Sebastian Szymański: Feyenoord’s new number ’10’ making a name for himself in Rotterdam – scout report

In the last few years, there has been a resurgence of young talent in the Poland national team setup. One of the more recent entrants into this list is 23-year-old attacking midfielder Sebastian Szymański. The talented Pole came through the youth setup at Legia Warsaw, making his debut for the senior side in 2016. 

However, now he is a Feyenoord player after joining them on loan from Dynamo Moscow for the season, with the Rotterdam-based side holding an option to buy the young midfielder. Szymański is tasked with replacing the gaping hole left behind by Guus Til, who was electric last season when on loan from fellow Russian Premier League side Spartak Moscow. The Dutchman had 21 goals and 6 assists across all competitions for Feyenoord; which then netted him a permanent move to fellow Eredivisie side PSV Eindhoven, who are managed by former Manchester United and Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy.

This scout report and tactical analysis will take a look at the strengths of Szymański, and how he may fit into Arne Slot’s side. 

Player profile 

The heat map above shows the typical positions that Szymański operated in during his time with Dynamo Moscow. When playing under Sandro Schwarz in the Russian capital, he was deployed as the right central midfielder in a 4-3-3 formation, which is the reason behind most of his positioning being in the right attacking half of the pitch. He also drifted into a central position and played as the most advanced of the three central midfielders during his time in Moscow.

Now in Rotterdam, Szymański will likely be deployed as the central attacking midfielder in Arne Slot’s preferred 4-2-3-1 system. In fact, during the first game of the Eredivisie season last weekend, this is where Szymański played, and he contributed two assists. With the losses of Guus Til to PSV Eindhoven and Luis Sinisterra to Leeds United, Szymański will be relied on to help replace the production of Feyenoord’s two star men from last season.