Since making his debut for Pogoń Szczecin at the age of 16 years old in 2019; Kacper Kozłowski has been a mainstay in their first team. More recently, he made his international debut for Poland, becoming the youngest player of any nationality to play at the Euros at 17 years and 246 days old, breaking the record set by Jude Bellingham just days before. Now Kozłowski has finally gotten his well-deserved big move, with Brighton & Hove Albion paying just under £9 million for the youngsters’ services; with him being sent out on loan for the rest of the season to Brighton’s sister club, Royale Union-Saint Gilloise. This tactical analysis and scout report will look at what USG and their manager Felice Mazzu can expect from Kozłowski, as well as how Mazzu may look to use the young Pole in his midfield setup.
Positioning overview
Kozłowski is very much an attacking midfielder player, with him favoring the right side, as the heat map above shows. At Pogoń, Kozłowski would line up in the right attacking midfielder position in a 4-1-4-1 formation, but would drop into deeper positions, with him very much capable playing in a box-to-box midfield role. Kozłowski is very much a modern-day midfielder, one that likes to get on the ball, but is not afraid to contribute defensively as well, which this scout report will show.
Excelling at dribbling and close control
One of Kozłowski’s most valuable skills is without a doubt his dribbling ability. Through his short career so far, Kozłowski is averaging 8 dribbles per 90 with a 55.3% success rate. This is nothing to scoff at, especially for a midfielder so young. When comparing this number to the three central midfielders that are ever-presents in Felice Mazzu’s 3-5-2 formation (Nielsen, Lapoussin, and Teuma), only Lapoussin has averaged more dribbles per 90 (10.64), but Kozłowski still betters all of them with his success rate. As the examples below will show, Kozłowski is not afraid to take defenders on with the ball at his feet; and is very good at getting by them too.
