After the break: will these U21 players keep performing so well?

Winter in Europe is complicated. If you live in countries like Switzerland, Austria, Poland or the Czech Republic, you are likely to see more snow than sunshine during the winter. For footballers, it is also difficult to get used to that leagues as they are interrupted by the arrival of December.

Today we are going to take a look at some of the young footballers who have stood out in the leagues of the countries mentioned above, so that you, our esteemed Driblab readers, can follow them in the second half of the season.

The requirements are simple: players born in 2003 or later and with more than 700 minutes played this season.

Chibuike Nwaiwu - Wolfsberger AC - 2003 - Market Value 1.5M

So wide is the world of football that Nwaiwu was playing in the top flight of Nigerian football last season. After starting this season as a substitute and having some minutes played as a defensive midfielder, he has established himself as a regular starting in the center-back pairing for the fourth-placed Austrian Bundesliga side.

Nwaiwu averages more defensive actions than anyone else at Wolfsberger. That is his strength. His a proactive defender. If he played in one of the top five leagues, his 5.5 successful tackles per game would be the 2nd highest. In the Austrian Bundesliga, no one averages more tackles than him. The closest defender to Nwaiwu completes 3.85. A whopping +1 successful tackle completed per game. The Nigerian defender combines quantity and quality: only two players boast a higher success rate when going for a tackle. Nwaiwu recovers the ball in 9 out of 10 tackles attempted.

He also excels in other defensive areas. He averages one more clearance per game than the second-best Austrian Bundesliga defender in that aspect. In case I didn't make myself clear: yes, he is also the Bundesliga centre-back with the most per-game clearances (5.35).

His all round profile as a defender is completed by a passing technique that is limited to being safe and risk-averse and a decent aerial game, with an average of 3.02 aerial duels won and a success rate of 60.4%. He has tricky numbers in terms of turnovers in his own half, which could cast doubt on his ability to make the leap to bigger challenges, though.

David Moses - Karvina (Just signed by Slavia Praha) - 2004 - Market Value 1.5M

You could have never met David Moses if we hadn’t added him to this list That possibility is now nearly inexistent as a consequence of his growing talent and the fact that he’s recently signed for Slavia Praha.

Moses is an academy graduate at MFK Karvina, the club he had been playing for since 21/22 and the one with whom he got promoted to Fortuna Liga. He did play his part in that success, as a ball-winning midfielder with 1636 minutes on his bag as a 19-year-old. This year he’s made The Leap and has become more of a well all-rounded midfielder. He’s added passing security and a bigger influence in build-up to his game. He’s been more progressive with his actions as of recently. He’s clearly on an upwards trajectory.

Look at the minerals here: he tracks the run forward of the opposition player and then gets in front to intercept the pass. Then proceeds to put his stoods in the ball, retrieve and carry it forwards. He ends up winning a foul.

His physical profile is also interesting because it reflects quite well in his way of playing. He’s not a traveller, and by this I mean a player who will run a lot during games. He’s average in respect to that. But he performs well in high-intensity situations. He's able to generate little but very intense burst to get away from markers with also carrying the ball.

He averages the 6th most sprints per game in the Fortuna Liga, among all midfielders. Also he travels on average the 3rd most distance through sprinting. His Sprint Distance accounts for the 5.21% of his total distance travelled per game. That's the 8th best mark in the league.

Antoni Kozubal - Lech Poznan - 2004 - Market Value 6M

If you happen to be watching a Lech Poznan match and they win a corner, you will be introduced to Antoni Kozubal, Poznan's king of the set-piece. He will remember last November very fondly: he received the Ekstraklasa young player of the month award, made his debut for the Polish national team and scored a goal and provided an assist in the match against Legia Warszawa.

Kozubal is another young midfielder, albeit a different one to Moses. More in the offensive interior mould. One with defensive capacities also. In fact, his 3017 minutes played last season with Katowice happened mainly in a more offensive role than his actual one at Poznan.

He ended up missing the shot as the keeper saved it, but this pocket play is something he needs to show with more consistency. He has the tools for that: physical power to shrunk off rivals, technical quality to dribble past and shooting ability with both feet.

Our model puts him in the 93rd percentile, this means he’s in the 7% of midfielders with the best performance level this season in Poland. Among 89 midfielder with at least 450 minutes played, Kozubal averages the 4th highest amount of km travelled per game (11.1) and the 7th highest number of High Speed Runs per game (47.7).

Jaouen Hadjam - Young Boys - 2003 - Market Value 4M

The idea with Young Boys left-back Hadjam is that he should not be playing at Swiss league level but above. But his time at Nantes did not pay off and he had to drop down a couple of rungs to find continuity.

He’s a very well-rounded and composed defensive left-back. Among all full-backs in the Swiss Super League he owns the best tackle success rate (80.8%). He’s also got the 5th best ratio in Aerial Efficiency and averages the 5th most recoveries per game.

Even though he’s got great technique at passing and dribbling and as well as great delivering ability, he could offer more on attack. He sits in #25, #30 and #29 out of a total 30 full-backs in the Swiss league in xA from open play, chances created and crosses completed respectively.

If he can add offensive relevance to his game, he is a full-back with a lot of potential.

Alvyn Sanches - Lausanne - 2003 - Market Value 9M

Maybe in this case the ‘best for last’ is true. Maybe not the best, but the most fun. Sanches is a luxury of a footballer while still being effective. His progression is being well measured, moreover. As the last three seasons have gone, he’s played more and more minutes.

His position is the biggest question potential buyers could face before signing him. He’s frequently played in a striker partnership in Lausanne’s 4-4-2 but he’s clearly not you go-to striker. He’s doing the rol of a conector between the midfield and the striker. Sometimes he’s started on the wing, as a right-sided, left-footed winger but he tends to go inside. Any of his radars are going to be conditional on him not having a defined position, but they all show a player who is well above league average.

If we compare him with all attackers in the Swiss League who have played more than 800 minutes, Sanches ranks 7th in dribbles completed per game, 10th in touches In the opp. box, 7th in ball progressions via carry and 6th in shots taken.

Let's end up the text with a golazo.

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