The Morning Before The European Nights
The Morning Before The European Nights
Jake could not resist...
It has taken longer than usual, but we have had a full round of UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League football. And the UEFA Conference League has not even started yet.
There is absolutely no way any of us have managed to watch every game. The concurrent kick-off times means that, for me, European Nights become a few hours of chaos.
If not watching Arsenal, I find myself hopping between channels, apps and social media platforms, trying to find a clip of a player that I have been tracking or an outrageous goal that has been scored. Again, this could just be a habit formed by eight years covering these matches live on social media.
Even then, the likelihood of missing a mind-boggling milestone or scrolling past an iconic individual display is high. Too high. That’s why SCOUTED Stats is returning as a preview for these European Nights. After this edition, it will be exclusive to our paid subscribers.
Monday Night SCOUTED will remain free and will still contain SCOUTED Stats through the Big Five European League lens. This newsletter will follow the same format of that section but include even more numbers. I will even put together a list of fixtures you should (try to) watch based on the players mentioned.
SCOUTED Stats is how I like to make sure I will not miss the next breakout star. This is the first step I take towards discovering the next generation. I would love it if you joined me.
First, the rules.
Unless stated, match records will refer to the highest single-game tally recorded by a player under the age of 23 - U23 - across UEFA’s three senior men’s competitions in 2024/25.
The shorthand for these three competitions are UCL (UEFA Champions League), UEL (UEFA Europa League), and UECL (UEFA Conference League).
Unless stated, season totals refer to all players born in 2001 or later and the shorthand will be 01+. This ensures that all player age information is correct when taking a screenshot of FBref tables and Stathead queries.
All stats correct as of the day before publishing, unless otherwise noted.
Of course, we only have one matchday of stats so this newsletter is essentially the benchmarking of single-game records to beat. The definition for each metric and all its variations can be found as a footnote.
But I will not cover every single metric like this in future editions. Unless you request otherwise in the comments. I hope you’re sitting comfortably…
Shot-Creating Actions1
In 67 minutes against Dinamo Zagreb, Jamal Musiala generated 11 SCA - no other player managed to reach double figures - and 4/11 resulted directly in a goal.
Hoffenheim teenager Tom Bischof recorded the highest UEL tally (8), while SCOUTED UEFA U-17 EURO Golden Ball winner Rodrigo Mora generated 6 SCA in his 22-minute cameo for FC Porto; not bad for a senior debut.
PSG academy graduate Ismaël Gharbi generated 7 SCA in 45 minutes, recording the single-game record for Shot-Creating Take-Ons (3). The 20-year-old SC Braga midfielder has represented both France and Spain at youth international level and is also eligible to play for Tunisia.
Carries2
The top two spots for Carries are occupied by AZ Alkmaar’s centre-back duo. 20-year-old Wouter Goes embarked on 94 in their 3-2 UEL win against Elfsborg, with 22-year-old teammate Alexandre Penetra just behind on 91.
In terms of Total Carrying Distance, Goes ranked first again with 688 yards - he also takes top spot for Progressive Carrying Distance (432). Interestingly, Penetra covered just 282 yards with his carries. Context is key.
This is why I love doing this. Those that read last week’s edition of Monday Night SCOUTED may remember that I mentioned Carries as a metric I would prioritise when searching for Levi Colwill’s perfect centre-back partner.
It’s just one match, but Wouter Goes would make it onto my shortlist of players to watch based on these big numbers and his age. He could be nowhere near the level required. But that’s the scouting part.
In terms of Progressive Carries, only two players made it into double figures. Johan Bakayoko took top spot with 12 in PSV’s 3-1 defeat against Juventus, while Oscar Gloukh embarked on 10 in Salzburg’s 3-0 loss to Sparta Prague.
However, Gloukh embarked on at least eight more Carries into the Final Third than any other player. The next best after his 15 against Sparta Prague was 7 by Doguhan Simsir in Midtjylland’s 1-1 UEL draw against Hoffenheim.
Musiala returns to claim another record with 6 Carries into the Penalty Area against Dinamo. Eliesse Ben Seghir was his closest rival in the UCL, with 4 CPA against Barcelona. Meanwhile in the UEL, Christian Rasmussen embarked on 4 CPA against Beşiktaş - in just 20 minutes! - as did Ruben van Bommel, son of Mark, for AZ Alkmaar against Elfsborg. RVB also scored twice.
Passing3
PSG centre-back Willian Pacho completed the most Passes in total across MD1 with 105 against Girona. He also ranks first for Medium Passes Completed (84).
Aleksandar Pavlović completed the most Short Passes with 58 against Dinamo Zagreb while Dynamo Kyiv’s Volodymyr Brazhko completed 12 Long Passes against Lazio, the single-game record so far.
Musiala is here again. He completed a single-game record of 7 Key Passes against Dinamo. Hugo Ekitike and Rayan Cherki were the joint-leaders in the UEL with 5 each against Viktoria Plzeň and Olympiacos respectively - they also both scored, Ekitike even provided an assist.
More on that later…
Aleksandar Pavlović completed the most Passes into the Final Third with 14 while Musiala shares the Passes into the Penalty Area record of four with Simsir.
19-year-old Dynamo Kyiv centre-back Taras Mykhavko completed 12 Progressive Passes in the defeat to Lazio, a tally matched by Nicolás González for FC Porto against Bodø/Glimt.
In terms of Progressive Distance, Castello Lukeba set the early record with 615 yards against Atlético Madrid.
There is not much value in Passes Received on its own unless you were focussing on a particular position or investigating a player’s form. However, Progressive Passes Received helps highlight the main outlets on these European Nights.
Bakayoko is back-a-yoko. The Belgian leads the way with 23 Progressive Passes Received, followed by Musiala (18), Michael Olise (14), Ekitike (11), and Hugo Bolin. That’s a nice list.
Touches4
Guess who is top for Touches in the Attacking Penalty Area. Yes, it’s Musiala with 15. Van Bommel is next with 11 followed by Adam Hložek, Ekitike and Malick Fofana all on 10.
In terms of Touches in the Attacking Third, Michael Olise racked up 52 in 67 minutes. I’ll say it again: I still cannot get over the fact Bayern have both Musiala and Olise.
Take-Ons5
Prince Adu Kwabena completed 7/9 Take-Ons in Viktoria Plzeň’s 3-3 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt. Midtjylland’s Simsir pops up again with 7/12 Take-Ons Completed. In the UCL, Musiala, Gloukh and Morgan Rogers all completed 4 Take-Ons.
A fun metric to track is the most Take-Ons Completed Without Being Tackled. But we will save that for later editions.
I also want to highlight Fouls Drawn in this section. It is a separate outcome to a completed Take-On but, semantically at least, can indicate a successful dribble. Samuel Edozie is the current leader, he recorded 6 Fouls Drawn against Ferencváros. Xavi Simons tops the UCL list with 5 Fouls Drawn.
Tackles6
This is a confusing metric. Take a look at this if you want to find out why. Essentially, I am going to ignore Tackles Won and focus on Tackles Made.
The MD1 leader for that metric is Arnau Martínez; the 21-year-old made 7 Tackles against PSG.
Looking at Tackles Made in each third of the pitch, Arne Engels and the aforementioned Ghabri made were the only players to record multiple Tackles in the Attacking Third (2 each). Engels was also the joint-leader in the Middle Third with four, alongside Martínez, Jean Gorby and Matteo Dams. 4 was also the benchmark for the Defensive Third, recorded by Joaquin Seys, Ansgar Knauff, Vinicius Tobias and Sampson Dweh.
I will look closer at Tackle Success Rate as the tournaments progress. Similar to the perfect dribblers, we will also track the cleanest tacklers.
Aerial Duels
Again, aerial duel success will follow in later editions. For now, Erencan Yardımcı stands alone with 5 Aerial Duels Won. On loan at Sturm Graz from TSG Hoffenheim, remember the rule…
Defending
No Glossary needed for these metrics.
Lorenzo Pirola leads the way with 4 Blocked Shots for Olympiacos against Lyon.
Ryan Gravenberch is in top spot for Interceptions, he made 7 against Milan. No Liverpool player has made more in a single UEFA Champions League game since the start of the 2016/17 season at least. Five of them were in the opposition half. This is quickly becoming his calling card.
Gravenberch was also one of three players to rack up 10+ Ball Recoveries across MD1. Both he and Nicolò Rovella recorded 10 each but Mali midfielder Issouf Sissokho leads the way with 12 for Maccabi Tel Aviv against Braga.
Sissokho’s teammate Tyrese Asante made a record 9 Clearances in the same game, but I wanted to highlight Jon Martín in joint-second. The 18-year-old Real Sociedad centre-back made 7 Clearances against Nice. Nasser Djiga also made seven for Red Star against Benfica, the highest tally in a UCL game so far.
Double-Double Trouble
In the latest edition of Monday Night SCOUTED, I detailed my quest to proliferate some NBA-inspired stat-lines to benchmark standout single-game displays.
Let me explain the methodology in a bit more detail.
The rough translation from they five key basketball metrics: goals, ball recoveries, assists, interceptions, and tackles.
Immediately, it was obvious that goals and assists are too infrequent to include alongside the other metrics, so any G/A combos will be standalone. But we can swap them out for shots and key passes.
I then took the executive decision to add take-ons and aerial duels to our key list. That gives us the opportunity to find some uniquely complete performances.
Beyond the Jackpot mentioned in MNS, I have tested more arbitrary stat-lines from MD1 of UEFA’s club competitions to see what we can find. In the end, they will all purely exist as vehicles for this I Think You Should Leave reference.
Goals and Assists
Briefly mentioning goal contribution, scoring one and assisting another seems like a classic haul that is yet to become mainstream. Engels, Ekitike, Kenneth Taylor, and Timothy Ouma were the only players to achieve it on MD1.
When this becomes too frequent, we will raise the threshold to two of each. A Double-Double in a slightly different sense.
Shots and Key Passes
Three of each?
Not only is it a magic number, 3 Shots per 90 would place you above the 85th percentile based on the average output from Attacking Midfielders / Wingers from the last 365 days of Big Five League and UEFA Competition. For Key Passes, you are looking at beyond the 95th percentile.
In MD1, eight U23 players achieved this feat: Hugo Ekitike, Troy Parrott, Samu Omorodion, William Vick, Florian Wirtz, Santiago Castro, Jamal Musiala, Morgan Rogers.
That seemed like too many. When moving the needle to 4+ Shots and 4+ Key Passes, only Jamal Musiala remains. *pretends to be shocked*
To make this really difficult, let’s make it 5+ shots and 5+ key passes.
Shots, Key Passes and Take-Ons
Adding in take-ons makes this the Messi-Neymar treble.
Since 2016/17, there are 42 examples of a player of any age attempting 5+ Shots, making 5+ Key Passes and completing 5+ Take-Ons in a Big Five European League game; seven belong to Lionel Messi, five belong to Neymar.
Ekitike was two shots away from the 5-5-5, while Musiala needed one more shot and one more take-on. Morgan Rogers was the only other U23 player to record at least 3-3-3. That’s the real hat-trick.
Remember, 7-7-7 is the Jackpot for any attacking player.
Tackles and Interceptions
We want to highlight eye-catching defensive displays as well as attacking ones, so I will be looking at players that make 5+ Tackles and 5+ Interceptions in a single match.
Ouma was the closest U23 player on MD1 with four of each. Remember, he also scored one and assisted another. The Kenyan is now officially OneToWatch™️
As these become more common, we can throw in 5+ Ball Recoveries as well. In case you are wondering, Ouma also made four of those.
Take-Ons and Aerial Duels
Full transparency, combining these two was influenced completely by my desire to quadruple-down on Ekitike hype.
He was one aerial duel away from a 5-5 Land-Air stat line against Viktoria Plzeň. The fact he completed 5/6 take-ons and won 4/4 aerial duels is also worth highlighting.
All of the Above
This is extremely impressive, but essentially nonsense.
Since 2017/18, there are 139 entries for a player of any age registering 2+ shots, 2+ key passes, 2+ take-ons completed, 2+ aerial duels won, 2+ tackles, 2+ interceptions and 2+ ball recoveries in a single Big Five European League game. Only one player has recorded 3+ in all seven metrics.
Richarlison did so for Everton in a 3-2 away defeat against Burnley in April 2022. He even scored both Everton goals.
Let’s see if anyone can repeat the feat on a European Night this season.
MD2: Players and Matches To Watch
Plenty of names popped up multiple times in those stat leaders so I have listed a few fixtures for each time slot to make your match-watching decisions slightly easier.
Tuesday, October 1
Red Bull Salzburg vs Brest (UCL)
Oscar Gloukh is worth a closer watch
Salzburg consistently name one of their youngest starting XIs in the UCL
Borussia Dortmund vs Celtic (UCL)
All eyes on Arne Engels
PSV Eindhoven vs Sporting CP (UCL)
Johan Bakayoko plenty of times in both sections
17-year-old Geovany Quenda could also feature
Wednesday, October 2
Girona vs Feyenood (UCL)
Arnau Martínez is the best on offer from these early kick-offs
You might even see Jhon Solís, a Colombian midfielder I have been keen to see more of
Aston Villa vs Bayern München (UCL)
Three words: Morgan, Michael, Musiala
Two more words: Amadou, Aleksandar
Dinamo Zagreb vs Monaco (UCL)
I find myself writing ‘Eliesse Ben Seghir’ a lot this season so I am keen to see if he can fill his boots against a Dinamo side that lost 9-2 in their opener against Bayern
Thursday, October 3
Maccabi Tel Aviv vs FC Midtjylland (UEL)
Doguhan Simsir is the main hook from the previous stat sections…
But you will also get to see Ousmane Diao, Darío Osorio, and Franculino Djú for the Danish side
Real Sociedad vs Anderlecht (UEL)
Come for Jon Martín, stay for Orri Oskarrson
Elfsborg vs Roma (UEL)
Simply put, this is Timothy Ouma watch
Beşiktaş vs Eintracht Frankfurt (UEL)
Get your weekly dose of Hugo Ekitike
Beşiktaş started 17-year-old striker Mustafa Hekimoğlu in MD1
Athletic Club vs AZ Alkmaar (UEL)
We need to take a look at Wouter Goes
We’ll get to watch Ruben van Bommel as a bonus
As for the other players, favourite them on your football app of choice to see if they drop another noteworthy display.
Next time, we will have UEFA Europa Conference League games to add.
That’s the end, I promise.
As I mentioned earlier, not every SCOUTED Stats newsletter will be this long. It was simply an introduction into the sort of things I will be checking as each UEFA club competition match day is completed.
If you want access to the next edition, you need to become a paid subscriber to SCOUTED Notebook. The only way we can keep producing our work is if people pay for it. Thank you for reading. Enjoy the games.
Jake
GLOSSARY
SCA - Shot-Creating Action 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.
Carries - Number of times the player controlled the ball with their feet.
TotDist - Carry Distance - Total distance, in yards, a player moved the ball while controlling it with their feet, in any direction.
PrgDist - Progressive Distance - Total distance, in yards, a player moved the ball while controlling it with their feet towards the opponent's goal.
PrgC - Progressive Carries - Carries that move the ball towards the opponent's goal line at least 10 yards from its furthest point in the last six passes, or any carry into the penalty area. Excludes carries which end in the defending 50% of the pitch.
C1/3 - Carries into Final Third - Carries that enter the 1/3 of the pitch closest to the goal.
CPA - Carries into Penalty Area - Carries into the 18-yard box.
Short - Passes between 5 and 15 yards
Medium - Passes between 15 and 30 yards
Long - Passes longer than 30 yardsKP - Key Passes - Passes that directly lead to a shot (assisted shots)
P1/3 - Passes into Final Third - Completed passes that enter the 1/3 of the pitch closest to the goal. Not including set pieces
PPA - Passes into the Penalty Area - Completed passes into the 18-yard box. Not including set pieces
PrgP - Progressive Passes - Completed passes that move the ball towards the opponent's goal line at least 10 yards from its furthest point in the last six passes, or any completed pass into the penalty area. Excludes passes from the defending 40% of the pitch
PrgDist - Progressive Distance - Total distance, in yards, that completed passes have traveled towards the opponent's goal. Note: Passes away from opponent's goal are counted as zero progressive yards.
Rec - Passes Received - Number of times a player successfully received a pass
PrgR - Progressive Passes Received - Completed passes that move the ball towards the opponent's goal line at least 10 yards from its furthest point in the last six passes, or any completed pass into the penalty area. Excludes passes from the defending 40% of the pitch
Touches - Number of times a player touched the ball. Note: Receiving a pass, then dribbling, then sending a pass counts as one touch
Att - Number of attempts to take on defenders while dribbling
Succ - Number of defenders taken on successfully, by dribbling past them. Unsuccessful take-ons include attempts where the dribbler retained possession but was unable to get past the defender
Succ% - Percentage of Take-Ons Completed Successfully. Unsuccessful take-ons include attempts where the dribbler retained possession but was unable to get past the defender. Minimum .5 take-ons per squad game to qualify as a leader
Tkl - Tackles Made - Number of players tackled. TklW - Tackles Won - Tackles in which the tackler's team won possession of the ball. Data since the start of the 2016/17 season.
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Comprehensive stuff here. Let the matchweek begin.
Awesome stuff. Thanks.