A Song of Ice and Fire

This weekend, we witnessed the first SCOUTED hat-trick in Premier League history.

This is Monday Night SCOUTED: Jake Entwistle’s round-up of the stats and stories he scouted from the weekend. It’s on Tuesday morning this week because it’s bank holiday weekend and Tom was asleep.

In 14 minutes of madness, Cole Palmer set up Noni Madueke for three remarkably similar goals against Wolves. It was the first time that a player under the age of 23 had provided all three assists for a teammate’s hat-trick, also under the age of 23, in a Premier League game.

But more on that later…

There was no actual MNF this evening, at least as far as the Sky Sports Production is concerned. Instead, tuck into some of the best stats and stories I noted as the Bundesliga joined in the 2024/25 season fun.

All stats correct as of 26/08/2024 19:00 BST unless otherwise noted.

---

Wão Neves

First, lets rewind to Friday night.

It took four minutes for João Neves to provide an assist against Montpellier, his third of the Ligue 1 season. In doing so, he became the second player on Opta’s records to provide three assists in their opening two Ligue 1 matches. Neymar’s record had been matched.

20 minutes later, he provided another assist, an incredible bounce pass through an opponent’s legs and into the box. Neymar’s record had been broken.

Readers of Llew Davies’ exhaustive SCOUTED50 profile on Neves will not be surprised to learn the Portuguese has made an instant impact. However, the manner of it is perhaps unexpected. Rather than bombing into the Big-Five European League pool, making an enormous splash with his duel-winning prowess and press-resistance, Neves has entered the water with a flawless reverse 4½ somersault. In pike position. (I looked it up, that is the most difficult dive you can do).

At Benfica, Neves operated mainly the right-hand side of a double-pivot. For PSG, he is hovering higher and wider on the left as part of a midfield trio. This switch seems to have awakened the ‘high-tech playmaker’ that Llew did allude to in his profile.

Neves is very much a technician first, that’s what he would’ve been at junior level. I can already envisage him being a diminutive high-tech playmaker at junior level, and we saw him in a more advanced role at the U-21 EURO last summer.

João Neves: straight to the very top, the definitive SCOUTED50 profile

This technical mastery has enabled a seamless role switch and turbo-charged Neves’ output.

In 2,923 minutes of Primeira Liga football for his boyhood club, Neves made 30 key passes. In just 113 Ligue 1 minutes, he has reached 20% of that total. On Friday night against Montpellier, he recorded the most he has ever made in a senior league game (4).

In two PSG appearances, Neves has doubled his entire Benfica assist tally. Wão.

‘Bring him down, Legolas!’

As I watched Morgan Rogers rampage through Arsenal’s midfield time and time again at Villa Park, I could not stop thinking about the Uruk-Hai Berserker at Helm’s Deep.

In order to breach a previously unbreachable fortress, Orcs filled the Helm’s Deep culvert with explosives before sending a ferocious, frenzied Orc bulldozing towards the fuse, shrugging off Legolas’ bombardment of arrows, before blowing the wall to pieces.

In an attempt to breach a near-unbreachable defence - Arsenal have not trailed for a single minute in a Premier League away game in 2024, keeping eight clean sheets in 10 games - Unai Emery deployed the same tactic.

Rogers was Aston Villa’s Berserker.

Standing at 189cm (see also 6’2”) and weighing in at 80kg, according to the latest databases, the 22-year-old used his powerful frame to full effect against the Gunners. It was man against boys. He completed five out of seven attempted take-ons, both game-high tallies as well as joint-personal bests for a Premier League match. He also embarked on a game-high seven progressive carries - a PB for any senior league match, not just top-flight. And it seemed that all seven were punctuated by an opponent being thrown to the floor like a rag doll or swatted away like a fly.

This was peak Morgan Rogers.

Big-body ball-carriers have always been one of my favourite profiles to watch - Ruben Loftus-Cheek is another example - but it does not seem to scale to the elite teams, especially in central areas. Perhaps it is because more possession means fewer transitions and deeper, more compact opposition blocks result in less space between lines to break into.

Either way, I look forward to watching more of Rogers this season to find out whether he can be just as dainty and delicate in tight spaces as he is destructive in open field.

JBG @ BVB

Nico Williams became the poster boy of high-octane wingers this summer thanks to his electric displays at UEFA EURO 2024. Due to his tempting release clause, I drew up a shortlist of alternative players that matched his profile in case a team lost out.

That list included Anthony Gordon, subject of reported interest from Liverpool, while Jamie Bynoe-Gittens popped up as an eye-catching wildcard. On Saturday, JBG showed why.

Bynoe-Gittens scored one goal for every barrel in his surname during a match-winning, 31-minute cameo for Borussia Dortmund against Eintracht Frankfurt.

For the first, a swish of step-overs as he entered the penalty area from wide-left was followed by a fierce slap into the top-right corner. The second was a one-man counter-attack initiated by a sharp-turn just outside his own defensive third and finished with a cool left-foot pass into the net.

This flash of talent might not jolt a Premier League club into making a late move this window, but his homegrown status means it will not be long until they come calling. Watch this space.

A Song of Ice and Fire

Now back to the historic hat-trick.

“He is cold and I am fire, it mixes well” - that’s how Madueke described the chemistry with Palmer in his post-hat-trick interview. Fitting, then, that on their 50th game together this Song of Ice and Fire reached its crescendo.

As per Transfermarkt, Madueke and Palmer first played together for England U-15s in February 2017. Now-US international Yunus Musah captained the Young Lions; now-Germany international Jamal Musiala was on the bench alongside Jude Bellingham, Karamoko Dembélé and the aforementioned Morgan Rogers. They lost 3-4 to a Belgium side that included Jérémy Doku.

In their half-century match, Madueke (6) and Palmer (5) were responsible for 11 out of Chelsea’s 14 shots at Molineux. For context, the entire Wolves team attempted 12 shots, Manchester United registered 11 attempts away to Brighton, and Arsenal only mustered nine at Villa Park. The pair’s 11 shots included, of course, four goals, none of which were scored with more than three touches. We know Palmer is confident and decisive on the ball, it’s a great sign if Madueke has picked up the trait as well.

When this duo next link up, Madueke will become Palmer’s most common teammate. For Palmer to secure the same honour, they need to play 21 more times together in order to dislodge Jordan Teze from Madueke’s top spot. Barring any injuries, that will happen this season; sharing the pitch as senior England internationals would speed things up.

With Lee Carsley - the man that unleashed Madueke during England’s triumphant Under-21 EURO campaign in 2023 - now caretaker manager of the senior side, it might well happen during the upcoming break.

Unintentionally, this edition of Monday Night SCOUTED also serves as a reminder of how deep England’s national pool really is.

Morgan Rogers, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Noni Madueke have all been staples at England youth level and will definitely be on Lee Carsley’s radar. But they have to displace the likes of Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon and Jude Bellingham. Good luck.

SCOUTED Stat Leaders

The final section of this newsletter is about the numbers. Every week, I will review over 40 different metrics on FBref, filtered to U-23 only, and pick out players standing with their stats.

To clarify, U-23 in this context is defined by any player that was under the age of 23 at the start of the season (as of 01 August 2024).

Shot-Creating Actions

SCA - The two offensive actions directly leading to a shot, such as passes, take-ons and drawing fouls. Note: A single player can receive credit for multiple actions and the shot-taker can also receive credit.

Cole Palmer has claimed top spot after eight SCAs against Wolves but Dilane Bakwa is the name I want to highlight here.

Playing for Strasbourg - or Le Mini Chelsea, as Llew coined in his latest SCOUT NOTES - he is a left-footer deployed at right wing-back, seemingly a mirror image to how Samuel Lino is used at Atlético Madrid. I’ll be keeping tabs.

Carries Into The Penalty Area

Carries - Number of times the player controlled the ball with their feet

CPA - Carries into the 18-yard box

Yankuba Minteh is the first U23 player to reach double figures for this metric. Diogo Dalot proved a worthy adversary at the weekend but if there is one word to describe Minteh’s approach it is relentless. He is always looking to drive into the most dangerous areas of the pitch and is completely unfazed by failed attempts. Plenty will struggle with his directness.

Progressive Carrying Distance

PrgDist - Total distance, in yards, a player moved the ball while controlling it with their feet towards the opponent's goal.

Jérémy Doku is always 100s of yards ahead in this metric but notice that Eliesse Ben Seghir appears in another top five, as does Morgan Rogers.

But the player I want to draw more attention to is Mika Marmól. The La Masia graduate has popped up in previous searches when looking at players for the centre-back-at-full-back meta and reports suggest he’s about to join Cesc Fàbregas’ Como side.

Interceptions

Kobbie Mainoo is the first U23 player to reach double figures for interceptions.

Mainoo also ranks first for Tackles + Interceptions (15) combined while no U23 player has completed more take-ons (8, level with Jérémy Doku). For further context, Mainoo has attempted nine take-ons compared to Doku’s 20.

Kobbie wants to impress the eye-testers and the green-bar scouts this season.

My first edition of Monday Night SCOUTED was focussed entirely on one player. A combination of imposter syndrome and poor time management meant that I fell into the comfort of discussing a player I know extremely well (Bukayo Saka) in a way that I find interesting (researching niche, arbitrary milestones). I want to try to provide more value.

It will take time to detach myself from the Social Media voice I have developed over the years - I need to remember this is not a looping TikTok script. Please bear with me. Future editions will be a collection of stats, stories and standout displays from the weekend with room for some scratch-the-surface analysis. I will leave the proper scouting to the rest of the team for now.

If I miss anything that caught your eye, please add it to the comments. For example, Emile Smith Rowe’s first Premier League goal for Fulham.

---