The sporting project at RB Leipzig is one of the most exciting in world football at the moment. With the young and innovative Julian Nagelsmann at the helm, a crop of exciting talent and some fantastic attacking football, RB Leipzig are a team to follow closely in the upcoming Bundesliga seasons as they could yet challenge the Bavarian dominance. One of Leipzig’s biggest assets is their ability to discover, develop and nurture young talent along with some intelligent planning in the transfer market. The acquisition of Christopher Nkunku from Paris Saint Germain for a reported fee of £13 million was another smart piece of business from Leipzig. This tactical analysis aims to provide an analysis of what Nkunku will bring to RB Leipzig.
Who is Nkunku?
Christopher Nkunku started his career at PSG, joining the academy aged 13 and made his debut for the Parisians in a Champions League game in 2015, aged just 18. He broke into the first team along with the likes of Presnel Kimpembe and his current teammate at Leipzig, Jean-Kevin Augustin. Since his debut, Nkunku has made 78 appearances for PSG, scoring 11 times and recording three assists. In the words of former PSG coach Laurent Blanc,
“He came up from the youth team to help us, and given PSG’s strength, that can be difficult for a young player. But I noticed the ease of his technique and I don’t think I was alone. It was a nice surprise.”
Systemic adaptability
Nkunku’s versatility and systemic adaptability is perhaps his biggest asset. The youngster has played in a variety of positions, ranging from right-winger to defensive midfielder to right-back. Nkunku played for the PSG youth sides as a central midfielder or defensive midfielder. However, his initial opportunities for the first-team largely came as a right-back or defensive winger. The last season saw a significant amount of time played in the centre of the park. Nkunku played 313 minutes as a central midfielder, 307 as a right wing-back, 214 minutes as a right-winger and interestingly even played 129 minutes as an attacking midfielder. Clearly, Nkunku is a jack-of-all-trades type of player who can do the job in a variety of positions. This, of course, poses the risk of Nkunku not specializing in any particular position and remaining a utility player but the Frenchman definitely has the technical ability to settle as a central midfielder or as a right-back/ right wing-back. This analysis looks at Nkunku in both positions.
Nkunkus skills as a midfielder
As this analysis will show, Nkunku has been at his best while playing in midfield. The youngster is quick, agile and relentless in his constant movement around the pitch looking for pockets of space or an opportunity to progress the ball. Nkunku had a 91 per cent passing accuracy last season, indicating an adept passing ability. Nkunku can be described as an energetic midfielder who brings off-the-ball movement to the midfield.
While not possessing as much flair as some of his teammates, Nkunku is the perfect midfielder for systems that require intense pressing and quick passes. The Frenchman is not one to take too many risks with his passes and rarely plays aerial or diagonal passes, instead preferring quick combinations with teammates or recycling of possession. Nkunku heavily relies on his dribbling to carry the ball from the deep-lying midfielders into the final third.
Playing as a right-back
Playing as a right-back or right wing-back, Nkunku is a steady and reliable option but cannot be expected to contribute as much as a specialist attacking full-back. Interestingly, his approach to the game varies greatly while playing on the flank. As mentioned above, while playing in midfield, Nkunku is more willing to take risks and attempt to dribble his way out of trouble. At right-back, the Frenchman tends to avoid trying to beat opponents with dribbling or take-ons. Nkunku instead relies heavily on combining with his teammates and finding space on the underlap rather than the overlap. This worked especially well at PSG as either Mbappe or Di Maria would drag the opposition wing-back out of position leaving space for Nkunku to underlap into. It seems that the risk of being caught out of position or leaving the defence exposed inhibits Nkunku from venturing too far forward.
