Adrian Grbic 2019/20 – scout report

Adrian Grbić was one of the standout attackers in Ligue 2 last season. The 23-year-old Austrian attacker’s output was impressive during the campaign. With 17 league goals to his name, Grbić impressively managed to net 48% of Clermont Foot’s 35 goals in Ligue 2 last season, which shows his importance to Pascal Gastien’s team. 

Lately, Grbić’s name has been mentioned as a potential transfer target for Ligue 1 side Stade Brestois, Scottish Premiership side Rangers, and EPL competitors Brighton and Hove Albion and considering how impressively he managed to perform for Clermont Foot in Ligue 2 during the 2019/20 campaign, it mightn’t come as a surprise to see the that the attacker is being linked with a variety of different clubs. 

This tactical analysis piece in the form of a scout report will take a look at some of Grbić’s key traits and we will attempt to determine how he managed to perform so effectively for Gastien’s side last season. We will examine how Grbić fit into Clermont Foot’s tactics last season and explain the role that he played for his team in this tactical analysis of the Austrian forward. 

Off-the-ball movement

Clermont Foot typically line up in a 4-2-3-1 shape and Grbić tends to occupy the centre forward position within this set-up. However, Gastien’s attack tend to play with a significant amount of fluidity and their front four interchange positions with one another quite a bit during the build-up phase of attacks. 

These tactics suit Grbić, who is a player with a broad skill-set and who can operate effectively all across the front of the pitch. At 188cm (6’2”) tall, Grbić can present a difficult physical match for many of the defenders that he comes up against. However, the attacker is also quite pacey and agile. These physical traits, combined with a clear confidence on the ball and a decent level of technical ability help to make Grbić a threat from any of the positions that he occupies across the front line in a typical game. 

This image above shows us Grbić’s heatmap from the 2019/20 Ligue 2 campaign. As we can see, while Grbić is a centre forward within Clermont Foot’s 4-2-3-1 system, Gastien’s tactics allow the Austrian a large degree of freedom to roam around the opposition’s half. 

We can see quite a lot of colour in the half-spaces, in addition to the slightly deeper central position and during the build-up phase of games, Grbić can often be seen drifting into these positions in order to help his side to progress the ball into the attacking third.