Falling down an Adam Wharton (and Elliot Anderson) rabbit hole
..and wondering why no one is linked with a record-setting Belgian
Welcome to The Rabbit Hole.
This newsletter is collection of single-game, u23 stat leaders from the latest week of football - to spot diamonds in the data. But beware: I will explore any tangent I feel is interesting and pull at every single thread until I have exhausted all potential insight.
- The Nigerian teenager tearing it up in Norway
- Cesc the manager: GOOD. Cesc the wonderkid: GOAT.
- Developing the Shotsmith Archetype ft. Assan Ouédraogo
- The difference between Adam Wharton and Elliot Anderson
- Why is no one signing this ball-playing Belgian?
👶 Breakout Babies
At 15 years and 228 days old, Luis Fragozo was the youngest player to make an appearance this week. This is the second time he’s featured in the Rabbit Hole. But in case you missed the first, it’s worth mentioning he’s the youngest debutant in the LigaPro era (since 2019) and eligible to represent Ecuador and Colombia at international level.
The youngest player to feature in a Big Five League game was Adil Hamdani. At 16 years and 306 days old, he made his Olympiqye Lyonnais debut in the final minutes against Auxerre, becoming the sixth-youngest debutant in the club’s history and the third-youngest this century.
Gilberto Mora (17-37, Tijuana) was the youngest goalscorer this past week. Lennart Karl (17-273, FC Bayern) was both the youngest goalscorer and the youngest assist provider across the Big Five Leagues. He was a popular wildcard pick for SCOUTED50 and has been used much more often than we expected. He’s very much having a breakout season with three goals and two assists in 465 minutes across all competitions. Karl also scored three goals for Germany Under-21s in the latest international break; in the 6-0 win against Georgia, he attempted 5 shots, assisted 5 shots and completed 6/9 take-ons. Very ni/ce.
Although Karl was the youngest to score and assist across all leagues, Promise Meliga (18-93) is also worth a mention. The Nigerian scored and assisted despite just playing 16 minutes against Kristiansund. Coming off the bench for 10-man Vålerenga in the 75th minute, Meliga scored in the 85th and provided an assist in the 86th before his side scored a 90th-minute equaliser. He contributed to as many goals (2) as he completed passes (2/2). Meliga joined the Oslo-based sign from Nigeria’s Beyond Limits Academy this summer for a reported €400k fee. Turns out he was very much worth mentioning.
⚽️ G/A 🅰️
Jaouen Hadjam (22-241, Young Boys), Emmanuel Ayaosi (21-26, Karviná), and Reyes Cleary (21-223, Barnsley) were the only players under the age of 23 to be directly involved in 3 goals in a single game this past week. Ayaosi took home the matchball while Hadjam and Cleary both scored once and provided two assists.
Across Europe’s Big Five Leagues, six players were directly involved in 2 goals and three of them played for Como. Jude Bellingham (22-147, Real Madrid), Lamine Yamal (18-132, Barcelona) and Lennart Karl were all involved in multiple goals at the weekend before Máximo Perrone (22-321), Jayden Addai (20-90) and Jesus Rodríguez (20-3) all did the same for Cesc Fàbregas’ side on Monday night against Torino.
Como have the third-youngest side in Serie A this season, average the second-most possession behind Inter by 0.1%, and also have the third-best goal difference having conceded the second-fewest goals. Fabregas’ side are 6th in the table and rank 5th for xG Difference with +4.3. If you want an additional team to follow, Como is a great pick. After all, in this house we worship Cesc: the original wonderkid.
At 22 years old, in the 2009/10 season, Cesc scored 15 goals and provided 13 assists in 2,194 minutes across 27 Premier League games. Per WhoScored, he averaged 3.5 shots, 3.9 key passes, 2.5 tackles, 2.5 interceptions and 2.1 successful take-ons per 90. For some emphatic context, there is not a single player on the Stathead database that averages 3+ Shots, 3+ Key Passes, 2+ Tackles, 2+ Interceptions and 2+ Successful Take-Ons per 90 in a single season, across all leagues with advanced data. One of the greatest.
☄️ Shots
Thom van Bergen (21-321, Groningen) rattled of the most Shots with 9 against Zwolle, scoring twice. Across the Big Five Leagues, three U23 players attempted 5 each, all teenagers: Ibrahim Mbaye (17-302, PSG), Lamine Yamal and Assan Ouedraogo (19-198, RB Leipzig).
Ouédraogo is profiling as that Shotsmith Archetype I can’t seem to shake. Since soft-launching the term with Ibrahim Maza, I’ve seen it everywhere - Eberechi Eze personified it with his hat-trick against Spurs - so I’ve started to build out its key indicators:
- Shots
- Shot Happiness (percentage of Touches as Shots)
- Shot Production Bias
- Average Shot Distance (but a specific range of 16-22 yards)
- NPxGOT
- NPG-NPxG
- Successful Take-Ons (ideally I would filter to central zones)
- Take-On Success Rate
- SCA via Shots
- SCA via Take-Ons
Sofascore have recently added data visualisations to their app which makes it so much easier for me to explore these theories as they develop. Both Ouédraogo’s shot map and dribble map illustrate what I would expect to see from these slippery, shot-happy midfielders.
I also have a theory about excluding Carries into the Penalty Area from Touches in the Attacking Penalty Area to remove the noise of wingers. I’ll explain why and explore further another time, but I think it could help discover a new pool of players.
Fall deeper into the rabbit holes on the Sofascore app.
A tangential mention of Djaoui Cissé is needed here. He has Shotsmith tendencies. He attempted 4 Shots in Rennes’ 4-1 win against Monaco from an Average Distance of 28.4 yards, failing to hit the target with any. He’s a certified pot-shotter so I would be very interested to see what happens if a club can get him 10 yards closer to goal. He has the quick feet needed to create separation and has a deep bag of shooting techniques.
Oh, Emmanuel Ayaosi and Dmitriy Pestryakov (18-348, FK Akron Tolyatti) registered the most Shots On Target this week. Pestryakov hit the target with all 5 of his attempted shots against Sochi in the Russian Premier League, scoring twice.
The bit about Adam Wharton is coming soon, I promise.
