Cut-backs and low crosses have been on the rise for a few years now and it’s easy to see why. They lead to high quality shots. Let’s play a game: imagine a situation in which the forward players stretch the defensive line by sprinting into the free positions inside the six-yard box when the ball gets to the byline. With their movement, space has been created between the midfield and defensive lines for those box crashing movements. If the cut-backs gets in the end of one of those movements, the player who’s making it will have a clear-cut chance of scoring.
In light of this, the profile of the goal-scoring midfielder has acquired a significant role and weight in the transfer market. Ilkay Gundogan, who’s now returning to Manchester City as they are a somewhat short of goals coming from midfield players, has been one of the best performers of this role in recent years. His return comes as no surprise because Guardiola has been one of the driving forces behind the growth of both the cut-back and the profile of this player. He’ll be ecstatic to have Gundogan back.
This time around we are not looking for a Gundogan replacement because that would be an awfully difficult task. However, something related is on the plate on this occasion. Thanks to our Driblab’s parametric search, we have selected a number of players (all of them 22 or younger) that could fulfill the role of the box crashing goalscorer. The player profile we have been pursuing is one who accumulates a good number of shots and touches in the box and takes up a large part of his team’s xG. His movement needs to be directed to the opponent box so having a strong number of deep progressions and passes received in the box numbers are good additions. Finally, a decent return in goals and assists would be ideal.
Of the players above, one that fits the mould perfectly is Sem Steijn. The Dutch player is an attacking midfielder who doesn’t participate much in build-up play and doesn’t contribute a ton in defence either. However, when it comes to finding pockets of space in dangerous positions, he’s a talented player. He’s not an all-rounded player by any means, but on the final third he’s decisive. 19% of his total touches last season came from the central attacking-midfield position and the central space inside the penalty box. Steijn averaged the third most touches in the opposition box among all midfielders in the Eredivisie last season. His role is a bit special because sometimes he’s so high up the field that you could think he’s playing as a striker.
Steijn could be classed as a second-striker because of the low number of touches he averages and the positions, mainly striker’s position, he takes. Nevertheless, as the clip below shows, he has the ability to work sometimes as his team’s offensive conductor to help in progressing the ball and then crash the box. He times his run so well that even when he’s being marked Steijn can also evade his tracker and often find that kind of high-quality positions. 53% of his shots were taken inside the penalty area of the box.
Another player who looks impressive when arriving into the box is Bologna’s midfielder Giovanni Fabbian. Fabbian doesn’t play as high as Steijn, even tough he averaged the 32nd most number of shots per game in Europe’s top five leagues. He managed to contribute in 6 goals, scoring 5 of them in his first Serie A season while playing 55% of the minutes as a central midfielder or interior. He’s development in the coming season will be interesting.
His progressive passes received show that he’s more of a wide midfielder if compared to Steijn. Also his touches in the opponent box are decimated by him being more midfielder than attacker, but he’s still putting 3.68 touches per game.
Celtic’ Paulo Bernardo is a bit of a strange player because he has played as a deep-lying midfielder for the Portugal U21 but at Celtic he’s been deployed as a more advanced player. Either way, he’s a complete midfielder: his tackling numbers are pretty good, he more often than not keeps the ball and his xG numbers in build-up are correct. Attacking wise, although Celtic dominance is so big, he averaged truly high numbers in passes received in the final third and deep progressions. He does everything at a good rate. The problem is that he has not played as much as we would liked him to play so we can’t tell this rhythm is gonna last for another season. In whatever case, it will be interesting to check this out at a later stage.
The final player we will revisit is Sebastian Nanasi, because even though he’s pretty much a winger at Malmo, he could be easily converted into a goalscoring midfielder. In fact, he has been playing as a left interior or central midfielder in a double pivot so we could expect him to develop in that position. He’s been Allsvenskan’s best left winger, so why not trying different things.
His touch map shows how much of a wide player he is, but if we look closely we get to see that 6% in the central attacking area. Something to work on. Nanasi offers dribbling solutions but also possesses technique to combine in tight spaces. He took charge of 20.8% of Malmo’s total xG from open play and 21.7% of his team’s touches in the opponent box when he was on the field. He has already scored 6 goals and collected 6 assists. His xG efficiency is good so we can expect him to score when shooting after crashing the box. He’s a more complete attacker than others on the list but he still dos not have the ability to sense goals and time his runs. With time that could well develop.
Founded in 2017 as a consultancy, Driblab has driven innovation through data in all aspects of professional football. Thanks to a transversal model, its database collects and models statistics in all directions. From converting matches and videos into bespoke data for training academies to developing cutting-edge technology, helping clubs, federations and representative agencies in talent scouting and transfer markets. Driblab’s smart data is used by clubs all over the world, with success stories such as Dinamo Zagreb, Real Betis and Girondins Bordeaux among others. Here you can find out more about how we work and what we offer.
