With most of men’s football on international duty for the past couple of weeks and women’s football is only into the first few weeks of the season, I think it is a good opportunity to give the spotlight to the players who have played well in the matches that the Notebook has covered. This will not be limited to young players or only men players, instead we will go through the standout players from some matches and analyse their performance so far into this season.
I was also inspired by SCOUTED Notebook’s latest article on their most fascinating U23 players so far this season from the big five European leagues, which I highly recommend reading. Some players that I have covered in my previous Notebook editions also make an appearance in their team, including Strasbourg’s duo Sebastian Nanasi and Guéla Doué and Como’s new no.10 Nico Paz. Without further ado, let’s dive in, shall we?
Note: FBRef’s data were recorded and were accurate as of October 16th.
Ladislav Krejčí (Girona)
A key centre-back for the Czech Republic at the Euro 2024, Krejčí is still slowly adapting to the new environment at Girona since this is the first time he has played abroad. As such, he has not played that many minutes for the Spanish side, only accumulated 460 minutes in all competitions at the time of writing. But with both Daley Blind and David López currently in their mid-30s, Krejčí will be the perfect candidate to step up and replace both veterans in the near future.
But going back to that performance against PSG from the first Notebook edition, he proved to be a rock at the back for Girona as their left centre-back. When they sat deep, Krejčí’s aerial dominance helped the team dealt with crosses and long passes coming into the penalty box. When sitting in a mid-block, Krejčí marshalled the defence well to prevent PSG from playing through their defensive block, forcing them out wide and disrupt most of the host’s possession sequences.
And then I have to bring back this defensive recovery run by Krejčí to stop Ousmane Dembélé from scoring. Dembélé is known to be a fast winger and he already had a head start of a few metres ahead of the Czech centre-back. Krejčí is not a quick centre-back, probably not as quick as Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven, but he got his head down and used his stride to catch up with the French winger. Once he caught up with Dembélé, Krejčí pushed Dembélé off his balance, then went in for a clean tackle and allowed Paulo Gazzaniga to gather the ball. It’s a small and single situation, sure, but it still showed the quality and the potential that he has to be a good defender.
Girona did not have much of the ball against PSG, but on occasions where Krejčí had the ball, he also showed that he can be a decent ball-playing centre-back. He was able to ping long passes from the back to start counter-attacking situations through Bryan Gil and Viktor Tsygankov. Alongside that, he also showed his calm and composure to control and retain possession while under intense pressure from PSG. But the standout thing to me was his carries, while most of them were short carries, it showed that he can dribble with the ball, and he did that even with longer carries on rare occasions during the match.
Taking a broader outlook on Krejčí’s performance over the past year, we can also make similar observations from his FBRef data. While the sample size is slightly small, it is still enough (more than 10 90s) for us to see his overall quality. At first glance, the Czech does not stand out and even look quite average with his percentiles (compared against other centre-backs in the top 5 European leagues). But using the observations from Girona’s match against PSG above to look at the relevant percentiles and the picture becomes clearer immediately.
Defensively, he ranks 59th for tackles attempted, 91st for interceptions made, 49th for blocks, and 90th for percentage of aerial duels won. This highlights the fact that Krejčí is a smart defender who reads the game well to be at the right place to intercept passes and make crucial tackles for the team. The fact that he only ranks 40th for fouls attempted further supports this. He also uses his physicality well in the air to help the team clear aerial balls or regain possession from the air.
On the ball, the Czech ranks 76th for passes attempted, 56th for long passes attempted, 70th for total progressive passing distance, 53rd in passes into the final third, and, surprisingly, 68th for open-play shot-creating passes. Those percentiles are not outstanding, but it paints the picture of a ball-playing defender who has the vision to progress the play from the back using his passes and, even, create shots from long passes. But carrying the ball is where Krejčí stands out, because he ranks 81st for progressive carries, 92nd for carries into penalty area, and 96th for shot-creating fouls drawn. That is the sign of a difference maker right there; instead of being a centre-back who can only make passes, Krejčí can also carry the ball forward if needed, and his carries draw fouls that lead to set piece situations that Girona can capitalise on.
Krejčí will definitely be someone that I will keep an eye on as the season advances because he is an interesting player. At 25, he is not young anymore but he still has rooms to develop. Now that he is already at Girona, this means he is in the knowledge of the City Football Group. With a style of play that is quite similar to Manchester City’s John Stones, I won’t be surprised if City eventually sign him as a replacement for Stones in a few years time.
Abdukodir Khusanov (Lens)
Another centre-back who I also want to keep track of in the near future is Lens’ Abdukodir Khusanov. I think the guys at SCOUTED Notebook have been mentioning his name for a while now, and he also made it into their latest most fascinated U23 lineup as one of the two starting centre-backs. And I am inclined to agree because Khusanov seems like one of the first prospects that are coming from the fruitful Uzbek’s youth program, and he will not be the last.
Quick tangent, but I initially dismissed Uzbekistan after they won the U23 Asian Championship over Vietnam back in 2018 because I thought it was just another national team having a “golden generation” that went on to win the thing and eventually fizzled out. Turns out that was not the case at all, Vietnam were the one who fizzled out but the Uzbeks have gone from strength to strength with their youth program and credits to the work that are being done in Uzbekistan. Tangent over!
Against Strasbourg, as I have covered in this edition of the Notebook, Khusanov was at the centre of Lens’ back three and played almost similar to an old-school centre-back. Really good at defending, used his physicality well to win challenges, provided coverage for both Facundo Medina and Malang Sarr, who took on the more progressive responsibility when the team had the ball. He was also quite smart with his defensive actions and managed to be at the right place to intercept passes and regained possession for Lens. But his tendency to get stuck into challenges also resulted in him committing a few fouls here and there.
Also using the observations taken from the Strasbourg match to take a wider look at his performance over the past year using the data, we can also spot similar trends being showed through the percentiles. In contrary to Krejčí, Khusanov’s sample size is larger with 1289 minutes played (~14.3 90s), which will allow us to make more accurate observations about his performance.
Immediately, the first thing that you can point out from Khusanov’s data is he is very good at defending. Like, really good. And this is compared to other centre-backs in the top 5 European leagues, so he is also up against some of the biggest names out there. He is ranked 87th for tackles won, 94th for blocks, 98th for shots blocked, and 99th for interceptions. You would usually expect those percentiles from a top-quality centre-back, not from a 20-year-old playing for a top-half team in Ligue 1.
Yes, I have to emphasise that. Lens is not battling out for relegation in the past couple of seasons, they are a genuine decent team who have been in and around Ligue 1’s top-half since their promotion. Even after the transition from Franck Haise to Will Still, they are still doing fine in the league and are not facing any relegation threat at the moment. So, Khusanov’s numbers are not skewed by the volume of defensive situations that he has to deal with, at least for the most part. The other part is because of Lens’ style of play, but even when he moves to a bigger team, you can trust Khusanov to provide a similar level of defensive solidity, even if his numbers might go down because of the difference in style of play.
Speaking of style of play, this is also where Khusanov might be hurt the most. Basically, he is not a high volume passer, or at least, he has not shown that at Lens. His passing percentiles are low like you would expect from a traditional, no-nonsense centre-back, which you would not find in many teams nowadays. The only thing that you can say about the Uzbek player is that he is a safe passer, because he is ranked 55th for short passes completion and 60th for medium passes completion. But, similar to Krejčí, he can carry the ball if needed since, surprisingly, his 81st ranking in carries into penalty area and 97th for dispossessed are the only two standout percentiles from the possession category. This makes sense because Khusanov can use his physicality to brush off challenges from the opposition and hold on to the ball when he dribbles, which can be an advantage.
However, it is still too soon to make a definitive judgement about Khusanov. He only arrived at Lens, like, last season from Uzbekistan and is getting more familiar with French football after moving abroad for the first time. The promising thing is that he is doing the traditional job of a defender very well, which is a plus. The other thing is Khusanov is pretty much a clean slate, and at 20 years old, he can improve on other aspects as time goes on. So, yeah, Khusanov is very, very promising at this stage. Not top level just yet, but he has that potential to be there and be one of Asia’s elite centre-backs.
Vitinha (Paris Saint-Germain)
From one French team to another. I have not watched PSG in Ligue 1 because of their domestic dominance, but I have watched them played in two Champions League matches against Girona and Arsenal, which you can find the first match from Krejčí’s section and the second match here.
In both matches, Vitinha played an absolute crucial role for Luis Enrique’s side as he took on the role of a deep-lying playmaker in PSG’s 4–1–2–3 formation. Basically, a Marco Verratti-esque role, and the Portuguese midfielder thrived and ran the play for the French side. He acted as the connection between the defence and the attack when the team built up from deep, using his passes to find the wingers out wide or bring the lone striker into play. Inside of the middle and final thirds, he liked to do things by himself using his dribbling ability and created chances from almost nowhere. It…also resulted him being fouled quite a lot, which was evident at Arsenal’s, and PSG should have tried to benefit from set piece situations that they gained from Vitinha.
Defensively, he was not able to do much due to his relatively small build and physicality. But he made up for it by being smart and good in timing to intercept passes and challenges. He also had two midfielders who were able to take the defensive work for him in João Neves and Warren Zaïre-Emery, so it was not an aspect that he had to worry about too much.
Once again, we will be using observations from both matches here and align them with the percentiles from FBRef. With the most minutes played in the past year (2854 minutes ~ 31.71 90s) among the three players covered in part 1, we have a very large sample size to judge Vitinha’s performance. Though, the main caveat is PSG’s dominance in the league in the 23/24 season, which might skew his data a bit.
Well, where do we start? I guess using the profile of a #6, let’s start with his possession first. It is hard to deny that he’s a great passer, but instead of judging him based on passes completion, let’s look a little bit deeper. Short and medium pass-related stats might not say much because PSG will more than likely be circulating possession a lot, especially against teams that sit deep in a mid/low block, like Girona. But Vitinha also stands out with his long passes as he ranks 84th for long passes attempted and 98th for long passes completion. Further than that, he also ranks 93rd for progressive passes, 95th for passes into the final third, and 88th for passes into the penalty area. So, it is not crazy to expect Vitinha to be a huge ball progressor from deep. But not just a progressor, the Portuguese can also be a chance creator because his percentiles for Expected Assists (both xA and xAG) and key passes are all above the 80th percentile.
If he cannot make passes then you will have to defend against Vitinha better because he can also dribble with the ball. 77th for progressive carries, 96th for progressive carries distance, 92nd for carries into the final third, and 89th for carries into the penalty area. Obviously, the trade-off here is because he tends to dribble more, he also gets dispossessed more (38th for dispossessed). But it is definitely worth it considering how much he can bring to the team’s in possession phase. And that’s not mentioning his attacking percentiles because, yes, he can also score goals. 97th for non-penalty goals, 78th for non-penalty xG, 90th for shots on target percentage, and 77th for goals per shot on target. It’s nuts and crazy numbers, that’s what that is.
As mentioned, it is hard to expect Vitinha to do much on the defensive side of things considering his physicality. But the Portuguese midfielder still tries his best because with 59th percentile for interceptions and 70th for tackles inside the attacking third, he is definitely helping PSG out when the team are pressing from the front.
It is fair to say that Vitinha has elevated to a different level since joining PSG. He fits perfectly into the hole that Verratti left behind while also running the play from midfield in an era where the Parisian will not have Kylian Mbappé playing up top. The domestic dominance might make Vitinha look like one of the best midfielders in the world, but the Portuguese player earns that title for his performance so far in the Champions League. Expect to see more from him considering he is only 24 years old at the time of writing.
Three players down, three more to go for Part 2, which I hope will come out on Friday. My original plan was to squeeze all six into this article and leave the other edition of this week for matchweek 2 of the Women’s Champions League. But it seems like the bite-size scout reports is longer than I expected, so two parts it is. Until part two comes out, see you very soon!
Originally published at https://talkingtactics.substack.com.
