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00:00Right then, hello everybody, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel.
00:03Je m'appelle Adam Cleary and Hugo Eketike is going to Liverpool to join Wurt, Frimpong,
00:11Kerkhez and literally every other member of the reigning Premier League champions.
00:16But given his age, his price tag and some concerns over his finishing ability,
00:21there's a lot of opinions on this one, isn't there? So let's have a look at some facts and
00:27see what Liverpool are actually buying because, yeah, it's exciting this one.
00:35Okay, so following hot on the heels of our Matthias Cunha, João Pedro and Brian Umbermo videos,
00:42welcome to episode number four in a series I am calling Videos I Started Researching
00:48because I really hoped they were going to sign for Newcastle. I'm fine, honestly, I'm so fine.
00:55But anyway, yeah, so we're going to have a look at Eketike's play style here, see what kind of player
00:59he is,
01:00and specifically address those concerns about his ability in front of goal.
01:05Where do they come from? Are they founded? Should you be worried? That kind of thing.
01:08But first, it's quite important to look at the journey he's been on.
01:12He's 23 years old, he's still yet to be capped by France, and after coming through at Rams,
01:17which I'm never, ever sure I pronounce right,
01:20he found himself stuck behind Neymar, Messi and Mbappe at PSG one year,
01:25and then still stuck behind Kolo Mawani, Dembele and Ramos the following year.
01:31So, not really his fault it didn't work there.
01:34He jumped to Frankfurt on loan, and last season had such a hot old time,
01:38with 22 goals and 12 assists in 48 games,
01:41woof, that he's now worth around £80 million of Liverpool's money.
01:46It's obviously quite the ascent that, but it's because he's one of the most technically accomplished,
01:51game-impacting, play-linking centre-forwards you could ever possibly hope to conceive of.
01:58And the first stat we're going to look at here shows you just how involved he gets in games, right?
02:04He's got an exceptionally high number of touches, the top 15% in all of Europe,
02:09despite playing for a size who averaged the 8th highest possession in Germany.
02:15Which means, in short, he is a very high contribution player,
02:19despite not playing in a team that is set up in a way to involve him anywhere near that much.
02:25He's the one making most of that happen.
02:27And just to give you a little basis of comparison for that, right,
02:30the team in the Premier League, with the closest amount of possession to Frankfurt, is Bournemouth.
02:36And up front for them is Evan Nielsen,
02:39who sees the ball nearly half as much in the game as Eketike does.
02:44And obviously, yes, that is a grotesque oversimplification.
02:48They're two very different teams, with two very different playing styles,
02:51but hopefully it presses upon you that that is quite good.
02:54But no, actually, you're right.
02:55Your eyes did not deceive you on that graph.
02:57His take-on and carrying numbers are utterly sensational.
03:01And that is not Bundesliga-only, by the way.
03:03That is the top five leagues in Europe.
03:05So these are his numbers, comparative to everyone in the Premier League as well.
03:10And you can see immediately that his main strengths lie in ball carrying, in running, in transition.
03:16When he is getting at teams at pace, he is an incredibly elegant and technical football player.
03:23And just to prove that to you, right, I'm going to show you two of his assists from last season,
03:27right?
03:27And you have to guess what happens next.
03:30So the first one, I've got absolutely no idea who this is against,
03:33but if we just stop it right here before the ball gets to him,
03:37and I ask you to guess what happens next,
03:40I'll give you a couple of seconds for this,
03:42what would you say?
03:43Let's get that back up.
03:44Let's just look at it here.
03:46What are his options?
03:47What do you think he's going to do?
03:48Like, the obvious thing is that he puts it into the path of this player running through here,
03:52and you've just got to hope that he takes a light enough touch
03:55that it doesn't just run through to the goalkeeper.
03:58That would make the most sense.
03:59But the thing is, Hugo Eketike sees things that you and I cannot,
04:04and he basically stuns the ball through the legs of the defender
04:08in such a way that it's now got enough weight on it
04:11that it just rolls comfortably into this guy's path,
04:14and he hasn't even got to take a touch.
04:16He can just hit the thing.
04:17And you simply have to hand it to him.
04:20That's pretty good.
04:21And yet, somehow, I actually prefer this one out of the two.
04:25We'll just sort of let that run and stop it right about here.
04:28And again, you tell me, what happens next?
04:32I haven't even got, like, a flippant guess about this one.
04:34I'm just going to show you.
04:35He's pushed the defender out of this space here,
04:38and that he somehow manages to rotate his body around 270 degrees
04:44to just take enough off the ball that it stops nearly dead
04:49for his teammate who was running in behind him
04:52that he could not possibly have seen.
04:54And that is also, obviously, really, really good.
04:58But the reason I wanted to show you those two moments, right,
05:01is because players who do things you cannot believe are great.
05:06That's like your Mo Salahs, your Thorian Vertus, right?
05:08But players who do things you cannot understand,
05:12they're different.
05:13I like them more.
05:14The thing is, while those two moments were very, very good,
05:17those are Hugo Eketike being static,
05:20which will obviously be very useful for Liverpool.
05:22They do dominate a lot of the ball.
05:23They will spend time camped in the opposition third.
05:26So using that technique, that intelligence, that vision
05:28to make those little spaces for other people, very good.
05:32You'll fit right in.
05:33But if we just rewind our brains to those stats before,
05:36those aren't the standing still numbers, are they?
05:39They're the getting the ball numbers,
05:41ramming it down your throat.
05:42And that ramming is the thing he's really good at.
05:48So let me explain, right?
05:50Direct attacks, that is a real term that they use in football
05:53and it refers to any time you get the ball in your own half,
05:57move it quickly up the other end of the pitch
05:59and then get some sort of attempt on goal as a direct result of it.
06:04And last season, for all their dominance,
06:06for all their high possession,
06:08Liverpool were the Premier League leaders of these attacks
06:11with nearly 100 of them
06:13and they also scored from a league-high 10 of them.
06:18So it's their bag, baby.
06:20And the thing is, in transition,
06:21Eketike is an unbelievably good dribbler.
06:25Like, his ability to carry it from deep,
06:27to get it into dangerous areas,
06:29to go through players like they're made of fucking smoke,
06:33is the main thing about his game.
06:35Like, just look at those numbers again.
06:37Anywhere between the top 5% and 1%
06:40for carries, for carries into the dangerous areas,
06:43for taking players on, for beating players.
06:46And just a reminder,
06:47that's not the Bundesliga numbers, right?
06:49That's not just him versus Harry Kane
06:52and Jonas Vind or whoever, right?
06:56The Premier League is in there as well.
06:58It's him versus Haaland.
06:59It's him versus Salah.
07:00It's him versus Oli Watkins.
07:02It's him versus Alexander Isak,
07:04who won't be mentioned again.
07:06And for a bit of balance,
07:08it is worth pointing out that's just the numbers,
07:10because obviously he's playing in a different league
07:12to those players.
07:13And let's see him try and do it that easily
07:15when he's got, like, Marilla or Sasa Lukic
07:18booting him up the arse.
07:19But purely in terms of the numbers,
07:21purely statistically, very impressive.
07:24I mean, also, like, just watching him,
07:26you can see the close control he's got.
07:28He's more than gifted with it.
07:30The options he's going to give Liverpool
07:32in terms of dropping and linking up
07:34and allowing, like, Salah or Virta
07:37or whoever's in the midfield
07:38to sort of get involved with stuff like this.
07:40The full-back's then pushing up.
07:41He can tie the whole thing together.
07:44And don't worry,
07:45Liverpool have now signed so many players
07:47and have so many tactical options.
07:50I'm going to have to do a full, proper,
07:52how they will set up video,
07:53because I can't lump all of that into here,
07:56because there's absolutely loads to talk about.
07:59So a rare reminder to subscribe to the channel
08:02from me in the middle of a video
08:04if you'd like to watch that,
08:05because, I mean, this is all over the place,
08:08but my God, the options.
08:09Please subscribe.
08:10But before I could, in any good conscience, my friends,
08:14allow you to go today,
08:16I am going to have to address
08:18this whole XG underperformance issue,
08:21because it's wound a lot of people up.
08:25The accusations are as follows.
08:27He is obviously technically excellent.
08:28He is great in the build-up,
08:29but he is frightfully wasteful of chances.
08:32And this is just another,
08:33even more expensive,
08:36Darwin Nunes situation.
08:38And not to spoil the outcome
08:39of this particular section,
08:41but I think that is bollocks.
08:45So last season,
08:46and we do have to go off the XG from this,
08:47I'm afraid,
08:48so if we don't take that seriously,
08:49then please just humour me for a couple of minutes.
08:51Over 23 goals based on the chances he got,
08:55but only 15 of them actually scored.
08:58And that is no two ways about.
09:01It's statistically a catastrophic underperformance,
09:04and actually puts him in the bottom 5% in Europe
09:08for taking your chances,
09:10if you measure them that way.
09:12Now, that could be potentially an enormous red flag
09:15when spending a load of money on a player, right?
09:18But the way people,
09:19I don't know why I said people,
09:20because I just mean the recruitment teams
09:22at Liverpool and Newcastle
09:23and literally every other football club,
09:25the way they work
09:26is they don't limit their data size
09:29to just one season.
09:31Because the smaller your data,
09:33the more it can mislead you.
09:34If you go back across the seasonal numbers
09:37through his career,
09:38he's actually pretty near the average
09:41and even has a stint in both France and Germany
09:45of recording enormous over-performances as well.
09:49Now, I am obviously not currently part
09:51of any Premier League team's recruitment department,
09:54but that would tell me
09:55that A, he's capable of running a little bit hot and cold,
09:59possibly depending on the players around him
10:01or the way the team is set up,
10:02which is perfectly normal for any striker,
10:05let alone a 23-year-old,
10:06but also B,
10:08that there is an immediate way
10:10you can work to improve this player,
10:13which again, at 23,
10:15is part of the appeal of buying them.
10:17Like, what are they now
10:18and what can you make them?
10:21When Alexander Isak,
10:22and I was obviously only joking,
10:23of course I was going to mention him again,
10:25when he went to Newcastle,
10:26he was 22 years old,
10:28so a similar age,
10:29and he was coming off the back
10:30of a six-goal season at Sociedad,
10:34but Newcastle did not look at those numbers purely,
10:37looked at the last couple of years
10:38and assessed that, yeah, actually,
10:40he probably will improve massively
10:42if we give him the right kind of service.
10:44That's why you buy players that age.
10:47That is what Liverpool are doing right now.
10:50The bottom line here, right,
10:51is that if you are personally concerned
10:53about something like the XG numbers
10:55not marrying up,
10:57which now that I think about it
10:58and have said it out loud,
10:59you probably should be,
11:00if you're a Liverpool fan,
11:01because of course they went
11:02and bought Darwin Nunes, didn't they,
11:04off the back of a massive XG overperformance,
11:07and look at what happened there
11:08when he regressed to the mean,
11:10but anyway, I digress,
11:11then these numbers that are being used
11:14to beat Eketike around the head with
11:16and sort of talk down the transfer
11:18are not a massive problem
11:21provided you do your due diligence.
11:25And I am one dweeb
11:28with a job and a laptop.
11:30Liverpool FC,
11:31a f***ing Liverpool FC.
11:34I'm sure they've looked into this.
11:35So watch him, yes,
11:36and there absolutely is some wasteful finishing in there,
11:39but there is also,
11:40especially from the edge of the box
11:42when he has breezed past someone,
11:44absolute top-level goals at the same time.
11:48And I promise I'm not making excuses for him, right?
11:50This is statistically relevant.
11:52He missed two penalties last season,
11:55which would have added nearly two
11:56to that XG column,
11:58which he then didn't go and score.
12:00So the goalies go opposite ways for those.
12:03Then it goes from being
12:04a spectacular underperformance
12:05to just a bad one
12:08you probably don't even worry about.
12:09But anyway, never mind that.
12:10You combine it all with his link-up play,
12:12how he brings others into games,
12:13how he opens up space,
12:15how he drives forward with the ball.
12:16He is responsible for so many goals
12:19being scored in that Frankfurt team
12:22that he doesn't get himself
12:23or get an assist for.
12:24And I know there's no real way of quantifying that,
12:27but last season, just gone,
12:29Frankfurt scored 68 goals.
12:31And the season before,
12:32when they brought him in
12:33and he only really appeared right at the end,
12:36they only scored 51.
12:37So in the long run,
12:40I'm sure Liverpool will be hoping
12:41that he improves in front of goal
12:43and they'll be working on that with him.
12:45But in the short,
12:47he's already demonstrated
12:48that the team he's in
12:49gets better at both creating
12:51and scoring the bloody thing.
12:53So no, zero concerns for me
12:55that this is my transfer,
12:56which obviously it's not.
12:59But yes, Liverpool fans,
13:01this is the one nobody really expected.
13:03We thought Virts was like
13:04the big expensive signing
13:06and they've gone and made
13:07another big expensive signing.
13:09So how do you feel about it?
13:10I must ask the question
13:11for my own sanity,
13:12if nothing else.
13:13Are you happy here
13:15or would you have preferred
13:17to drop double the money
13:19on Alexander Isak?
13:21Let me know your feelings,
13:22La.
13:23In the meantime,
13:24you can get me across
13:24all the social medias
13:25at Adam Cleary,
13:26CLERY,
13:26and I will remind you
13:27that because they have
13:28so many tactical implications now,
13:30I will almost certainly be doing
13:32a Liverpool tactical preview
13:34ahead of the season
13:35just because I want to sit down
13:36and work it out.
13:37And I'm told by YouTube
13:38to tell you,
13:40I'm passing it on,
13:41to click the bell
13:42because sometimes people don't know
13:43when it's come out
13:44and this will tell you
13:45when it's come out.
13:46And that's good for us,
13:47it's good for you
13:47and it's good,
13:48maybe not for the planet,
13:49but for us.
13:50Until next time though,
13:51that is it.
13:52I don't know what I thought
13:53was going to happen there
13:54and I'll see you soon.
13:55Bye everyone.
13:58Mwah.
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