Borna Sosa 2021/22: The Croatian left-back being monitored by Premier League clubs – scout report

Borna Sosa is a 24-year-old Croatian left-back currently playing for Stuttgart in the German Bundesliga. Sosa, an international with Croatia, has been a key part of the Stuttgart team this season, who have had an underwhelming second campaign back in the top tier of German football. Sosa has impressed enough to be linked with both Tottenham and Arsenal, whilst with West Ham’s ever-present Aaron Cresswell turning 32 this year, and with Arthur Masuaku not providing competition for his starting berth, it’s highly likely the Hammers will be monitoring his availability as well. 

Sosa is an attacking full-back who is comfortable playing in a back four as a wing-back in a back five. He is often seen bombing up and down the left-flank and consistently providing an attacking presence, whilst he has put in some stellar defensive performances this season too. 

This tactical analysis and scout report will highlight the key traits of the full-back, whilst providing an analysis of the team tactics Sosa suits.

Supporting the attack

Sosa does an excellent job of providing both height and width in attacking phases. As a result of this, he receives the ball in areas where he has space to cross. Sosa is one of the most prolific crossing left-backs in the Bundesliga, as indicated by the following image, behind only RB Leipzig’s Angelino, and Hoffenheim’s David Raum. These two left-backs have a higher volume and slightly better completion than Sosa, but as we can see, the Croatian is still in their company for being outliers in this data set.

We can see that Sosa is hitting a volume of crosses well above the league average, whilst his 41% completion is outstanding given such volume. The plot point size also indicated his expected assists per 90, when measured against the rest of the players in the league, and his 0.26 per 90 is very strong as well, with the aforementioned Raum, and Aaron Martin only bettering him here.

Sosa is able to deliver the ball from a variety of areas, regularly crossing from deeper areas, or close to the 18 yard-box, whilst he can drive on the ball all the way to the byline before looking to pull the ball back across goal.