers in midfield.
So where does he participate in dribbles or take ons? In the heat map below you can see where he start them:
His take-ons — the actions to beat an opponent — come from the left half-space, but in the oppositions half, mostly in the middle third.
Key passing
Every player makes passes in a game, but which passes actively contribute to the progression and construction of an attack? You can see some of these metrics in the beeswarmplot below.
As you can see in the graph above, De Jong scores in the high average in most metrics, but there are outliers: through passes per 90 and passes to final third per 90. What’s interesting is how he makes through passes. He scores in the high average, but the intent of his through passes does tell a lot about how he can help in an attack.
When De Jong comes higher up the pitch, he can be the player with the through pass that is a pre-assist/second assist. He is the one creating the attack, but not necessarily featuring in the final phase of an attack. That’s why he scores quite high on second assists.
Passing profile
We have seen his specialism in key passing, but his positioning in passing is as important. Where does he pass from?
As we have seen with his attacking actions, he loves to operate on the left and that’s also how he has been used this season. But where he loves to operate in that left half space, he is not limited to there. Although less frequent, he does operate in the right half-space as well.
His passes do seem to come from the attacking third or high middle third and that also indicates that he progresses himself or the ball to those zones, before releasing passes. Indicating his involvement in the attacking side of the game.
Shooting
De Jong does sometimes in the position to shoot, but how does he do in the quality of shooting?
In the shot map above you can see from where De Jong has conducted his shots in the 2021/2022 La Liga season. He had 38 shots of which 3 went in goal. He generated a total xG of 4,65— the latter meaning that he is underperforming with -1,65.
He doesn’t shoot a lot and as he is underperforming, it isn’t his strongest suit — but when he comes into the box, he can pose a threat.
When we look at Manchester United’s squad, we also see a quite lost Donny van de Beek returning to Old Trafford. It seems likely that Ten Hag will use him, but with Frenkie de Jong in the squad as well — it might be the reunion of a very remarkable double pivot.
With a double pivot of De Jong-Van de Beek, the role for De Jong will change. He will be more conservative in his positioning, but that doesn’t mean he will be restricted in his actions like he was in the double pivot with Busquets. Van de Beek is better in the final third in finishing and setting people directly up, but De Jong will still make those runs forward.
Playing with a #6 and a #8 still is a thing Ten Hag likes to do in his double pivot, but with FDJ excellent ball-carrying abilities, it’s vital for a central defender to cover him while he takes action. If then hag can employ a modern, ball playing and proactive central defender, this could very well work in the attacking phase of the game.
Final thoughts
We all know how good Frenkie de Jong was in 18/19 under Ten Hag and in Barcelona we still have seen some moments of his talents, but not that elite consistency we know he can have. Whether this has to do with the tactics, his own involvement, or the style of football in Spain — that’s a story for another time.
His performances with the Dutch team against Belgium and Wales have illustrated he is close to that form if he is used well and given the freedom to do what he does best. It will be one big job for Ten Hag to make that happen, but he could be vital in the rebuild.
Looking at the Eredivisie 2021/2022 season, there is a lot of attention for the top players from sides like Feyenoord, Ajax, and PSV. But if we look at the last two decades, AZ from Alkmaar has definitely deserved to be up there as well. Despite finishing 5th behind FC Twente, the AZ side do have some very interesting players.
In this analysis we will focus on one of their key players: the Swedish Jesper Karlsson. He has had an impressive season with good attacking output, but has also been one of the greatest threats in the Eredivisie.
We will use data and video to illustrate how Karlsson has done in the Eredivisie 2021/2022 and we will focus on the winger position.
Contents
Biography
Seasonal stats
Positions/roles
Ball progression
Expected threat
Key passing
Shooting
Final thoughts
Biography
Name: Jesper Karlsson
Date of birth: 25–07–1998
Nationality: Swedish
Position: Left winger, right winger
Contract expires: 30–6–2026
Current club: AZ
Previous clubs: Elfsborg, Falkenberg
International: Sweden (7 games)
Karlsson has been a very impressive winger at AZ in the Eredivisie. He is mobile and versatile in his movement, meaning that he will lure defenders to him and open up space elsewhere. Next to that, he is good at losing his marker, making him available for long passes and creating something from those opportunities. He loves to operate in wide areas but doesn’t shy to go into the half-space.
While he is not the best in the 1v1 duels, he is very good in connecting with the full backs and the midfielders, so that the can create an advantage. His passes do contribute to the progression of the game and he does well to spot third man runs and get the ball there.
When we look at his star qualities we can mention his finishing, his deliveries in set pieces and his abilities to utilise counter-attacks. While he is not the best in the 1v1 duels, he does well in his dribbling abilities.
Seasonal stats
When we look at his season stats, we can see a few interesting things with Karlsson. In the graph above you can see a percentile radar of Karlsson based on a winger/wide midfielder template. It shows us how well Karlsson is doing in certain data metrics compared to his Eredivisie peers in the 2021/2022 season.
We will go into details for the specific stats later for the absolute data, but in this part, we will look at how well he is doing in certain metrics and what that tells us about his playing style.
Karlsson doesn’t impress as much in the dribbling and progressive runs metrics, as he scores in the 66th and 70th percentile — still way above average. But in all the other metrics he scores in the 84th percentile or higher. What’s impressive is that he scores in the 94th percentile in the expected goals and expected assists metrics.
Karlsson is not only very good in the attacking output, but overall he is just a very good winger or wide midfielder in this AZ side. He seems like a very complete wide player.
Positions/roles
In the image above you can see the positions in a 4–2–3–1 where Karlsson can play. He is the best suited for the wide midfield/wingers role, where he needs to make runs down the line and in doing so provides passes for the attackers in AZ’s side.
He can feature as the striker on top as well, but due to his movement, it often feels as a false 9, rather than a target striker. His positioning off the ball makes him a good player. He sometimes is situated in the number 10 position and while he plays okay there, it definitely isn’t a strong position for him.
Ball progression
The modern wingers isn’t only concerned with dribbling and crosses— but he/she also needs to be comfortable on the ball and progress play from it.
In the scatterplot above you can see the progressive metrics of progressive passes per 90 and progressive runs per 90. Karlsson does really well here as he scores above average in the progressive passes metric, and just above the progressive runs metric. There are only a few players better in progressing the ball.
Ball progression can have via different aspects of the game, but I wanted to look at his abilities on the long ball. He can use it to connect with the attacking third or to get out the press of the opposition.
Expected threat (xT)
The basic idea behind xT is to divide the pitch into a grid, with each cell assigned a probability of an action initiated there to result in a goal in the next N actions. This approach allows us to value not only parts of the pitch from which scoring directly is more likely, but also those from which an assist is most likely to happen. Actions that move the ball, such as passes and dribbles (also referred to as ball carries), can then be valued based solely on their start and end points, by taking the difference in xT between the start and end cell. Basically, this term tells us which option a player is most likely to choose when in a certain cell, and how valuable those options are. The latter term is the one that allows xT to credit valuable passes that enable further actions such as key passes and shots. (Soccerment)
So how does Karlsson contribute to attacking threat in the Eredivisie?
If we look at all these actions we can see Karlsson is the third on the list of highest xT generated throughout the season. He has an xT of 5,40. Only Tadic (8,18) and Blind (8,59) are better.
Key passing
Every player makes passes in a game, but which passes actively contribute to the progression and construction of an attack? You can see some of these metrics in the beeswarmplot below.
As you can see in the graph above, Karlsson scores quite high above averagein the most metrics, only in the passes to final third per 90, he scores on average.
What’s interesting is how he makes key passes. He scores in the high average, but the intent of his through passes does tell a lot about how he can help in an attack.
Karlsson does sometimes in the position to shoot, but how does he do in the quality of shooting?
In the shot map above you can see from where Karlsson has conducted his shots in the 2021/2022 Eredivisie season. He had 121 shots of which 17 went in goal. 47,9% of his shots were on target and he generated a total xG of 14,52 — the latter meaning that he is overperforming with +2,48.
Apart from shooting in the box, he loves to shoot from the left side outside the penalty box. Half of his goals come from this area.
Not only did he score a lot in the Eredivisie, he also provided 12 assists during the season. In the video below you can see his assists during the season.
Jesper Karlsson might be the player of the season in the Eredivisie. He has a very good ability on the ball, in which he manages to take on his opponents in dribbles. He also makes sure to progress the ball via passes in which he is one of the best when we look at this xT.
In terms of providing and contributing directly to a goal, he does really well with his goals and assists, and he is ready for a step higher considering his progress over the last 2 years
The Eredivisie. Both underrated and overrated. In my opinion talents from Ajax get easily overhyped because of the fame of their academy, but among those overhyped talents, a few are very much elite. Jurriën Timber is one of them
With Manchester United being heavily linked with the young defender because of Erik ten Hag’s appointment, this is a good moment to look at this player. What kind of player is he? How well does he perform in the data? In this article, I will attempt to find an answer to that.
Contents
Biography
Seasonal stats
Positions/roles
Defensive qualities
Ball progression
Key passing
Shooting
Comparison with Eredivisie peers
Final thoughts
Biography
Name: Jurriën Timber
Date of birth: 17–06–2001
Nationality: Dutch
Position: Central defender,
Contract expires: 30–6–2024
Current club: Ajax
Previous clubs: Feyenoord (Y), Ajax (Y)
Current international: Netherlands
Timber is a very talented and modern central defender within Ajax’s ranks. He’s comfortable on the ball and facilitates his team mates in the attacking approach. Timber is patient, knows how to progress the ball, and is intelligent in his decision-making. Combining this with his defensive awareness, at such a young age — the defender really is an elite talent.
You can roughly divide defensive players in players who are reactive and players who are proactive, Timber is definitely the latter. He reads the game very well and uses his tactical abilities to spot possible danger and cut it very early on. In intercepting balls and then following up with a progressive pass or run, he really makes for a terrific ball-playing central defender.
The young defender is confident on and off the ball, and his patience can be seen in his composure in passing and finishing. On the other side, he does need some finesse in terms of how he defends. He’s very rigid and wants to complete the task at hand, sometimes resulting in an unnecessary yellow card or fouls given in dangerous areas. He’s very eager and ambitious on the pitch, and sometimes he needs a bit more perspective on how important a foul is or not.
When he commits to tackles he often wins them, just like his defensive duels -as we will see later on. He is strong on the ball and quite a secure player in his own half. In terms of set pieces he isn’t that remarkable, but what can be said is that he isn’t the strongest in a man-marking system, which can both be a problem in set pieces, but also in open play.
It’s important to know that these strengths and weaknesses are based on his performances in the Eredivisie and in the light of his progression as 20-year-old talent.
Seasonal stats
When we look at his season stats, we can see a few interesting things with Timber. In the graph above you can see a percentile radar of Timber based on a central defender template. It shows us how well Timber is doing in a certain data metrics compared to his Eredivisie peers in the 2021/2022 season.
We will go into details for the specific stats later for the absolute data, but in this part, we will look at how well he is doing in certain metrics and what that tells us about his playing style.
He is an exceptional physical presence in the central defensive, what we can see in the data for defensive dues and aerial duels — scoring in the 87th percentile for defensive duels won, but low for aerial duels won. While we look at the possession-adjusted metrics we can see that he scores very high on the tackles (88th percentile) but also very high on the interceptions (83rd percentile). Now, this means that Timber can be characterised as a reactive player but also as a proactive player.
In terms of passing, we see that he scores quite good on the expected assists metric and on the passes into the final third with 83rd and 93rd percentile— but he he does okay in the passes to the penalty area metric with 64th percentile. This is also backed up by the fact that his progression stats are very good, as he scores above the 85th percentile for these metrics.
Positions/roles
Jurriën Timber is first and foremost a central defender, who likes to operate from the right side. He has been used in two different position by Ten Hag in the 2021/2022 Eredivisie season.
In the image above you can see the 4–2–3–1 formation. This is the formation most used by Ajax in the Eredivisie together the 4–3–3 formation. In terms of where Timber plays, he does play on the right back position or in the right central defensive position.
In the RB position, the role of the defender is to be proactive in their defensive actions, connect with passing with the central midfielders and the right winger — but also provide runs down the line and have a physical presence. This game is heavily focuses on transition, so the player should be able to cover great distance.
In the central defenders position, he plays on the right side. The emphasis is on defending in a proactive manner, and in possession of the ball — progress as much up the field and pass the ball into the final third.
Defensive actions
Timber is famous for his defensive actions as we have seen in the radars. The high percentage of successful duels on the ground, make him one of the best — if not the best of the Eredivisie in his respective position.
So where does he conduct these defensive actions?
You can see that he recovers most of the balls on the right side between the middle third and the defensive third. The same area is roughly the area where he does intercept the ball, but these interception happen a lot more central. His tackling does happen all over the pitch and is mainly targeting at the last attempt to get the ball. The high volume of tackles in the opposition’s half indicates that these are attempts to break counter-attacks.
So how high does he score when looking at the defensive midfielders in the league? You can see that in the scatterplot below.
In the scatterplot above you can see how well he performs in terms of the PAdj metrics of sliding tackles and interceptions.
He does commit a lot to sliding tackles per 90 minutes, as you can see he scores below average with his 1,04 sliding tackles per 90 minutes. In terms of interceptions, he does score very high and above average. His 8,31 sliding tackles per 90 minutes are in the top quadrant.
In the video above you see a compilation of his defensive actions with Ajax in several games. They light his ball recovering ability, his strength in defensive duels and in the defensive awareness of Timber.
Ball progression
The modern central defnder isn’t only concerned with defending and producing defensive actions — but he/she also needs to be comfortable on the ball and progress play from it.
In the scatterplot above you can see the progressive metrics of progressive passes per 90 and progressive runs per 90. Timber does really well here as he scores above average in both metrics. He is a complete player and finds himself surrounded by fellow Ajax player like Martinez.
Ball progression can have via different aspects of the game, but I wanted to look at his abilities on the long ball. He can use it to connect with the attacking third or to get out the press of the opposition.
In doing so, Timber not only proves his defensive worth — but also manages to show the worth he has in terms of the progression of the attack and connecting the defensive lines to the attacking third.
Key passing
Every player makes passes in a game, but which passes actively contribute to the progression and construction of an attack? You can see some of these metrics in the beeswarmplot below.
As you can see in the graph above, Timber scores quite average in the most metrics, he does do well in the passes to the final third and passes to penalty area per 90.
What’s interesting is how he makes key passes. He scores in the high average, but the intent of his through passes does tell a lot about how he can help in an attack.
When Timber comes higher up the pitch, he can be the player with the through pass, but most of his passes make sure the midfield can be higher up the pitch and in a more attacking mode.
Shooting
Timber does sometimes in the position to shoot, but how does he do in the quality of shooting?
In the shot map above you can see from where Timber has conducted his shots in the 2021/2022 Eredivisie season. He had 26 shots of which 4 went in goal. 34,6% of his shots were on target and he generated a total xG of 2,7— the latter meaning that he is slightly overperforming with +1,3.
Apart from shooting in the box, he loves to shoot from zone 14 — as that is the zone where comes frequently and tries to shoot from distance. This happens a lot from cleared balls from set pieces. But all his goals come from inside the penalty area.
Now we have looked at the individual qualities of Timber, I would like to compare him to three central defenders from rivals.
Compared to Teze from PSV, you can see that in the defensive side of the game, Timber is superior. Only the aerial duels won and passes to penalty area is where Teze is better — but it’s impressive what the data says about this comparison.
The comparison with Trauner shows us that Timber is superior in all metrics, bar one. It shows the difference of a player who is starting to get used to the level and a player that’s so talented that he is ready for the next step.
Again, in this comparison with Hilgers from FC Twente — the young Ajax defender is superior. The thing is with that Timber is not good in aerial duels, but in all others, he does better than his peers.
Final thoughts
Timber is one of the players that is already good enough for a step up and will only improve. He has been constantly on a good to a great level in the Eredivisie, sometimes being remarkably fantastic against the top sides in the Netherlands as well in the Champions League.
If he goes to the Premier League, he will need time to adjust — but he will fit very well in Ten Hag’s idea of how football should be played at Manchester United.
In terms of style we can also look at the two different metrics portrayed in this particular scatterplot: exits per 90 and aerial duels per 90. Exits indicate how many she has left her line and the aerial duels speak for itself.
We can see the same here. She gets the ball back and Spurs press her. Her first touch is a tad disappointing meaning she limits herself in options and has to kick the ball long with her left foot. In doing so she uses her only options and it goes for a throw-in.
