Ryan Gravenberch reinvented, Liam Delap arrives and the weekend's stat leaders
Monday Night SCOUTED: Jake picks out his favourite youth stories from the weekend's action
Just like that, we’re heading into another international break. Although there have been interesting call-ups (hello, Angel Gomes) it is always frustrating to see the league season curtailed just as teams and players alike begin to gather momentum.
That being said, we still have a full weekend to digest - as well as a few midweek fixtures since the last edition of Monday Night SCOUTED.
To avoid rambling and extended fantasy franchise references, I began this week’s MNS with the intention of including bucket-loads of bitesize stats. I ended up falling down plenty of rabbit holes and still wanted to include more.
All stats correct as of 02/09/2024 unless otherwise noted.
Get In, My Son(s)
I want to start with Erling Haaland. You’ll see why.
Since joining Manchester City at the start of the 2022/23 season, Haaland has been responsible for 28.6% of the 28 Premier League hat-tricks in that time. With those eight hat-tricks, he is just four away from equalling Sergio Agüero’s competition record. After the back-to-back hatties against Ipswich Town and West Ham, he now has more goals (70) than appearances (69) in the English top flight. Nice.
Yes, Haaland is outside of the traditional SCOUTED age bracket, but I want to put something into perspective. At 24 years and 43 days old, Haaland has completed 24 senior hat-tricks for club & country. At the same age, Lionel Messi had 10. Cristiano Ronaldo had one. That means Haaland has as many for City alone as Messi and Ronaldo had managed combined at this age. Scary.
Messi has 57 career hat-tricks, averaging one every 18.8 games. Ronaldo has 66, averaging one every 18.7 games. Haaland is averaging a hat-trick every 13.4 matches. Petrifying.
In 2019, this was the clip that convinced SCOUTED HQ that Erling Braut Haaland was built different. Note the caption:
“His combination of hulking size, powerful speed and accomplished finishing will be extraordinarily potent.”
This same description can be applied to another son of a Premier League cult-hero.
On the same weekend that Haaland scored his 24th career hat-trick, Liam Delap, son of throw-in extraordinaire Rory, netted his maiden Premier League goal. And it showcased all the qualities Haaland demonstrated in that clip from five years ago.
Built like a block of flats and with a foot like a traction engine, the 21-year-old bulldozed his way towards goal before unleashing a strike that proved too powerful for Bernd Leno (yes, he probably should have saved it). But this is not new.
We saw it in his first-ever game in a Manchester City shirt. And we have seen it at youth level. This single-minded approach to goal-scoring, sheer physicality and exceptional ball-striking are the core pillars of his game. They are also the traits that made Haaland turn heads as a teenager.
To be clear, I am not predicting that Liam Delap is going to be collecting the 24th match-ball of his career in three years time. But his profile will scale extremely well.
Ipswich signed Delap for an initial £15m this summer. The fact City included a 20% sell-on clause and a buy-back options is testament to his potential. To suggest the latter will be triggered is not a ridiculous thought.
Sk8er Boi
Kylian Mbappé had to wait until shot number 25 to open his account for the 2024/25 league season. In that time, Bradley Barcola had already scored four times from eight attempts.
Now, Mbappé’s sheer volume of shots suggests that he will finish the season with more goals, as expected. However, there is no doubt that Barcola is thriving in the space vacated by his former teammate.
Barcola has equalled his 2023/24 Ligue 1 goal tally in 1,497 fewer minutes. But, interestingly, he has not created a single chance for his teammates - using the key pass definition. Last season, he averaged 1.9 key passes per 90 and finished the with seven league assists.
It’s still very early, but the 22-year-old has doubled his shot output per 90 and also leads U-23 players in Europe’s Big Five Leagues for Carries into the Penalty Area with 12. Half of these came in the 3-1 win against Lille at the weekend - Yankuba Minteh is the only U-23 player in Europe’s Big Five Leagues to embark on more in a single match this season (7 against Manchester United). Barcola also leads this age group for Carries Ending in a Shot with six. Half of those have resulted in a goal.
Why?
Well, as Real Madrid work out how Vinícius Júnior and Kylian Mbappé can co-exist in zones 10, 13, 14, 16 and 17, PSG have given Barcola the keys to all five.
Before, any forays down the left would have been geared towards presenting the ball on a plate for Mbappé, cutting it back as he drops towards the edge of the box. Barcola performed this sidekick role well enough to earn a call-up to France’s Euro 2024 squad. But now, as he skates towards goal, gliding past defenders, he has the freedom of the pitch.
The sheer amount of space created for him is a result of the new team composition. As a left-sided No.8, João Neves has turned into a through-ball generator, relentlessly releasing the ball down that flank. Meanwhile, False Nine Marco Asensio is not only dropping deep to help engineer more opportunities for those through balls, but is drifting towards the right to create angles to release Barcola and creating more space for the Frenchman to burst into.
Whisper it, but Kylian Mbappé’s departure could turn out to be the best thing for Bradley Barcola. Early signs suggest 2024/25 is going to be a monster season.
Last week, I highlighted Kobbie Mainoo’s impressive start to the season through the lens of his Big Five League-leading interceptions tally. On Sunday, he was Gravenberched.
Saving Private Ryan
Liverpool won their opening three games of the 2024/25 Premier League season without conceding a single goal. Ryan Gravenberch has played practically every minute. The Dutchman has locked down a spot as Alexis Mac Allister’s pivot partner, seemingly solving the No.6 conundrum that triggered the unsuccessful pursuit of Martín Zubimendi in the summer.
That being said, Gravenberch and Zubimendi are completely different players. The former’s display against Manchester United showed it.
In the 6th minute, Gravenberch received a fizzed pass from Virgil van Dijk and turned away from Mainoo in one silky movement. His drive from the centre-circle into the penalty area was proceeded by an outside-of-the-foot pass pass to Luis Díaz and a subsequently disallowed Trent Alexander-Arnold goal.
But Gravenberch would make another game-breaking contribution later on, repeating the same pattern of play almost bar for bar.
As the clock ticked over to 34:00, Gravenberch received another fizzed ball to the right of the centre-circle, only this time it was from a United player. After cutting out Casemiro’s pass, he once again drove towards the the penalty area before completing an outside-of-the-foot pass to Mohamed Salah who crossed for Luis Diáz to open the scoring.
Although this particular piece of mind-reading was not logged as an interception by Opta (based on the timestamps on the WhoScored chalkboard), Gravenberch did make four legitimate interceptions at Old Trafford. That’s the most he has ever made in a Big Five European League game. Only in the Eredivise has he made more, making five interceptions in two matches as an 18-year-old during Ajax’s 2020/21 title-winning campaign. Ironically, Erik ten Hag was his manager.
While his role in Arne Slot’s system may have unearthed a staple No.6 skill, a vintage Gravenberch trait that separates him from the aforementioned Zubimedi was also on show.
Whether as a result of an effortless turn or wrestling possession away from the opposition, Gravenberch’s smooth ball-carrying from deep obliterated United’s structure. Not only did he embark on more carries into the final third than any player on the pitch (4), he also covered the most distance through his progressive carries, racking up 130 yards.
Liverpool may still want to add a tempo-setting No.6 to the squad to diversify their midfield assets, but Slot’s style has saved Gravenberch’s Liverpool career. This combination of new-found aggression, anticipation and running power is a formidable concoction that will destroy plenty more midfields. Let’s hope we get to see it for a full season.
SCOUTED Stats
With the main stories out of the way, it’s time for a bumper SCOUTED Stats section.
Every week, I will review over 40 different metrics on FBref and Stathead and pick out the statistically standout players.
To clarify a few things, U-23 in the season-wide context is defined by any player that was under the age of 23 at the start of the campaign (as of 01 August 2024). For specific matches, it refers to any player under the age of 23 on the date of the game. To avoid writing it each time, EB5L is shorthand for Europe’s Big Five Leagues, which consists of the top-flight divisions in England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France. I will make a note if anything extends beyond that criteria.
Also, if you have any stat requests, leave a comment on this post and I will take a look.
Let’s start with Lamine Yamal.
Heading into the international break, the 17-year-old leads the entirety of Europe’s Big Five Leagues for Shot-Creating Actions and Successful Take-ons. This is thanks to a monster midweek display.
In Barcelona’s 1-2 away win against Rayo Vallecano, Yamal completed seven take-ons and generated 13 SCAs. Both are single-game records for a player of any age in EB5L this season. But it gets better.
Since FBref started collecting data for this metric in 2017/18, only four different teenagers have recorded 13+ SCAs in a B5EL match. Kai Havertz, Rayan Cherki, Badredine Bouanani and Lamine Yamal. As you can see below, Rayan Cherki is the only teenager to do it twice and he also holds the record of 15.
Yamal still has three years to claim that top spot. He truly is generational.
A quick shoutout to Fabian Rieder. The Swiss international dropped nine SCAs in 45 minutes during Stuttgart’s 3-3 draw with Mainz and got himself on the scoresheet.
Also in the Bundesliga, Florian Wirtz joined an exclusive list of players to attempt 5+ shots and play 5+ key passes in a EB5L game this season, also providing an assist. But this was not enough to protect Leverkusen’s invincible record.
RB Leipzig came back from 2-0 down to win 2-3 away from home, ending the 35-game unbeaten streak of Xabi Alonso’s side. Antonio Nusa provided the match-winning assist for Loïs Openda, a week after coming off the bench to score the winner against Bochum.
Over in Serie A, Koni De Winter became the first U-23 player to win 10+ aerial duels in a single EB5L game this season. On loan with an obligation to buy from Juventus, the Belgian won 12 out of 13 aerial duels for Genoa in a 0-2 home defeat against Hellas Verona.
Meanwhile, Tino Livramento celebrated his call-up to the senior England side by making 10 clearances in Newcastle United’s 2-1 home win against Tottenham Hotspur. No U-23 player has made more in a single EB5L match this season.
No U-23 player has made more Tackles & Interceptions combined than Tim Iroegbunam. Although Everton have 0 points from their first three Premier League games, they deserve credit for identifying a solid replacement for Amadou Onana, with respect to his responsibilities while on Merseyside.
As for Onana himself, he continued his quest to prove he is more than the role he was given at Everton by scoring another goal for Aston Villa, already equalling his 2023/24 tally (2).
My final thought is not based on a specific stat or match, but a player in general. Eliesse Ben Seghir seems to be having an incredible season and continues to pop up in top 10s for both U-23 players and even when removing the age filter.
Monaco play Barcelona in their Champions League opener. We will be there (not literally, sadly).
We will be, however, here and ready to drop another red-hot MNS into your inbox next week.
See you then,
Jake
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Really enjoyed that, thanks. Amazing how much could already be seen in that single clip of young Haaland.
Absolutely love the format, especially the included stats section!