I've prepared a Christmas present for all Driblab readers. A classic scouting report. What more could you ask for than an in-depth, analytical read about young players?
I'll tell you about the selection process and then we'll get down to business: we chose the two leagues that provide the biggest platform for young players to play within Western Europe: the Eredivisie and the Jupiler Pro League. We then lowered the age limit to 21 (i.e. those born in 2003 or later). Our final requirement was that the players selected should have played at least 500 minutes.
Let's check it out:
Joel Ordoñéz - 2004 - Brugge - Centre-back/Right Back - Market Value: 18M
This may not be the smartest discovery on our list, at least not for our Ecuadorian readers, as Ordóñez has already seeing plenty of playing time with El Tri in this year's World Cup qualifiers. Although he has played at right-back in those games, Ordonez is often deployed at centre-back for Club Brugge. And he's certainly a player with bags of potential.
We have picked a specific radar to highlight his passing ability and all the possibilities he brings to his team's build-up phase. One of the reasons for choosing this particular radar is, of course, that the Jupiler Pro League is not the most demanding league for defenders. Even less so for 20-year-old senior internationals like Ordonez.
Build up xG is a metric that helps us to count the value of a player's contribution to creating threat from the early phases of play. To do this, we accumulate the xG value for each of his team's shots in the tally of all the players involved in the move, with the exception of the player who takes the shot and the player who assists the shot.
Therefore, by looking at the fact that Ordóñez is the second most important player in the Pro League in terms of Build Up xG for his team, we can say that Brugge's attacks almost always involve him. Even when we look only at the five passes prior to the shot (not counting the shot taker or the player who assist him) we can see that Ordóñez is also very involved in the closest moments to the shot. He is the 5th most influential defender during these instances.
He's also averages the 5th most most progressive passes completed per game and averages a 9.09% pass contribution rate, a metric that measures the danger and added value of a player's passes taking into account the position of the receiver.
We rescued this action from a match against Genk earlier this season. In terms of Ordóñez's physical performance, it is worth noting that the number of sprints he makes in the second half increases on average by 7% compared to the first half.
(Yes, in case you hadn't heard, Driblab now has its own Physical Data).
In the sequence above we see him taking advantage of his opponent's poor first touch to win the battle for position and steal the ball. He then plays a perfect long pass for his team to start the break.
Mika Godts - 2005 - Ajax - Left Winger - Market Value: 8M
The Dutch winger, a former Genk academy product, has been one of the few bright spots for Ajax in what has been another poor campaign for the Dutch side. Still not an uncontested starter, he has played 1376 minutes in his two seasons with the first team, but this time he has already played as many games as he did all of last season.
The numbers speak for themselves. At 19, Godts is one of the most promising wingers in Europe. He possesses fantastic individual technique and a wide array of solutions in one-on-one situations.
He's yet to make the leap in terms of numbers, but that's to be expected at his age.
Moreover, Ajax, as the dominant team in the Eredivisie, often put him in good positions and allow him to lose the ball because their rest-defence structure can cope with it the Eredivisie, less so in the Europa League. This is something that might not happen in other environments.
As you can see from Godt's map, most of his carries start from the left wing and are directed towards the penalty box. A large number of them end in shots, but none of them has yet resulted in a goal.
Mario Stroeykens - 2004 - Anderlecht - Midfielder/attacking midfielder - Market value: 14M
In addition to Stroeykens' natural development as an attacking midfielder, his willingness to engage in defensive action has steadily improved. He has gone from 2.58 to 3.27 ball recoveries per game and from 2.66 to 2.91 successful tackles, with his success rate in these actions also rising from 73.7% to 84.2%.
A growth curve that even makes me wonder what his position might be in the medium or long term. If you had asked me the same question last year, I would have said attacking midfielder or 10, but this time I have more doubts. His decision-making with the ball at his feet has improved a lot: he loses the ball considerably less and his ball retention rate in the opponent's half has gone up from 80.9% to 86.9%. He's become a more collective player, carrying the ball less and passing it more.
He's seen his responsibilities increase: he's accounted for 16% of his team's xT, an increase of 6 percentage points on last year. He is the 2nd midfielder to average the most key passes per game, 3rd with the most xT from open play per game and has created the 7th-most chances per game.
Antoni Milambo - 2005 - Feyenoord - Midfielder/Defensive midfielder - Value: 12M
Milambo might be a case of a player who doesn't stand out if you only look at his radar, but at the same time the radar itself does justice to the player. At Feyenoord he has played as a 6 and as a 8, with a lot of focus on off-the-ball situations.
The Dutchman has climbed the ladder step by step. As a youth player at Feyenoord, he has worked his way up through the youth ranks, just as he has done with the Dutch national team. He is yet to make his senior debut for the Netherlands, but I have no doubt it will come sooner rather than later.
It doesn't take a genius to work out Milambo's position: he doesn't lose the ball, he's hard to beat when in possession and he often gets fouled. In fact, compared to the rest of the Eredivisie's midfielders, he is in the top 20% of players who give the ball away the least, in the top 2% of players who are the hardest to dribble past and in the top 20% of players who get fouled the most.
You can try to beat him...
...but it's a tough call. In addition, his physical performance is spectacular. He is the Eredivisie midfielder with the most High Speed Runs per game (High Speed Runs are movements of at least one second in which the player moves at a speed of more than 5.5 metres/second and less than 7 m/second). He is also the one who runs the longest distance at this pace (961.9 metres).
(It was not a fake. Just for you to know, Driblab now has Physical Data).
Anthony Valencia - 2003 - Royal Antwerp - Right winger - Market value: 1.2M
The second Ecuadorian on the list is probably the most improved player of all. The oldest one of them, it has to be said. A product of Independiente del Valle, Valencia, who isn't related to Ecuadorian football's greatest legend Antonio Valencia, has struggled to adapt.
He's not a regular starter for Antwerp yet, but the minutes he's played are really valuable and show a lot of promise.
It's pretty obvious from the radar what makes Valencia a player with such potential. Compared to the 35 Belgian Pro League wingers who've played at least 450 minutes, Valencia's 2nd in successful dribbles and third in xA, xG Chain, key passes from open play and ball progressions per game.
On the other hand, he is in the top 30% of wingers who score the least and in the top 40% of wingers who average the least xG.
Let's look at this first sequence: Valencia receives on the wing and passes inside to his teammate who then returns the pass. Valencia finds himself in a complicated situation from which he manages to get out of by taking on successfully the defender who faces him.
But when there's space for the shot, Valencia decides to dribble again the same way and ends up losing the ball.
In this next one, the Ecuadorian does it all beautifully. He uses the movement of his teammate to drive inside and find a clear position for a shot.
But when he does shoot, and he can choose either corner because it's a moving penalty situation, his shot just goes softly into the keeper's hands, who doesn't even have to move. It's mainly the final action what's lacking here.
Honourable mention: Luka Vuskovic - 2007 - Westerloo - Central - Market value: 10M
More and more kids of Vuskovic's age are getting regular playing time in top teams. Lamine Yamal is a good example of this, but it's not often that young players get this much exposure.
Vuskovic's his physique opened the door to professional football very early on, but it was his constant technical improvement that made him a starter for Ekstraklasa side Radomiak Radom in the 23/24 season at the age of 16 and a starter for Westerloo in the Jupiler Pro League at the age of 17.
But when a 17-year-old can do things like this, we shouldn't miss the chance to talk about him.
Sequence: First, he controls an opponent's cross with his chest, then passes to his teammate and gets unmarked. After a combination, he ends up receiving facing the opponent's goal.
When he receives the ball, his team is looking for a 3-on-3 counterattacking situation with Vuskovic leading the charge. The defender does smartly as he tries not to get too close to Vuskovic so he can't be dribble past. He just waits for his teammates to arrive so they can get a numerical superiority.
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But what the defender doesn't expect is for Vuskovic to feign to the left and dribble down the right, leaving the centre-back and the nearest opponent caught out.
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With the defenders beaten, Vuskovic passes to the winger...
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...who ends up scoring.
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Now, obviously, Luka Vuskovic doesn't go around the pitches of Belgium doing this week in, week out, but as analysing a 17 year old seems a bit excessive, that was me showing you a little of what he's capable of.
