KARIM ADEYEMI — Player Analysis
Once again a young striker is attracting attention, winning games and breaking records at Red Bull Salzburg. Man of the hour, “Mr Unstoppable”: Karim Adeyemi.
Part of the fantastic new generation German trident, alongside Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala, Adeyemi was born in Munich in January 2002. Eight years later he joined Bayern’s academy and stayed there until 2012, then moved to SpVgg Unterhaching, located in the outskirts of Munich, where he stayed for six years, before being signed by RB Salzburg prior to the 2018/19 season. He was initially bound to their reserve team, FC Liefering, to play in the Austrian second division. It was in 2019/20 that he made his debut for the first team, and was fully integrated into the squad halfway across the season. In 2020/21 he collected 38 appearances but mostly came off the bench, still behind Patson Daka, Sekou Koita and Mergim Berisha in the pecking order. With the departure of Berisha and top scorer Daka and a serious injury suffered by Koita, Adeyemi rose to first-choice striker for the 2021/22 season and did not look back. He has been breathtaking so far and earned his first Germany call-up. He went to score on his debut against Armenia in September and has collected two more caps since then, facing Romania and North Macedonia, against whom he also provided an assist. Two goals created in 63 minutes played in the World Cup qualifiers… not bad. Not to mention his 13 goals and 1 assist in 17 club matches so far, including 3 in the first three rounds of the UEFA Champions League group phase, where he also became the youngest German player to score a brace in the competition. He also tied Arjen Robben’s record of most penalties suffered in a single UCL season, four, but he did it in just 110 minutes! While becoming the first player to win three penalties in the first half of a UCL match, which he achieved in 25 minutes. What a start of the season for the young man, but let’s dive deeper into his game.
Also capable of playing as a winger, in Salzburg Karim plays as one of two strikers in Matthias Jaissle’s 4-diamond-2 system, where he’s had a few different partners across the season. Namely Benjamin Sesko, Junior Adamu and Noah Okafor, all between 18 and 21 years old. But regardless of who plays alongside him, they have no fixed side and keep switching during the game.
He occupies mostly the half-spaces and is extremely dangerous from there. He comes to the middle when the ball is at the far side, or to get at the end of crosses, from either side, drifting to the middle of the box when the near side full-back goes towards the backline. He occasionally moves to the wing too, either to link up play against more compact and lower blocks or, more frequently, in transitions, stretching the defensive line, opening up space for him and others and looking for the blindside of the defence. Salzburg employ a 2–3–5 shape in attack, the 5 being the strikers, the attacking midfielder, the nearside full-back and another player, displaying different options and structures. Sometimes it’s the far side full-back, sometimes it’s one of the central midfielders. The point is, in most cases, Adeyemi occupies the half-spaces. But, in other cases, he moves out wide, normally on the left, and the central midfielder advances in the half-space.
Anyway, it is in this role that he has been excelling, tearing defences apart since the start of the season. Look at his Bundesliga percentile ranks (among strikers with 600+ minutes played):
The Bundesliga’s top scorer, Adeyemi is Salzburg’s main attacking threat and has scored about 32% of their goals in the league and 50% of them in the UEFA Champions League, numbers that underline his massive influence in their attack. This is how he compares to other strikers in the league for non-penalty goals and expected goals per 90:
Head and shoulders above the rest. But what makes him so dangerous?
First, the other area where he stands alone at the top of the bunch: carries and dribbles. As he is by far the striker with the most progressive runs and successful dribbles per 90 in the league:
He’s a very frequent carrier of the ball and a great dribbler, and he’s very vertical at such. Upon receiving the ball (with a great first touch) he’s always looking to drive forward with it, and his quick feet, great agility and ball control make him very hard to stop. You never know if he’s going to cut inside or burst towards the backline, either way, he’s capable of creating much danger. His insane acceleration allows him to simply burst past defenders creating lots of space ahead for himself. And once he’s past his markers, which is quite often as he tends to succeed in 1v1 situations, he immediately looks to get in position to shoot, and he’s a very good finisher, confident, calm, composed and capable of putting much power on the ball. A set of qualities that allow him to wreak havoc on opposing defences week after week.
So, on-the-ball he’s a superb and skilful dribbler, who looks to beat defenders in order to open space to shoot. Off-the-ball he’s really dangerous too. Karim is constantly looking for runs in behind the defensive line. Again, very vertical. Always trying to attack the last line. And his blistering pace and ridiculous acceleration make him a huge threat for through balls, especially in transitions. Once he sees an open space and bursts into it, it’s already too late, you’re not going to catch him, just pray the ball does not reach him perfectly. He’s great in different situations, but on the counter, with huge amounts of space for him to exploit, he truly shines. This is all possible mostly thanks to his knack for blindside movements. He’s always looking to be at the blindside of his markers, constantly moving to position himself there, and he’s excellent at those. He waits at the defender’s blindside until the right moment then bursts forward and is virtually unstoppable due to his immense pace and acceleration, there’s no time to recover. He is frequently asking for the ball too, very confident and determined to be decisive.
He’s not very creative though:
When he moves to a bigger club and finds himself in a context where he’s not the main attacking force, maybe not even a striker, he might need to start providing some assists too. And it’s not far from his game if you think about cut-back passes after bursting towards the backline or killer forward passes into the box after cutting inside. He’s still not too keen on those, mostly preferring to go solo in the most advanced areas of the pitch. A bit more selflessness could do him good. This is how he compares to other strikers in the Bundesliga for deep completions and shot assists per 90:
Average. But he has another interesting asset: crosses, as he’s the second striker with the most crosses per 90 in the league:
And he’s quite good at them. So if he ends up playing as a winger, this is certainly a nice tool in his arsenal. Speaking of crosses, when at the end of them, he’s far from dominant on the air, but his positioning and smart movements make him a threat.
The defensive side of his game, though, falls short. As we’ve seen above he’s among the strikers with the lowest amount of defensive actions per 90, despite being part of the team with the lowest PPDA average in the league. And it’s perceivable watching Salzburg’s matches that pressing is definitely a point to improve, as he could often do better in terms of intensity and positioning. He never fails to track back or reenter their defensive shape though.
All things considered, Karim Adeyemi is an amazing prospect. An explosively fast, smart, focused and technically gifted forward with a brilliant future ahead of him. He’s already dominating the Austrian Bundesliga and shining in the UEFA Champions League, so it won’t be long before he leaves RB Salzburg for a bigger club. The obvious contenders RB Leipzig are keeping tabs on him, besides reports on a possible return to Bayern and interest from Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool, with the possibility of a transfer as soon as January, underlining his already great level. His massive talent will soon be lighting up the top 5 leagues, not to mention the International scene with Germany.
Lucas Barth
