Data Scouting the 2020/21 Jupiler Pro League: Full-backs
I dived into data from last season’s Jupiler Pro League in order to find some U23 players standing out. In this piece I look at full-backs and wing-backs and highlight a few remarkable individuals. We’re looking for attacking players, “Brazilian-style” full-backs if you will, capable of making forward runs to join the attack and create chances from the wings.
As we’re talking about attacking full-backs, let’s start with the most obvious part of their game: crossing. The plot below shows all full-backs and wing-backs in the league. The colour represents their age, from dark blue (youngest) to dark red (oldest).
Clearly, a lot of youngsters in the league. There are two great standouts in Hugo Siquet and Issa Kabore, but for now we’re cutting off only five players, those outliers for least crosses per 90: E. Bocat, E. Ocansey, K. Sardella, M. Al Tamari and R. Quirynen.
Next, let’s see how creative they were:
Hugo Siquet stands out once again. And now we’re cutting off those at the “worst” quarter, below the median for both metrics: A. Preciado, N. Kainourgios, R. D’Haese, R. Decostere and Vitinho.
Moving on, another important aspect to consider is ball progression, so let’s see what they offered in terms of progressive passes and progressive carries:
Here, we’re again cutting off those close to the bottom for both metrics: A. Khammas, D. Hashioka and G. Arteaga. Biancone, on the other hand, stands out for both, while Srarfi is our main carrier and Siquet our main passer.
Also, we expect them to be good enough dribblers, able to beat defenders on the flanks:
Here we’re cutting off J. Mertens, L. Cacace, M. Samoise and T. Ndicka, the four worst placed. This leaves us with six players: B. Srarfi, G. Biancone, H. Siquet, I. Kabore, J. Bataille, M. Busi and P. Vlietinck.
Now, let’s take a deeper look into how they compared to all players of their position in the league. This is how they ranked for crosses, key passes, expected assists, progressive passes, progressive carries, dribbles and successful defensive actions, all per 90. I added the defensive actions here to have a better insight into their profiles as we’re mostly interested in their attacking contribution in this piece, and one could examine the selected ones further after this in order to grasp the full picture.
So, even though Srarfi does not offer many progressive passes, he is among the very best for dribbles and carries, and provides top creative contribution. Biancone has a more balanced profile, and is somewhat the opposite to Srarfi. He’s not really a dribbler and didn’t collect that many expected assists. On the other hand, he is one of the most defensively active full-backs, while also offering top ball progression and loads of crosses and key passes. Hugo Siquet is the greatest standout for his creative output. He’s just the best for key passes and the second for expected assists. While also being the best for progressive passes and ranking really high for most crosses. He is quite active defensively too. He falls short for dribbles and carries though. As for Issa Kabore, he was one of the most frequent crossers in the league, while also ranking fairly high in the creative and carrying metrics. His downside is on the progressive passes and defensive sides. Jelle Bataille is the most balanced in the list, quite impressive really. He is among the very best for crosses, key passes and expected assists. Meanwhile, he ranked well for all other metrics. And while Maxime Busi did great for progressive passes and Thibaut Vlietinck did great for progressive runs, they were a bit disappointing in general, so they’re getting cut off here. Leaving us with five names:
Bassem Srarfi / 24 y.o. / Tunisia / Zulte Waregem
His 24th birthday was last week, so as we’re looking at data from the now finished 2020/21 season, he can be considered an U23 for this piece. A Tunisian international, he’s a left wing-back and left-back who has also featured a few times as a winger.
Giulian Biancone / 21 / France / Cercle Brugge
A right-back, he spent two seasons on loan in Belgium and is now returning to his parent club, Monaco.
Hugo Siquet / 18 / Belgium / Standard Liége
The youngest in our shortlist. He’s a right-back with frequent call ups to the Belgian youth teams, and has already collected his first cap with the U21s despite his age.
Issa Kabore / 20 / Burkina Faso / Mechelen
Also a right-back, he was bought by Manchester City and loaned back until the end of the season. And they’ve already signed a new loan deal, now to recently promoted French side Troyes for 21/22 season. He’s also a full international for Burkina Faso.
Jelle Bataille / 22 / Belgium / KV Oostende
Another right-back with his fair share of caps for the Belgian youth teams. He has been sold to Royal Antwerp and is going to face the league once again, now in a stronger side.
So, that’s it. We were able to reach our goal and find some very interesting players. Of different profiles too. Our five young standout attacking full-backs, or wing-backs, from the Belgian division are Bassem Srarfi, Giulian Biancone, Hugo Siquet, Issa Kabore and Jelle Bataille. Keep an eye out for them, wherever it is they are going to play next season. I know I will.
Lucas Barth
