Angel Gomes has been one of the most exciting young talents at Manchester United. However, he still has not proved his full potential yet and it seems that Man United do not have the patience to wait. He has played in the U23 Premier League and played some first-team games in the UEFA Europa League. In the EPL, he has only come in as a substitute for the last minutes. The games analysed will be from the Europa League games he played.
This is why he has decided to move to Lille in Ligue 1, which is known to nurture young talents. Even though he is not a signing for the immediate future, his signing proves Lille’s belief in him. He was recently loaned out to Boavista in the Liga NOS and in this tactical analysis, we will do an analysis of why Lille signed the promising 20-year-old.
Gomes is a player of small stature with incredible individual technique and spatial awareness. He can play in many attacking positions, showing his versatility. In this scout report, his attributes will be analysed, and we will see in what tactics he plays the best in. Gomes has to prove this season in Portugal what he had not shown at Manchester United, and that is his ability to take his game to the next level in the professional game.
As a left-winger
One of the positions he can play is left-winger. Most of the time as a winger, he stays out wide as much as he can. This is to add width to the attack and to stretch out the opponents. Consequently, there will be more spaces through the middle which is from where Manchester United ideally wants to attack to create the most danger.
Also, with him being out wide he becomes a much easier passing option for his team and if they pass it to him, he would have much more space than if he was closer to the middle. In the image below, it is clear the amount of space Gomes is in.
Moreover, we can also see how much space there is for Manchester United players through the middle, thanks to the width generated by the wingers.
However, at times he goes inside as a winger. This is to give the whole flank to the left-back and for him to be inside as a helping option if needed. Since Manchester United have offensive left-backs, this movement from Gomes encourages the left-back’s incorporation to the attack. Through this, they achieve one more man in the attack to try to generate superiorities in the wing.
In the example below, Gomes tucks in the middle so that the left-back can drive with speed into the whole flank. If the left-back advances more, the player marking Gomes would have to decide which one to mark, and depending on that, spaces would be created for the team on that flank thanks to the 2 vs 1 superiority.
