Building our new Archetype ft. Florian Wirtz
...and a wild centre-forward watchlist appears on Monday Night SCOUTED.
https://www.scoutednotebook.com/p/number-10-modern-football-archetype-florian-wirtz
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So, our new focus is to publish two regular newsletters a week, packed with a diverse assortment of thoughts, ideas, stories and analyses. Monday Night SCOUTED is essentially an export of my brain. SCOUT Notes will be your window into the hallowed halls of Llew Davies’ mind, if you dare enter. Tom Curren, (hi, that’s me - ed) will be adding a third when our new site launches, but more on that when the time comes.
All this means concepts like the Watchlist, SCOUTED Squads, SCOUTED Stats, Shortlists, post-game ramblings and metric mythbusting will all feature in MNS moving forward. For now, all of it will remain free to read - but if you appreciate the enormous amount of work that goes into everything we do, please remember this newsletter is free of ads and sponsorship, and exists solely on the support of our paid subscribers. So become one. If you can. Please.
This week’s edition includes:
My favourite position right now…on the football pitch (sorry, what? - ed)
…and consolidating that position into a new SCOUTED Archetype
The most fascinating strikers in UEFA competition
Fermin López joins an exclusive club in SCOUTED Stats
How to define the new-age No.10
You’ve all seen the quotes. Pep Guardiola said football is changing.
“Today the modern football is the way Bournemouth play, the way Newcastle play, like Brighton play. You know, Liverpool have always been like that. Today, modern football is not positional and being there. You have to rise to the unbelievable rhythm.”
In an exclusive interview with Miguel Delaney for The Independent, Andoni Iraola provided insight into what this style looks like: “I sometimes value much more a player carrying the ball and forcing things to happen. I think when you play too positional – one, two touches to find a free man – you sometimes lose the initiative from the players to just take their man on and attack the spaces.”
Iraola also highlights the impact of the increasing physical demands: “Probably, technically and tactically we were as good as the players we see nowadays but there is a physical side we would struggle with.”
We can see this shift through this graphic from Opta Analyst.
Look at Eintracht Frankfurt there and consider what it means for City to have signed the best-performing player from a club that is successfully implementing this ‘modern’ playstyle. Arsenal’s long-standing interest in Benjamin Šeško shows Mikel Arteta’s awareness is aware of this tactical shift, too.
The best thing about the soon-to-be mainstream adoption of organised chaos is not the increased pace of the game, but the re-birth of the Front Two.
Front Twos had already returned via more defined out-of-possession shapes; the most popular variant is a 4-4-2. In possession, however, it splits into a centre-forward and an attacking midfielder.
I have written extensively about the Power Forward and I think this striker profile will dominate the new meta: lots of sprints, lots of shots, lots of really nice kicking of the ball.
But I have started to notice that sitting just behind the very best Power Forwards, to complete these new-fangled Front Twos, a new archetype is emerging. I call it the…well, I’m not sure yet. Let’s work through it.
We caught a glimpse of this relationship forming between Erling Haaland and the aforementioned Egyptian, Omar Marmoush, against Chelsea. Pep Guardiola’s praise for Marmoush helps further explain the key parts of this role:
The duality of threat on the ball and off the ball is key, as well as providing value in possession and out of possession. For now, the Egyptian will continue from his starting position on the left. However, I don’t think it will be long until he is deployed behind Haaland, allowing for a winger profile to be included in the starting XI as well. Haaland-Sávio-Marmoush-Foden sounds very good to me. Perhaps we need to wait until Rodri is back.
The reason I think this is a specialised position is due to how much more effective and comfortable Morgan Rogers looks when deployed centrally. As a winger, he operates at a decent level. In this currently undefined attacking midfield role, he becomes one of the most destructive players on the pitch.
Meanwhile, the loudest example of this new role in recent weeks has been Justin Kluivert. Although outside the SCOUTED age criteria, I couldn’t avoid a mention of his four G/A haul followed by another goal and assist against Nottingham Forest. The interchange and link play with Dango Ouattara - who can play absolutely anywhere and look good - was a prime example of this new duo at work.
Kluivert still play-makes as would be expected, but not in a traditional, stand-and-deliver style. He is poetry in perpetual motion with a sprinkle of chaos: lots of fouls, lots of pressing, lots of running at the opposition. However, after silencing the noise of my Premier League bias and considering another rich vein of form, I was able to pinpoint the best exemplary of my new role; he plays in Germany, and is 21 years old.
Everything Florian Wirtz does oozes technique. In addition to the silkiness forever synonymous with the No.10 he wears on his back, he adds intense runs ahead of the ball, relentless pressing and an equal, plentiful helping of shots for himself and for others.
That is why I’ve found it so difficult to name my new role. Shadow Striker does not quite work. False Nine cannot work because this role works best in tandem with a Nine. 9.5, then? No-one likes descriptions by halves.
Petar Petrov suggested Second Striker when I asked for help on BlueSky and I liked that most; especially when I looked at the Average Positions from Leverkusen’s most recent match.
But I couldn’t shake the feeling that moniker didn’t communicate everything I’ve detailed, either. So I went further and started dipping into animated series for inspiration again (we had Teenage Mutant Centre Backs last week).
I landed on Omni-Man: Florian Wirtz is a Viltrumite. For those who’ve not watched Invincible, the Viltrumites are an highly advanced alien race of extremely powerful humanoids. Omni-Man is Earth’s Viltrumite ‘hero’ and as the Omni suggests, he can do it all: he has superhuman strength, speed, senses and stamina, he can fly and has rapid healing. Everything you would want from a player in the final third, Wirtz has it all. I am of course searching for a better term that is more natural fit for football rhetoric but that is where I am right now.
I then realised I wrote about Do-It-All dynamos last week, without positional prejudice. So in order to demonstrate the differences, I distilled the Omni-10 into a Stathead search.
Rather than averaging at least one of a broad spectrum of metrics - from shots to tackles, take-ons to aerial duels - this search focusses on key actions that either get the ball into the final third or make a difference inside it. It only returned five players.
Wirtz is there. Good. The other name I want to highlight specifically is Désiré Doué. The arrival of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia will either push Doué down the winger pecking order - surely Barcola x Kvara will be first-choice? - or it will see him adopt this Omni-10 role. He may even become a False Nine understudy for Ousmane Dembélé, who also appears in this list.
Re-reading Steve’s SCOUTED50 profile, written on Doué before the move to PSG, through the lens of this tactical shift makes him sound perfect for the new role I have discussed:
If that is not an Omni-10, I don’t know what is.
Désiré Doué: before the big move
Stephen Ganavas
·
July 2, 2024
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