Ademola Lookman‘s disappointing stay on Merseyside has come to an end.
Red Bull Leipzig have completed a £22.5 million deal to take him away from Everton and back to the Bundesliga, where he enjoyed a fruitful spell on loan in the second half of the 2017/18 season.
This tactical analysis and scout report will delve into why Everton fans never saw him fulfil his potential at Goodison Park and how he could potentially flourish in Germany.
Disappointment at Everton
Four managers were at the helm during his time at Everton: Marco Silva, Sam Allardyce, David Unsworth, and Ronald Koeman.
Yet Lookman failed to win a regular starting berth under any of these coaches.
Throughout his career, he has averaged a goal every four games in his career.
That’s an excellent return for someone often utilised in wider positions.
Creatively, he has never been prolific, though, with an assist every 10 games.
He also only averages one accurate cross every 180 minutes.
There aren’t too many wingers playing at the top level with stats like that.
In the 2018 January transfer window, then-Everton manager Sam Allardyce revealed the club did not want to loan him out, but Lookman pushed the deal through.
Before his January transfer window move, he had played in 15 games that season for Everton, seven of these coming in the league.
He made only one league start, and he was substituted at half-time.
He averaged 43 minutes per game that he featured in for the Toffees.
With eight of his games coming in cup ties, Lookman was probably concerned about playing time in the second half of the season.
A loan move in this circumstance made sense, yet Allardyce begrudgingly stated that he hoped Lookman would prove him wrong.
And that he did.
Lookman made 11 appearances in the Bundesliga for RB Leipzig, seven of which came as starts.
He also increased his game time to 54 minutes per game.
In this short spell, Lookman scored five goals and provided one assist.
However, it was toward the end of the season when he hit his stride.
He scored four of his five goals in the last five games and made that single assist.
It was thought he might bring this momentum into the 2018/19 season with Everton.
However, Marco Silva style of play gave him few opportunities.
Despite featuring in 24 games, only five of these were starts, with three coming in the league.
He averaged 40.23 minutes per game he featured in for Everton.
This was less than the season before.
But what was Marco Silva to do?
Lookman wasn’t close to recreating the form he had shown for Leipzig, and he finished the season with one goal and two assists in all competitions for Everton.
It made sense for all parties involved to part ways.
Everton vs RB Leipzig
It’s crucial to analyse the differences between Lookman’s Premier League performances with Everton and those with Leipzig in the Bundesliga.
Regardless of today’s inflated transfer market, £22.5 million is still expensive for someone who scored one goal and made two assists this past season.
Leipzig is paying this fee based on Lookman’s previous performances for the club whilst on loan.
If we compare his statistics as a Leipzig player to those at Everton last season, there is a clear difference.
Leipzig identified that he is not a strong crosser of the ball.
We can see that he was making less than half as many crosses per game for the German side.
At Everton, he completed 50% of his two crosses per game, but his overall cross-completion rate for his entire time at Everton lies at 33%.
There are several areas where Lookman’s efforts at Leipzig stand out as noticeably better.
Other than the very obvious difference in goals per game, we can see that Lookman’s shooting accuracy is better.
Not only was he more accurate, but his shot selection was better, too.
We can see that he has a penchant for a long-range shot that isn’t particularly accurate.
He has only scored one goal from outside the box on 31 attempts in his entire career.
When we look at his shot map from Leipzig, we see that he took only two shots from outside the area, and the rest are inside.
It’s no coincidence that his shooting accuracy jumped by over 20% for Leipzig.
Lookman created twice as many shot assists per game for Leipzig than he did last season at Everton.
This is despite his assists per game staying at similar rates.
He also took more touches inside the box, completed more dribbles per game, and dribbled at a higher success rate.
In the 2017/18 season, RB Leipzig’s tactics often involved two strikers, and Lookman was often used in a wide attacking midfield position, or even in a central attacking midfield position.
Lookman was played on the left side as a wide forward if they opted to play a front three.
Lookman played only 27.2% of games on the right side and only two games as a winger.
Regardless of what side he plays on, Lookman often cuts inside to take a shot or play with a teammate, which shows he perhaps understands his limitations with crossing.
Playing him on the left side ensures that he always cuts inside onto his stronger foot, nullifying his poor crossing.
However, upon returning to Everton, 49% of his game time came as a winger.
Lookman also played 53% of the games he played in on the right side.
Two heatmaps chosen from Lookman’s last full 90-minute games for Leipzig and Everton show the differences in positioning.
In this game for Leipzig against Wolfsburg, Lookman played as a LAMF and operated close to the forwards.
The analysis below highlights Lookman in a typical position where he would operate.
By playing close to the forward, in this case, Jean-Kévin Augustin, they rotate positions.
Lookman operates between the opposition defence and midfield.
The run we see him make isn’t tracked correctly, and he scores his first of two goals that day.
Now, let’s look at Lookman’s heat map from his last full 90-minute game for Everton, a 2-1 loss to Southampton in January of this year.
From this heat map, we can ascertain that Lookman is receiving the ball in deeper areas.
Silva wanted him to operate deeper and wider, taking on players with his pace and dribbling ability.
He completed five of his seven dribble attempts in this game, yet still only accurately crossed a third of his attempts.
Playing deeper meant he reverted to taking shots from further out again. His shot map from the 2018/19 season shows he didn’t hit the target from anything further than just past the penalty spot.
His improved performances at Leipzig suggest that he performs better when he is free to play more centrally as an LAMF rather than as an RW.
Ademola Lookman attacking play
As an attacking midfielder, he can drift inside more and take up positions that a forward might.
We can see this in the image below, where he is making a progressive run between the centre-back and wing-back despite playing on the right side.
This is another example of him taking a high and narrow position close to the centre-forward.
The centre-back will always pay attention to the man in possession and the centre-forward in his eye line here.
This allows Lookman to get inside the left back, and very few full-backs in world football can beat Ademola Lookman in a foot race.
He has pace to burn and is devastating when running at opponents with the ball or making late surging runs to get on the end of a cross.
His first instinct is often to take on a player, and he attempts 7.57 dribbles per game.
However, with only a 52.8% success rate, this is an area where he needs to improve.
Lookman can operate as the furthest man in an attack and is intelligent with his forward runs.
The image below shows how he moves to the left, creating the space to the right behind the centre-back.
This gives him space to use his pace to run into, and latch onto the through ball.
Ademola Lookman Defensive Abilities
It would be easy to pigeonhole Lookman as a player with sole attacking intentions.
However, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Lookman uses great energy and pace to aid his team when defending.
He presses well and recovered the ball in the opposition half just under 60% of the time on 4.84 attempts per game last season.
Lookman’s 3.54 interceptions per game result from his good reading of the game and his ability to put players under intense pressure.
He also won a very impressive 67.7% of his defensive duels.
That is uncommon with attacking players.
Conclusion
It’s unlikely he’ll be missed at Goodison Park.
Everton have strong squad depth, particularly in wide areas.
They will receive £22.5 million for a player they signed only 30 months ago for an initial £7.5 million without add-ons.
That’s a good return.
Lookman is at a club where he has good memories and where he arguably played his best football to date.
At RB Leipzig, Head Coach Julian Nagelsmann, and Sporting Director Ralph Rangnick are highly regarded in the game, particularly when it comes to judging young talent.
Lookman will join a Leipzig side littered with young prospects, including Timo Werner, Matheus Cunha, and Dayot Upamecano.
RB Leipzig will be hoping Lookman is the next young English talent to take the Bundesliga by storm.
