It feels like a lifetime ago that I last posted an article for Total Football Analysis, but in the end, the itch to write and share insights has pulled me back.
For the first series of articles that I plan to share with you all, I want to take a deeper look at one of the most important aspects of football recruitment: player profiles.
When starting the recruitment process in football, it is incredibly important that you fully understand who you are and what you are trying to achieve as a football club.
Do you plan to use a back three or a back four?
Within that, do you expect your central defenders to be key in the build-up phase, or are they there purely to nullify opposition attacks?
The questions go on, and if you complete this process properly, you should end up with a list of player profiles for each position on the pitch.
Then, we need to understand exactly what these profiles mean and how they fit together as a cohesive unit on the pitch.
Simple, right?
Well, maybe not simple.
Regardless of the level, recruitment within football is anything but simple, but player profiling makes the process more straightforward.
In this series of articles, I plan to discuss the player profiles typically associated with each position and all positions on the pitch.
I will give you a best-case profile with a top-five league player performing well to give you an idea of the template we are looking at.
I will then give you two more players who are playing below the level of the top-five leagues but who fit the profile and have the potential to step up, and then one more player from a smaller league who may be interesting to follow in the coming seasons.
To start, I will look at central defenders and the profile of dominant defenders.
A dominant defender is relatively simple to categorise.
I am looking for a central defender who can win their duels, both in the air and on the ground, and defend aggressively and effectively in 1v1 situations.
Think William Saliba at Arsenal.
I use data extensively in my process and have a model that generates profile scores for each profile in each position.
Using these models, I can gain quick insights, some of which I will share with you in this article.
Using data to identify central defenders raises clear issues, as defensive volume will always be greater for players who have more defending to do.
I typically approach this issue by using data on central defenders as an indicator of style rather than ability.
We will start this analysis with the ideal profile.
Dayot Upamecano As The Prototype Defender
I have selected a player from a top-five league as one of the current prototypes for the profile: the French international Dayot Upamecano of Bayern Munich in the German top flight.
From a physical and athletic point of view, Upamecano has everything you would want from a dominant defender.
He is 6’2” / 1.88m with a powerful frame, and his stride and pace allow him to cover ground quickly.
This means he is comfortable defending proactively and being drawn deeper by strikers, as he can recover his defensive positioning when needed.
He also has the athletic ability and strength to compete in aerial duels.
Finding a dominant defensive type is one thing, but what sets Upamecano apart is his defensive intelligence.
His ability to read the game and understand his position and role means he is generally positioned well against the ball and ready to defend aggressively if the opposition moves forward.
Dayot Upamecano Radar Map
For a quick visualisation of his data, we can use Dayot Upamecano’s pizza chart from this season, with the defensive side of the game coloured white.
Pizza charts in this form compare players to all players within their league tier.
In this case, Upamecano is compared to all other central defenders across the top five leagues on a percentile basis.
Straight away, we can see the clear defensive points that make a dominant defender surface.
He is in the 70th percentile for defensive duels and the 67th percentile for the percentage of those duels won.
He is in the 85th percentile for aerial duels and the 90th percentile for the percentage of aerial duels won.
These are fascinating insights for a team as possession-heavy as FC Bayern Munich.
We would expect Upamecano to defend frequently in transition and when isolated in higher positions of the pitch.
Dayot Upamecano Defensive Territory Chart
As expected. Upamecano is a right-sided central defender, and his defensive actions this season map to a high number of actions coming from higher areas.
Interestingly, most of his fouls occur in higher positions, indicating he is willing to break up opposition attacks in transition.
So this gives us an idea of the player profile that we are looking for.
However, from a recruitment point of view, this is not immediately helpful as only a handful, if that many, clubs would be able to sign Upamecano away from Bayern Munich.
So, let’s look at some other options.
Samson Baidoo Scouting Report At Red Bull Salzburg
Dayot Upamecano was signed initially by Red Bull Salzburg as a young player from Valenciennes, France.
His pathway then took him to RB Leipzig and then on to Bayern Munich.
RB Salzburg is essentially a club that is a great proving ground for young central defenders looking to break into the top five European leagues.
The Austrian central defender Samson Baidoo may well be the next to do so.
Already capped once by Austria at 20 years old, the defender stands at 6’3” / 1.91m with a powerful and athletic build — sound familiar?
Samson Baidoo Radar Chart
The profile is not as fully developed from a data perspective, but the raw ingredients are there.
We also have to remember our earlier point that defender data is more about style than ability and can be linked closely to team style and trends within individual leagues.
The pizza chart puts Baidoo in the 54th percentile for defensive duels but the 57th percentile for the % of those that were won.
His aerial duels are in the 82nd and 32nd percentiles for the percentage of those that were won, respectively.
It is interesting to see the data showing that Red Bull Salzburg have taken a downturn in form this season and are no longer the dominant force we saw previously.
However, given what we already know about Baidoo’s profile, there is little doubt that he could make the transition to a top-five league.
Igoh Ogbu Scouting Report At Slavia Prague
For the next player identified in this process, we go to the top flight of Czechia to find one who has taken slightly longer to develop but is still at the peak age for a central defender.
Slavia Prague is another team, like Red Bull Salzburg, that has become reliable in developing top-tier talent for more illustrious leagues.
They appear to have once again hit on talent by signing Nigerian central defender Igoh Ogbu from Lillestrom of Norway.
Ogbu is 25 years old, and his pathway has taken him from Rosenborg to Sogndal in the lower tier and then on to Lillestrøm SK before Slavia Praha paid a reported 2.5M to secure his services.
He stands at 6’3” / 1.91m, and once again, he has the mobility and athletic profile to play as a dominant defender and win his duels all over the pitch.
Igoh Ogbu Radar Chart
The pizza chart for Ogbu is impressive, to say the least, from a defensive perspective.
He is in the 98th percentile for defensive duels and the 99th percentile for the % of those duels that he has won.
He is also in the 92nd percentile for aerial duels and the 58th percentile for the % of those duels that were won.
In short, he has the ideal data profile to suggest that he is developing into a truly dominant defender.
The next move for Ogbu is tricky, as there are obvious flaws elsewhere in his game.
However, as we approach the transfer window, do not be surprised to hear his name linked to a move.
Ivan Mensah Scouting Report At MFK Dukla Banská Bystrica
For the profile of an interesting player who is further away from reaching the top-five leagues, we are heading across the border from Czechia to Slovakia to MFK Dukla Banská Bystrica and to the 20-year-old Ghanaian central defender Ivan Mensah.
The pathway that Mensah has taken to this point has been an interesting one.
He is a product of the rapidly improving partnership that the Slovakian side MŠK Žilina has with an academy in Africa, now known as MŠK Žilina Africa FC.
Normally, these players will then move from Zilina to a higher-profile league.
Instead, Mensah had a loan spell at MFK Dukla Banska Bystrica before joining them permanently for an undisclosed fee last summer.
Standing at 6’3’ / 1.91m with a powerful frame, Mensah fits the profile we are looking for from a physical and athletic point of view.
He is still developing his understanding of the game, but there are signs now that this is coming, and he is becoming a more measured and positionally sound central defender.
Ivan Mensah Radar Chart
His pizza chart is interesting for a young, developing central defender.
He is in the 99th percentile for defensive duels, showing the front-footed, proactive approach we want, but he is in the 53rd percentile for the percentage of duels won.
Aerially, he is in the 79th percentile for aerial duels per 90 and the 41st percentile for the % of those that were won.
He is not at the point now where he is ready for a top-five league, but if the likes of Ogbu were to move on from Slavia Prague, a player like Mensah could be the next man up to fill that gap.
Conclusion
The profile of the dominant defender is interesting because of the tactical direction football is taking.
Defenders are increasingly being asked to defend more in space and man-to-man structures, so they have to be able to dominate in duels.
We are seeing fewer defenders coming through who just want to sit deep and defend as part of a unit, and, as a result, these dominant defensive types will become increasingly in demand.
