Stefanos Tzimas, remember the name
Plus: a discovery in Austria, Scalvini somehow returns, the future of MLS, and much more in SCOUT NOTES.
Cyfarchion, dear readers.
That’s Cymraeg for ‘greetings,’ if you didn’t know. I didn’t know either and I’m not entirely sure it’s accurate, to be honest — this is not SCOUTED’s resident Welshman, this is his editor, wielding Google Translate because Llew continues to be terrified of introductions. Phobias come in all forms and I’m not one to judge.
What he lacks in introductory courage Llew makes up for in knowledge and scouting chops. This is SCOUT NOTES: your weekly download on all the stories we think you should be paying attention to, across the future of football. From the brain of our Scouting Editor, to yours.
In this week’s issue:
- The unstoppable rise of Stefanos Tzimas
- An exciting discovery in Austria
- Somehow, an Italian phenom has returned
- The MLS breaks its transfer record
- And much, much more…
Also, any wealthy benefactors willing to support SCOUTED’s growth via a Wyscout subscription or otherwise (that will become relevant further down), please find me at tom@scoutedftbl.com. We can’t be bothered to slum it anymore and are deadly serious.
With that, I’ll hand things back to Llew. Amdani!
Stefanos Tzimas, remember the name
Just over a month ago, I said ‘if Stefanos Tzimas keeps up this sort of form, clubs will be queuing up to get him’. Guess what? Stefanos Tzimas has kept up that sort of form.
The 18-year-old Greek striker is doing really good things on loan at Nürnberg. He’s scoring goals – plenty of them, seven in his last eight league games to be exact – which is especially really good. His last two were basically carbon copies of each other, darting off a high line before dinking over the goalkeepers (see below), but he’s shown a nice repertoire of finishes too.
One glimpse at his FBRef profile and your eyes will bulge out of their sockets as an awooga klaxon rings out. Again, Green Bar Scouting isn’t advised by myself or SCOUTED, but there are cases where it is acceptable and this is as clear-cut as they come. Tzimas ranks in the 90th percentile among positional peers in the 2. Bundesliga for…
- Non-penalty goals
- Non-penalty xG
- Shots (total and on target)
- Touches in the penalty area
- Touches in the attacking third
- Progressive carries
- Successful take-ons
That is a skillset of a game-changer. First and foremost, the shots. All the best strikers (get and) take shots. The whole point of a striker is to score goals, and to score goals you need to take shots, so taking shots is good. He took seven in a game against HSV last month. Then you have the carries and dribbles, the progressive traits that are a byproduct of his support striker role.
