Which Gap Will ‘Dynamic’ Jeremie Frimpong Fill In At Bayer Leverkusen – Scout Report

Bayer Leverkusen were more active in the winter transfer period than many European teams.

Timothy Fosu-Mensah from Manchester United and Demarai Gray from Leicester City were signed from the Premier League, while Jeremie Frimpong was purchased from the Scottish Premiership.

Frimpong was the most expensive acquisition – on the longest deal – signing a four-year contract for a fee that could reportedly rise to £11.5m.

Leverkusen’s Sporting Director, Simon Rolfes, stated that since these players come from Great Britain, they will be used to a dynamic, physical style of play.

In this football analysis, we will cover how Frimpong has handled this in Scotland to this point.

Standing at 5’9” / 175cm, Frimpong possesses an electric pace coupled with a very direct and positive approach to ball progression and driving his team forward.

Under Neil Lennon tactics at Celtic, in possession, he was positioned as more of a right-winger who would take on opponent left-backs with his strong ability in one-on-one duels.

This scout report will further analyse where he excels and is limited.

In this tactical analysis, we will cover his role in Lennon’s system, how well this will translate to Peter Bosz’s, and how great a value he will provide to Leverkusen over his proposed time at the club.

Jeremie Frimpong Player profile

Frimpong had been apart of the Manchester City academy from the age of 10 years old, coming over from Amsterdam to pursue his footballing dreams at the summit of English football.

He impressed over the years, making his way through the youth ranks and finally to the U23 level. Celtic tracked him closely throughout that first U23 season before purchasing him from City for £350k.

Celtic are no stranger to this method of recruitment  signing from higher-profile academies across Europe (see Odsonne Édouard from PSG).

Celtic have experimented with several formations this season, but their most frequent formation is the 4-2-3-1, in which Frimpong has occupied the right-back role.

Positioned behind Ryan Christie at right-wing, who will typically roam infield, Frimpong has room to gallop up and down the wide-right zone of the pitch, continually making overlaps.

Frimpong has also been used in a back-five, back-three, and on one occasion, starting as a right-winger, despite this being the space he typically operates in anyway.

Frimpong’s style of play meshes well with Christie’s, who likes to operate in central areas due to his strong ability in tight spaces.

This means that Frimpong has free reign over the wide-right zone.

While Christie can drag opponents to his location, Frimpong can burst into space and either hit a whipped early cross towards the far post or carry the ball into the penalty area himself and find a teammate closer to him, leading him to become more accurate with his chance creation.

Frimpong’s player profile, created by the wonderful Sathish Prasad (@SathishPrasadVT on Twitter).

Celtic’s nucleus of ball progression

Looking at his ball progression numbers is a good starting point for explaining what Frimpong does best in matches.

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