Santiago Giménez is set to join AC Milan, coming from Feyenoord, at the moment of writing this article, with the transfer deal confirmed by numerous trusted sources.
This move will pave the way for Álvaro Morata’s departure to the Turkish side Galatasaray, as Giménez will replace the Spanish international with I Rossoneri.
Giménez is a Mexican international who also holds Italian citizenship but has played for the Mexican national team since 2021.
He was born in Buenos Aires while his father, Christian Giménez, played for Boca Juniors at the time.
This means that Giménez was raised in a footballing environment and in a family that is accustomed to football, fame, and professionalism.
This can be very important for the player as it helps him focus more on football, mature, and gain experience in numerous aspects at an early age.
Giménez is a 23-year-old who has already been putting on consistently solid performances as a striker with Feyenoord and before that with Cruz Azul, where he started his career in 2017.
In fact, Giménez started his senior career in 2017 and helped Cruz Azul win their ninth Liga MX title in 2021 before moving to Feyenoord in June 2022 and signing a four-year contract for the Dutch team.
Giménez was also a key player for Feyenoord in their 2022/23 Eredivisie title journey.
He scored 15 goals in 32 matches to help them win the title at the end of that season.
In the next season, Giménez became a much more dangerous player in the Eredivisie as he succeeded in scoring a hat-trick against Ajax and finished 2023 with 31 goals, setting a record for the number of goals scored in the Eredivisie in a calendar year.
In 2024, he helped Feyenoord win their fourteenth KNVB Cup title with a crucial assist in the final.
This confirms that Giménez is not only a goalscorer but can also be a reliable assist maker in key moments.
Overall, Giménez’s progress in goalscoring and playmaking was very noticeable at Feyenoord despite the difficulty of the Eredivisie.
Lately, he has also been capable of scoring goals against world-class teams like Bayern Munich, Manchester City, and Lazio in the UEFA Champions League, confirming that he has the personality needed to show up on big occasions and leave his mark even against the toughest defences in Europe.
It is true that Giménez suffered from numerous injuries in the last couple of years, yet what is positive is that Giménez has usually been able to recover quickly from injuries and was not subject to many long periods on the sidelines during his career.
Milan’s replacement of Álvaro Morata by Giménez can only represent an upgrade for Milan’s attack as the Mexican striker is much younger and has big potential.
In this tactical analysis and scouting report, we will be exploring Giménez’s strengths and weaknesses as a striker and discovering his goalscoring skills and playmaking traits.
The analysis will also compare Giménez to Abraham, as these two strikers are available in Sérgio Conceição’s plans and tactics.
Santiago Giménez Style Of Play
Giménez is known as a striker who does not really rely on aggression inside the box but rather on skills, intelligence in movements and anticipation of his opponent’s actions.
Initially, Giménez was not really useful in terms of headers and was not capable of winning a lot of aerial duels per season.
But with more experience, he learned how to anticipate defenders and position himself well to be first on the ball, and that’s how he became much more useful in this regard.
As a result, his aerial duels win rates have increased compared to previous years, which shows that Giménez has been working on his weaknesses and improving them concretely.
Moreover, he has shown on numerous occasions that he can jump very high, and therefore, AC Milan can work with him further on this aspect to make his headers on goal more crucial and recurrent.
The pizza chart also confirms that Giménez is excellent in terms of goal contributions.
He shoots a lot per match and touches the ball a lot inside the box, which also means that he is not a passive striker.
Giménez has a tendency to drift towards the wings and retreat to midfield whenever possible.
This allows him to link up with teammates in the playmaking phase, win duels, protect the ball and provide passes.
Nevertheless, a lot of work is still needed from Giménez in terms of passing, as his rates have been poor in the first half of the season.
Sérgio Conceição and his staff might need to work individually with him on this aspect to make his passes more recurrent and dangerous.
Giménez has the potential to be much more dangerous in this regard, especially when he gets the ball inside or near the box.
Santiago Giménez Pizza Chart
Santiago Giménez Vs Tammy Abraham
Another important trait that differentiates Giménez from other strikers, including Tammy Abraham, is his ability to carry the ball from various positions and reach the box without losing it.
This is thanks to his excellent body balance, resistance to disturbance, and dribbling skills.
Abraham, for instance, lacks the dribbling skills and agility needed to always succeed in penetrating carries.
In the following graphic, we can see the numerous penetrating carries of Giménez from different parts of the pitch, as well as the 20 successful penetrating carries towards the box during this first half of the season only.
Milan should, therefore, exploit this uncommon trait within strikers and use it in their favour by adjusting the attacking plans and counting Giménez’s penetrating carries as a valid playmaking solution.
Santiago Giménez Penetrating Carries Chart
The following radar comparison focuses on both Giménez and Abraham’s traits and highlights what makes Giménez a more reliable option for Milan’s attack.
Apart from penetrating carries, we should argue that Giménez has much more potential and margin for progress than Abraham, given their age differences and physical abilities.
More importantly, Abraham confirmed his poor goalscoring numbers and abilities during this first half of the season and missed many golden opportunities in front of goal, making Giménez a much more suitable choice for leading Milan’s attack and exploiting the created chances in the needed way.
Giménez clearly has the advantage over Abraham in this regard as he holds a much higher xG, shoots more on goal per game, and has a higher rate in terms of goal contribution.
Moreover, being a better dribbler also favours Giménez over Abraham.
The latter is not as quick as Giménez and lacks the agility needed to easily surpass defenders.
That being said, Giménez’s challenge will be to succeed in adapting quickly to Serie A’s defending style and in knowing how to overcome tougher defenders who rely on physical strength and on aggressivity more than in the Eredivisie.
Therefore, he will certainly need to become more physically powerful to cope with the tough and aggressive marking systems of the Italian teams.
It is fair to say that Abraham has been more useful lately in terms of passing.
Giménez failed to consistently make dangerous passes this season, and that’s one of the areas he needs to improve.
In addition, Giménez should exploit his progress in aerial duels and work on converting his headers into goals at Milan, especially given that Abraham has been failing to score headers lately.
In fact, Giménez has more potential than Abraham and has the traits needed to succeed at Milan if he adapts quickly to Serie A’s playing style.
That being said, it is very probable that both players will play alongside each other as an attacking duo.
They can complement each other inside the box, especially since they are Milan’s most reliable choices for these roles.
Sérgio Conceição formation has resorted to the 4-4-2 system on numerous occasions lately, and it is very probable that he will continue using it during games.
Therefore, it will be important for Giménez to adapt to playing in an attacking duo.
Giménez Vs Abraham Data Analysis
Santiago Giménez Goalscoring & Playmaking Traits
Giménez scores 0.53 goals per match with 2.84 shots per game and 44.1% shots on target.
These numbers are convincing enough and can be improved even further if Giménez makes more individual efforts to become more crucial in front of goal and exploit most opportunities.
In terms of shooting abilities, we can argue that Giménez’s left-footed shots are usually powerful enough to confuse goalkeepers, especially when Giménez shoots while running.
Moreover, Giménez has been developing his acrobatic moves lately and started using them further to score complicated goals.
His latest goal against Fortuna Sittard highlights his ability to use beautiful volleys and score goals that seem difficult to score since the cross was complicated to catch in this action.
Such finishes prove that the striker is becoming more mature and experienced, as they show that he has a lot more confidence in his ability to finish actions even when trying risky moves.
Taking the initiative and executing such moves also confirms that Giménez’s personality is getting stronger and that his character is strong as a player, as it is important for strikers to make their decisions and be confident of their ability to succeed in how they finish.
Santiago Giménez Volley Finishing
The following goal highlights Giménez’s potential regarding headers and his ability to orient the ball towards the far post magnificently.
Improving his header accuracy and winning more aerial duels will surely make Giménez a much more dangerous striker during crosses and set-pieces.
He clearly has the potential to be crucial with headers, too.
Jumping higher than everyone and in a backward way, too, makes this action special as Giménez scored the winning goal during the last seconds of the game, thanks to this header.
Santiago Giménez Crucial Header
Giménez can also score goals with shots from a distance and by moving without the ball at the back of the opposing defensive line, especially in counterattacks.
He is very efficient at these actions.
Furthermore, Giménez can be a playmaker when needed but needs to intensify his key pass.
He has provided numerous assists in his career so far and has the potential to do so with Milan as well.
Whether with headers or key passes, Giménez was successful in providing assists to his teammates at Feyenoord.
This assist example shows one of the assists provided by Giménez following a successful penetrating carry from the wing, highlighting his ability to provide through passes that create danger and in spotting unmarked teammates quickly.
Santiago Giménez Assist & Penetrating Carry
Overall, Giménez can improve in numerous areas, especially passing and headers, as he has already progressed in both areas over the last few seasons.
Conclusion
Santiago Giménez’s move to Milan is destined to be a successful one as Giménez has the right mentality that will more likely help him adapt quickly to playing in Italy.
His challenge will be knowing how to deal with the tough Italian defences and improving his abilities as a striker while convincing his new coaching staff by scoring goals and executing the needed tactical instructions.
Building chemistry with key team players like Rafael Leão, Christian Pulisic, Tammy Abraham, Samuel Chukwueze, Tijjani Reijnders, and the rest will also be very important to make the attacking plans more fluid and avoid misunderstandings upfront.
