Nicolas Tagliafico

could be a good utility player

if hes cheap id take him

GOSENS vs LBs

OK, STATS TIME LADS!

I compare Gosens to the bum we have (Jordi Alba), the bum we are getting (Tagliafico), and some notable LBs let's say of the previous season in Europe.
I picked IMO the best LBs of last season in:
Alphonso Davies
Robertson
Chilwell

Stats are from 20-21 (league games only unfortunately. The site cannot support 'all competitions' comparisons. Plus, Tagliafico plays for Dutch Eredivisie, so data are only available for a few categories)

PART I

A. Goals and Assists per 90
Gosens 0.57
Chilwel 0.31
Alba 0.24
Robertson 0.21
Tagliafico 0.18
Davies 0.15

B. Shooting (and Accuracy):
i) Shots per 90
Gosens 1.78
Tagliafico 1.62
Chilwell 1.06
Alba 0.8
Robertson 0.51
Davies 0.2

and ii)Goals per shot
Davies 0.25
Gosens 0.2
Chilwell 0.11
Alba 0.11
Robertson 0.05
Tagliafico 0.03 (!)

C. PASSING
i) Pass % per 90
Davies 89%
Alba 85.5%
Gosens 81.7%
Robertson 79.9%
Chilwell 78.6%

ii) Total Progressive Distance in yards of completed passes per 90
Robertson 423.4
Alba 371.9
Davies 331.7
Chilwell 317.5
Gosens 309.8

iii) Progressive Passes completed per 90
Robertson 7.05
Gosens 6.68
Alba 6.28
Davies 5.46
Chilwell 5

D. i) Shot-Creating Actions per 90
Robertson 2.82
Alba 2.56
Davies 2.4
Gosens 2.28
Chilwell 2.24

ii) Goal-Creating Actions per 90
Robertson 0.4
Gosens 0.36
Chilwell 0.35
Alba 0.27
Davies 0.15

(to be continued...)

GOSENS vs LBs

PART II

E.1 Defensive Actions: TACKLES
i) Possession-winning Tackles per 90
Davies 1.94
Tagliafico 1.44
Chilwell 1.14
Gosens 1
Robertson 0.74
Alba 0.71

ii) Times dribbled past per 90
Alba 1.13
Gosens 1.07
Robertson 0.88
Chilwell 0.83
Davies 0.51

E.2 Defensive Actions: PRESSURES
i) Pressures Applied per 90
Gosens 13.1
Chilwell 12.7
Davies 12.6
Alba 10.3
Robertson 9.39

ii) Pressure Success % per 90
Davies 39.8%
Robertson 34%
Chilwell 31.6%
Alba 28%
Gosens 26.6%

E.3 Defensive Actions: successful BLOCKS per 90
Chilwll 2.56
Davies 2.24
Alba 1.9
Gosens 1.89
Robertson 1.65

E.4 Defensive Actions: successful INTERCEPTIONS per 90
Davies 2.35
Tagliafico 2.07
Gosens 1.54
Alba 1.28
Chilwell 1.14
Robertson 0.9

F. POSSESSION
I) Dribbles Attempted per 90
Davies 4.23
Robertson 1.41
Chilwell 1.3
Alba 1.1
Gosens 1.07

II) Success % of Dribbles per 90
Davies 71.1%
Robertson 54.7%
Chilwell 53.5%
Gosens 53.3%
Alba 45.9%

III) Carries per 90
Davies 65.3
Robertson 64.4
Chilwell 60.7
Alba 52.0
Gosens 44.4

IV) Total Progressive Distance by Carries, per 90
Davies 204.8
Robertson 167.3
Chilwell 165.6
Alba 121.5
Gosens 121.3

BONUS: Aerial Duels winning% per 90
Gosens 62.5%
Robertson 59.1%
Chilwell 55%
Davies 47.5%
Alba 33.3% (Like WTF???)

Preliminary Interpretation:
His goal+assist record per 90 is stunning!
He appears to take a lot of shots per game and scoring a good deal of those. He is a threat close to the box.
Plus, pay attention that [Table D] even though he is bottom compared to others in SCA per 90, he is 2nd in GCA per 90, which means he selects well the moments when to dribble or assist close to the box!

Then, his passing is interesting:
Decent success % (lower than Alba's), but Even though he picks short passes over long ones (last in total progressive distance per 90), he manages to progress the ball in these passes [C iii]

In carrying the ball [Table F] there are weaknesses:
He is reluctant to carry the ball a lot, progressively included, AND to dribble a lot (when he decides to dribble he fails often as well)
Seems his weakest area of all.

Defensively [table E] he is a mixed bag:
He is 1st in attempted pressures, which is great!
But his success % in those is not good (Maybe an excuse is that the players who attempt more have lower % in those)
He wins a lot of tackles he makes, but he also gets dribbled past a lot (2nd to fuckin' Alba!)
Blocks and Interceptions are decent I think
Aerially he is the best of the lot compared!


All in all, he appears better offensively (both in creation and finishing) even compared to what I thought, and better than Alba, whose strong trait is that. His overall defensive profile gets the OK for me: he fails a lot in pressures, but he seems to be the profile of high intensity we need: not letting the opponent breathe! And better than Alba

What he lacks in comparison to Alba is carries and dribbles with the ball
Looks like a huge miss for us

PS: Tagliafico's offensive stats are terrible. He can't create or score for his life.
Defensively though, the few available stats look decent.
Might take Alba's place in games that require defensive work

Interestings stats, but isn't this also partly down to him playing wingback in a 3-4-2-1 though? Playing more advanced usually means more offensive actions, and also means he is in situations to pressure more often compared to a LB in a 4-3-3 (Alba, Robertson, Tagli).

Hard to say how that would translate to playing LB for us, especially with how Xavi seems to use the FBs so far.

MTL_Barca said:

Interestings stats, but isn't this also partly down to him playing wingback in a 3-4-2-1 though? Playing more advanced usually means more offensive actions, and also means he is in situations to pressure more often compared to a LB in a 4-3-3 (Alba, Robertson, Tagli).

Hard to say how that would translate to playing LB for us, especially with how Xavi seems to use the FBs so far.

Click to expand...

About the offensive actions, possibly. Closer to the box means more offensive actions. But his good numbers in goals, assists, means he is executing those offensive actions very well
About the pressures, IDK. It seems to me that the high-pressing machines like Liverpool Bayern instruct their players to apply pressure all the time

Tagliafico is not good enough to bench Alba.

If they really want to get a LB that makes it easy for them to move on from Alba then they have to pay up for Theo Hernandez and stop him from renewing with Milan first.

Those stats weren't convincing at all. Can't compare a LWB/LM to a LB with stats.

Gosens is good in a 3-4-3/3-5-2 because it allows him to have space and freedom along the line. Need a lot more discipline to play LB.

Andresito said:

Those stats weren't convincing at all. Can't compare a LWB/LM to a LB with stats.

Gosens is good in a 3-4-3/3-5-2 because it allows him to have space and freedom along the line. Need a lot more discipline to play LB.

Click to expand...

Also, he plays in a team that play ultra offensive against every opponent. We'll see how he'll do in Inter with more defensive responsibilities.