Almost a year ago, Total Football Analysis did a scout report on some of the brightest U23 players in the Greek Super League to keep an eye on.
One of the names on that list was centre-back Konstantinos Koulierakis, who was plying his trade for eventual Greek champions PAOK at the time.
After helping the club win their fourth-ever championship, his performances earned him a summer move to Germany with VfL Wolfsburg for a fee of €11.75m, which was enough to make him the most expensive sale in PAOK’s history.
However, he has since been surpassed by Stefanos Tzimas‘ €18m move to another German club in the form of 2. Bundesliga outfit 1. FC Nürnberg this past winter transfer window.
Since he arrived in northern Germany, Koulierakis has continued his impressive form and quickly established himself as one of the top young defenders in the league.
This has already earned him links to European powerhouses like Liverpool and Real Madrid, which are in search of a potential new defensive leader with the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Antonio Rüdiger in their 30s now.
This scout report and player analysis will focus on Koulierakis’ development at Wolfsburg this season and what’s made him a success and one of the most sought-after young players in this summer’s transfer window.
Who Is Konstantinos Koulierakis?
From the city of Chania in Crete, Greece, Konstantinos Koulierakis is a 21-year-old centre-back who plays his club football for Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg and internationally wears the colours of his native Greece, for whom he has amassed 13 caps to date.
Until his move to Germany last summer, Koulierakis played for PAOK from the age of 14 until his transfer seven years later, making his first team and professional debut there in 2022.
Koulierakis is 6 feet 2 inches tall, or 1.88 metres, and weighs 172 lbs, or 78 kg.
He is predominantly left-footed, and his preferred position is left centre-back in a back-four defensive line, which he has played throughout his short senior career to date.
With some basic information on the defender now established, let’s move on to some data on his club performances this season.
Konstantinos Koulierakis Radar Map
Above is Koulierakis’ radar map, which compares his performance across different data metrics in attack, defence, and possession among other players in his position in the Bundesliga this term.
Although he’s a defender, his attacking metrics stand out the most at first glance, particularly in shots per 90 and opposition penalty area touches per 90, where he ranks in the 92nd and 85th percentiles, respectively.
This means he is one of the most threatening left centre-backs in the league on the opposite end, even if he has yet to score since moving to Wolfsburg.
But given that he found the back of the net seven times in his last year in Greece, six of which came in European competitions, those metrics suggest that he may make scoring a habit eventually in his new environment sooner than later.
On the defensive side of the spectrum, what sticks out is his impressive defensive duels won percentage, ranking in the 64th percentile relative to the number of duels per 90, which is much lower, at just the 34th percentile.
When it comes to aerial duels, while he does face a pretty high volume of such duels per game at the 71st percentile, he only ranks in the 42nd percentile when it comes to actually winning them, which could suggest some work may be needed there given his height and athletic frame up against opposing players.
His positioning also ranks pretty well, in the 63rd percentile, so overall, his defensive metrics seem solid even while playing in the worst defence of the top half of the current Bundesliga table.
Lastly, his possession metrics, which don’t stick out with any particularly high rankings, are consistently around the same level overall.
Wolfsburg often likes to build from the back through him, which explains the numbers around received, progressive, and dangerous passes per 90. However, his passing accuracy could use work, as it ranks low at just the 25th percentile for his position.
Koulierakis’ radar map seems pretty well-rounded across the different areas of his game, which is reasonable given his strengths in both an attacking and defending sense.
To highlight some of those strengths, keep reading below.
Konstantinos Koulierakis Strengths
While Koulierakis is a complete defender with few clear weaknesses, there are a couple of particular strengths to highlight about him—one with the ball at his feet and one without.
Given that he is a defender by trade, let’s first look at his defensive strengths, which may particularly make him stand out as an option for a top European club in the near future.
And that strength is in his ability to read the game and make good decisions on when to step up and try to either nick the ball off of the opposition or at least make it difficult for them to reach his team’s goal.
His anticipation and tackling ability are already at a world-class level despite being such a young defender who’s only in his third full season as a professional footballer.
Still, they are what stands out most about him from a defensive standpoint.
Blessed with the physical attributes of strength, agility, athleticism, and the pace to keep up with most forwards, his aforementioned defensive skills help him put it all together and make him a solid, all-rounded centre-back.
Below are some situations where we can see this defensive strength on display.
First, from the home game against Bochum, Koulierakis finds himself in a predicament.
He has to defend his position and that of the left-back, who is higher up the field and out of place in this situation.
With Bochum players making a run on either side of him and a ball coming in towards one of them, Koulierakis has to judge where the ball will be played and decide where to position himself to best defend it.
In the end, the ball goes towards the player making the run from the right, who Koulierakis does well to stay within close enough distance.
This allows him to cut out the pass and regain possession for his team.
It could have been a dangerous counterattack against his team, but he anticipated the play well all the way through and made the crucial interception to kill the opposition’s transitional attack.
This is another situation from the Werder Bremen away game above.
Still, this time, Wolfsburg is well positioned in their block defensively from the start, so Koulierakis is just tasked with keeping a close eye on the player next to him and where he will move as the ball progresses into the attacking half.
He keeps enough distance early on in the play to control and judge the situation better versus getting tight and potentially getting burned by a sharp turn or change of direction in the forward’s movement.
This turned out to be a wise decision.
When the ball was eventually played over the top towards the forward running in behind, Koulierakis’ excellent starting position from deep allowed him to stop the attack in its tracks and intercept the ball back in his team’s favour.
While he is strong at positioning himself well to spot and cut out danger early, he is also renowned for his aggressive approach to defending.
This means being the aggressor sometimes and stepping forward to cut out danger by taking more risks to get to the ball or opponent early.
An example is the one above from the Stuttgart away game, where the Stuttgart goalkeeper is pictured sending the ball forward down the line from his box and knocking six Wolfsburg players out of the equation with a long ball to beat their press.
In the end, Koulierakis spots this early enough and makes the run across to cut out the pass and simultaneously send it back to his teammates close to Stuttgart’s box for a quick counter opportunity.
While the rest of the back four stayed deep to keep their shape against Stuttgart’s potential counter, Koulierakis anticipated that the better thing to do here was to step up and nick the ball before it reached one of their forwards, which he handled perfectly.
Konstantinos Koulierakis Defensive Territory Map
Above is his defensive territory map for the Bundesliga this season, highlighting his defensive actions throughout the pitch.
His high number of interceptions, both in his own penalty area and higher up in his own half, goes in line with what we’ve already covered: He is a commanding defender who can defend deep and higher up the field when stepping forward, which makes him a valuable player to have in a multitude of teams and approaches to playing the game.
An added bonus is that he has not committed fouls in dangerous positions close to his goal, making him more likely to recover the ball when he defends than to give away a free-kick or penalty that could cost his own team.
On the other hand, today’s centre-backs are expected to combine their defensive tasks with sound ball-playing ability from out of the back, particularly at the highest level.
Koulierakis is just as adept in this area as he is in defending, evidenced by his 84% pass accuracy rate across twenty-four league appearances to date this season.
But the key thing to note here is that these passes aren’t just safe and going sideways or backwards; many of them are often sent forward up the field.
Konstantinos Koulierakis Penetrating Carries Map
His penetrating carries map above, which highlights his ball carries from his left centre-back position, indicates that he is actively involved in this area of the game for his team, which was already noted earlier in this piece when mentioning how Wolfsburg often try to build through him from the back.
With twenty-four carries illustrated in total, and nearly half of them reaching the opposition’s penalty area, he has become a valuable asset to Die Wölfe on the ball, just as he is off of it when defending.
But while he holds his own well in possession, there is room for improvement if he continues climbing the ranks to higher-level clubs in Europe.
Konstantinos Koulierakis Areas Of Improvement
While Koulierakis doesn’t possess any major defensive issues in his game that would deter an elite club from courting him, some elements in his decision-making with the ball could use more refining and improvement if he is to take that next step.
One of those elements is his general pass selection and accuracy, particularly when trying to play the ball long, either towards the wide players or the centre-forward and those around them.
He often can try to force the play too early and look to choose the more difficult option of going long rather than playing it short and keeping things moving for his team, which has not served him great, with just an average 51% accuracy rate when it comes to long-range passes.
Above is a depiction of this from the Bremen game, where Koulierakis has three wide-open teammates to play the ball with, either short or with a switch of play, but instead opts to go long towards a teammate, making a run from deep.
Even with their run, Bremen still outnumbers Wolfsburg 3v2 in this situation at the back and quickly snuffs out the danger, which ends up being a cheap loss of possession for the away side.
In line with the above, another element that affects his game on the ball is his ability to deal with pressure from the opposition when in possession.
At times, Koulierakis lacks the calmness and composure needed in certain situations when pressed by an opponent when playing out from the back, which leads to some of these long, hurried balls that end up ceding possession back to the opposition.
Like the play below against Augsburg away, for example.
Here, we can see an Augsburg forward moving towards Koulierakis to close him down.
Although the Greek defender has two teammates open for a short pass near him, he panics and decides to go for the long switch to the opposite flank for a winger making a run in behind.
The pass ends up being under-hit and a recovered possession for Augsburg, which again was always likely in this situation and once more a poor decision from Koulierakis with the ball at his feet.
Press retention is an essential attribute for any player playing in a key, sensitive area of the field where losing the ball can lead to dangerous opportunities against their own side.
Koulierakis may also need to work on this to take his game to the next level.
Given that most teams that are hunting down major silverware are also high-possession sides and place a lot of demands on their centre-backs on the ball, this is something he will have to work on if he is to excel in such an outfit in the future.
The issue here is not so much with his technical ability, though, which is clearly there, but more with decision-making and quality control with the ball, which requires more development but is addressable with the right coaching and environment.
Conclusion
Konstantinos Koulierakis is a well-rounded defender and has the complete set of desirable traits and attributes any modern elite club would want in a centre-back.
Combining technique and passing ability with athleticism and agility, in conjunction with sharp defensive skills like tackling, positioning, and anticipating, whilst also posing a threat on offensive set-pieces, there’s simply no glaring obvious weakness or flaw in his game.
This makes him a good candidate for a step up to a club competing for honours at the highest level.
A few of them could potentially be in the market in the summer for someone like him.
Whether he’ll end up moving or staying another year at Wolfsburg remains to be seen.
Still, with the likes of Liverpool and Real Madrid potentially looking to recruit a centre-back in the summer and his name making the rounds with both, there’s no doubt that on his current trajectory, he is headed for the very top of club football.
