Matías Soulé is an Argentinian attacking midfielder, right-winger, and sometimes a striker who has developed a lot at AS Roma under the management of Claudio Ranieri to become one of Roma’s most important players at the moment.
In this Matias Soulé scout report, we will explore his strengths in the attacking phase, how he developed and improved his dribbling, playmaking, and goalscoring skills, how to improve further, and what he still needs to become a world-class player.
But first, this tactical analysis will focus on Soulé’s importance and roles within Roma’s tactics.
The Argentinian has been a fundamental member of the squad, making 23 appearances in Serie A this season.
Soulé joined Roma last summer, coming from Juventus following the end of his loan at Frosinone.
Yet, he quickly won a starting spot, as the Matias Soulé Style of Play was exceptional and gained attention.
All teams want their players to have a remarkable style of play, the necessary abilities to surpass players easily, and the ability to always be dangerous on goal.
In this regard, Soulé is proving that he is improving progressively and acquiring the confidence needed to become more crucial.
His ability to score crucial goals on big occasions recently, and most importantly against Inter Milan and in the Derby against Lazio, proves this continuous improvement even further.
Matías Soulé Position At AS Roma
Soulé likes to play near the touchline.
He masters the tricks needed to get out of complicated situations on the wings thanks to his remarkable agility with and without the ball and his excellent dribbling skills, which make him a distinguishable player.
That said, Soulé can also represent a powerful second striker solution when needed.
He has everything needed to excel inside the penalty box, especially in terms of goalscoring and assist-making.
Matías Soulé Stats
The following pizza map reveals Soulé’s strengths and weaknesses and highlights what makes him a special player for Roma.
In particular, his passing accuracy and dangerous passes per 90 numbers are high enough to make him a valuable playmaker for Roma, whether on the right wing or in the middle, knowing that Ranieri usually prefers to play him on the right wing.
We always feel that Soulé’s dangerous passes can be exploited better with more chemistry between the players, knowing that he only provided two assists this season in Serie A.
That said, his vision and ability to always provide creative and sometimes unexpected passes can be considered one of Soulé’s most important weapons.
He needs to use them more intelligently to improve his numbers and, more importantly, ensure that Roma scores more goals thanks to his key passes.
Furthermore, Soulé’s almost equal accuracy with both his right and left foot when making passes or crosses from the wing makes him a more dangerous and unpredictable player.
As one of his attacking roles at Roma, Soulé is one of the team’s set-piece takers, especially when it comes to corner kicks, and his execution of such set-pieces has always brought danger.
Although his goal contribution rates are not high enough at the moment, his recent decisive goals against big teams can only prove that the player has a strong character and is willing to become a consistent goalscorer for the team.
With 96.8% dribbling accuracy in a tough defensive league like the Serie A, we can argue that Soulé is doing great work in dribbling, as it has never been easy to reach this rate against Serie A defenders.
For this reason, it is fundamental for Soulé to keep alternating his dribbles, especially in improving what he does after dribbling, as it is believed that Soulé can be much more dangerous in his actions following his dribbles.
This leads us to shooting and goalscoring: the number of Soulé’s shots per game is not high enough, and that is understandable because Soulé is a winger and not a striker, so he does not get many shooting opportunities per game.
Moreover, Soulé often plays as a right wing-back in a 3-4-3 formation, too, which limits his shooting opportunities as he plays behind a winger.
Overall, his shooting from distance has developed a lot lately, and the goal against Lazio highlights the combination of power and precision in his shots from distance.
That said, Soulé needs to repeat such surprisingly accurate shots to help his team more by scoring many goals per season, knowing that he scored five goals so far this season, which is not bad for a start with Roma.
Yet, that number needs to be doubled at least during the upcoming season in order to become more useful for Roma, given that everyone at the club is expecting the player’s breakthrough very soon.
That is starting to happen during the latest games, but it needs to continue next season, too.
Soulé needs to work on his concentration throughout the 90 minutes.
We sense that his concentration levels drop at times.
At this high level, concentration needs to be 100% throughout the match to avoid mistakes.
Working on aerial duels and being more decisive in defensive duels can also help Soulé become a more balanced and complete winger, as the defensive duties should not be neglected.
Matías Soulé Winger Actions
The following graphic details Soulé’s actions on the wings and stresses the fact that Soulé’s actions mainly start from the right wing.
The graphic also shows that Soulé often opts for early crosses that surprise defenders and usually create danger/goalscoring opportunities inside the box.
Most of his actions start near the touch line, his preferred position to make his dribbles.
He then cuts inside to shoot, provide a key pass, or continue his run down the wing before crossing using his right foot.
However, Soulé’s actions on the wing are usually dangerous overall, and the graphic further confirms that Soulé can be a source of trouble in the final third for most teams.
Matías Soulé Playmaking & Passing
Soulé can be considered one of the underrated passers in Serie A at the moment, given his potential in key passing, crossing, and creative passing.
He is underrated in this regard mainly because not many wingers in Serie A are capable of creating dangerous opportunities with surprising first-time crosses towards the box.
Matías Soulé Progressive Passes
The following graphic highlights the high number of progressive passes Soulé provided this season in Serie A, with the rose arrows showing the progressive passes made to the box.
This huge number of rose arrows confirms how important and positive Soulé’s playing style is.
He often succeeds in creating the opportunity for himself to either dribble and then provide a key pass or cut inside and shoot on goal.
Matías Soulé Assist Vs AC Monza
In the following example we chose, Soulé showcases his outstanding one vs one dribbling abilities as he plays with his opponent using body feints to mislead him before making the cross using his right foot without lacking the needed accuracy, creating one of his few successful assists this season.
Soulé is also underrated because his through passes in tight spaces and the ease/quickness with which he provides such passes often surprise defenders and create golden opportunities for the pass receiver.
What makes his passes even more impactful is his agile movements and his usually successful feinting without the ball or as soon as he receives it.
This allows him to quickly escape from marking and have the time and space needed to provide a key pass.
Matías Soulé First Touch
More importantly, Soulé often uses his first touch to escape from marking.
He is intelligent enough to know when he is being marked from the back without showing that he is aware of his marker’s presence.
This makes it easier to dribble past the marker while that player is surprised by Soulé’s quick movement towards the opposite side.
In this example, Soulé succeeded in confusing his marker before making the needed pass.
In addition to these abilities, Soulé has outstanding vision, enabling him to spot strikers’ movements and serve them with through passes at the needed timing, as he did on numerous occasions.
But again, Soulé needs to work on achieving consistency in key passes to be more impactful each game.
Matías Soulé Key Passes
The following picture highlights the ability of Soulé to provide such key passes to strikers without hesitation despite having two defenders who might intercept the pass.
Nevertheless, Soulé succeeded in providing the pass with the needed precision and at the right timing, giving Artem Dovbyk a golden scoring opportunity.
Matías Soulé Goalscoring
During the last few games, Soulé stood out as one of the most crucial players in Serie A.
He scored some very important goals for his team, whether against Lazio or Inter Milan, which were both difficult matches.
But in addition to these important goals, Soulé has also been a reliable set-piece taker regarding corner-kick taking, as seen above, and free-kick taking.
Matías Soulé Free-Kick Taking
It is true that Soulé has not scored many free kicks so far, but he confirmed on more than one occasion that he masters free-kick taking and that he can become much more consistent in terms of free-kick scoring if he keeps improving this aspect.
He has that “magic” and flair needed to succeed in executing extraordinary free kicks like the one scored against Parma.
Matías Soulé Goal Vs Lazio
That said, we cannot neglect Soulé’s goal against Lazio, as it deserves credit for many reasons.
Soulé is a player who does not fear shooting from outside the box and usually attempts such shots whenever possible.
He takes such risks while having the needed confidence in his ability to finish successfully, making him a special player.
What counts for Soulé, especially in his goal against Lazio, is the accuracy with which he was able to shoot on this occasion despite attempting a first-time shot and preferring to surprise the goalkeeper.
Furthermore, Soulé has been exceptional in terms of curved shots this season.
He scored many goals with similar shots and missed others while creating a lot of danger, like with his famous crossbar shot against Sampdoria.
Soulé scored many other impressive goals, especially from outside the box.
He has become much more dangerous when receiving second balls or when joining the box to receive crosses launched from the left wing, while positioning himself behind the striker to avoid excessive marking.
Matías Soulé Goal Vs Empoli
In this goal example against Empoli, he was able to receive a cross, control the ball, and turn to score a beautiful curved shot in a way that makes it look easy to execute, knowing that it is not the case.
Conclusion
Matías Soulé is an underrated right-winger who has been in excellent form lately under Claudio Ranieri’s tactics, especially in terms of goalscoring.
Being capable of leading Roma to win important points against Lazio, Inter, and Parma more clearly represents a confidence boost to the player and an opportunity to keep improving to eventually become among the leading players at Roma.
With his talent and potential, Soulé can undoubtedly become one of the best in his position.
He has the flair, vision, dribbling skills, agility, passing skills, and goalscoring talent needed to shine in Serie A and European competitions.
