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00:00Right, hello there everybody, my name is Adam Cleary, this is the aptly named Adam Cleary Football Channel
00:05and Chelsea, finally, are doing something in the transfer window.
00:11After this barren summer that's seen them only sign Jamie Gittins, Joao Pedro, Liam De Laap, Estevão,
00:18Dario Yusego, Mamadou Sarr and Kendri Pais, I'm not trying to say, his name for a meagre £210m,
00:28Xavi Siemens has arrived to give them a much needed shot in the arm.
00:32But who is he? What does he do? A Chelsea aware you're only allowed to field 11 players at a
00:37time?
00:38All this and much, much more explored through statistical data, selected highlights and potentially one knob joke.
00:47Alright, so before we start, say hello to Archie everyone.
00:52Yeah, Chelsea aren't the only ones making serious moves in the transfer window,
00:55so we've gone and splashed the cash on a mercurial editing talent, just in case you're wondering why the videos
01:02suddenly look a lot nicer.
01:04That is all him, not me, so hashtag welcome Archie in the chat, please.
01:10Oh and also, ACFC is now on like TikTok and Instagram and all the like short form vertical things,
01:16just in case you really do enjoy these, but wish they were like 95% shorter.
01:22So we'll have like condensed versions of the videos on there, plus some fun behind the scenes stuff,
01:27and maybe a dance, if someone on the social team tells me that is what you do there.
01:33Anyway though, Xavi Siemens, the actual reason you clicked on this video, who is he?
01:37Well he's Dutch-born, hence being Dutch, but grew up in Spain, where he spent nine years in the La
01:43Masia Academy in Barcelona.
01:46Not bad.
01:47Before then, moving to PSG at 16 and only making three starts in six years.
01:53Not good.
01:54He then had this like weird year at PSV, where they originally wanted to loan him,
01:59then decided they actually wanted to buy him, but agreed like a £6 million buy-back clause with PSG,
02:05who then, when he was really good at PSV, decided they wanted to do straight away.
02:11So got him straight back, but then just immediately loaned him out to Leipzig.
02:15And he's been there since 2023, but somehow only signed for them permanently earlier this year,
02:22before telling them at the start of the summer that since they weren't near him anymore, he was going to
02:26leave.
02:26And I will obviously do all the tactics stuff in a second, I know why you're here.
02:31I just think the journey he took getting to Chelsea is fucking mad.
02:37Like if we wind this entire timeline back to the start, it brings full circle Chelsea's interest in him from
02:44when he was 12 years old.
02:47They were initially linked with him in 2016, when he looked absolutely adorable, by the way, look at those little
02:54cheeks.
02:55And now they've finally got him.
02:57But no, you're right, this is not the one show.
03:00So what does he actually do on a football pitch?
03:03Well, if his name rings a bell and you're not either terminally online or, like me,
03:08had him running your midfield on Football Manager about three years ago,
03:12that is because at the European Championships against England, he did this.
03:16Chases the ball back in the final third, gives Declan Rice his dinner,
03:21then strides forward with the ball and lashes it into the net from 20 yards.
03:26Which, quite conveniently for anyone who might be making a video on what kind of a player he is,
03:32is a very neat summation of what he does in a game.
03:35He is tactically very switched on, works really hard off the ball,
03:39carries it excellently in the dangerous areas,
03:42and then has a bit of a shit pinger on him.
03:45Now, first off, across his career, he has been positionally very versatile.
03:50He's made 59 starts as a left forward, like 27 over here on the right,
03:5641 centrally as a 10, and then 10 centrally as a striker.
04:02And there's also a handful of others dotted about where the system technically makes him
04:06either like a central midfielder or just like a left-sided midfielder or even a second striker.
04:11So, he gets around, he's very happy to be wherever you need him to be.
04:15Now, of course, the ability for him to do this comes from his incredible footballing education at Barcelona,
04:21but the necessity for him to do this comes from the tactical flexibility that he had at Leipzig last season.
04:28Now, this is his own personal heat map across all competitions last season,
04:33and yes, very good point, it is exactly like Cole Palmer's, just flipped from the left to the right.
04:38But the main things to note are thus, as well as being really focused in this left-hand half space
04:44where all the best bastards play, he's also very happy to give his team width down the left-hand side,
04:50really useful, and oh, hello, what is this?
04:54An awful lot of time seemingly spent in more of a left defensive area.
04:59And let me just show you why that is, right?
05:01So, end of last season, Leipzig are playing Bayern Munich, right?
05:04The game finishes 3-3, and these are the average positions of all the Leipzig players.
05:10Now, our boy is wearing the number 10 here, and despite the fact he's quite central,
05:14he was actually playing on the left side of what was effectively a 4-4-2.
05:19That number 22 there, that's actually the left-back, David Rahm.
05:23And if we just get rid of everybody else for this and show you his individual heat map for that
05:28game,
05:28you will see he was grafting his arse off all the way back into his own half,
05:34and even into his own box, because he was tasked with doing a job on Michael Alise.
05:41The first goal in that game, he gets all the way back here to double up on him,
05:46takes the ball off him as he tries to go inside,
05:48and then creates the goal from deep in this left-back area.
05:54Outside-of-the-boot pass for an outside-of-the-boot finish against Bayern Munich.
06:02That's... that ain't bad.
06:03But then, in the 94th minute, they're chasing the game,
06:06they've stuck him right in behind the centre-forwards,
06:09and yes, what you're about to see is a minging, scrappy goal,
06:14but the composure to do this with five players in front of you
06:19shows you the sort of level he is at on the ball in the final third.
06:23And if you go and look at all his numbers from last season,
06:25it does back all this up.
06:27Like, this is his off-the-ball stuff, and it's not going to blow you away,
06:30but he's not a pure presser, is he?
06:32It's just a part of his game, so being in the top half, the top third,
06:35for a lot of this is really good.
06:37And those ball recoveries, more than five per game,
06:41just screams high work rate.
06:44Which, again, you see in that exact moment against Declan Rice.
06:48He doesn't give that ball up, he fights him for it.
06:50But you look at his creative numbers around the box,
06:52and they're right in the very elite brackets for expected assists,
06:56for key passes, for passes into the penalty area.
06:59You can just see here, he's a really hard-working,
07:02great system player who just so happens to be extremely technically gifted.
07:09But what about that goal?
07:10Well, yes, he's utterly scunned the ball past Jordan Pickford,
07:14and that is basically what he likes to do.
07:16But there is, like, a weird quirk to his shooting.
07:21Now, this might look absolutely horrendous,
07:23but we're not going to know unless we try, right?
07:25So I'm going to take his heat map from last season,
07:27and overlay his shot map from last season.
07:30And you can see that despite the fact he spends most of his time on the ball
07:33in this position here, to the left of centre,
07:36and he has most of his shots from this position here, to the left of centre,
07:41his goals, which are the solid red ones,
07:44they tend to come from the other side, to the right of centre.
07:47Like, that's quite mad, isn't it, when you look at it?
07:50Like, not one single goal last season from further wide than the left-hand post.
07:56He does not score from this area where he tends to shoot.
08:00And if you're wondering why that might be,
08:02right, I've been back through and I've had a look at all this stuff, right?
08:04He strikes the ball brilliantly with his laces
08:08when he just, like, thwacks the thing at goal.
08:10But his curled efforts, which tend to be from these areas,
08:14they lack the power and they lack the spin
08:16and they lack any sort of real conviction.
08:18So it's a technique issue.
08:19The way he hits the ball here is much better than how he hits the ball there.
08:23And I did call this a quirk earlier on,
08:25but no, you're right, it is absolutely a flaw.
08:28Chelsea will still absolutely want him in this part of the pitch
08:32because when you watch him, he creates chances absolutely beautifully from that area.
08:37But if you're Enzo Mareska,
08:38you've either got to work on developing his technique for shooting in this part of the pitch
08:42or make sure he's only really doing it when he gets into here
08:46because when he does, woof.
08:49However, all that being said, his creativity around the box,
08:53his shooting, his work rate, his positional sort of flexibility,
08:56none of those, I would say, are his best quality.
09:00He loves to go and collect the ball,
09:03deep run it up the entire length of the pitch
09:05and then open the defence up with it.
09:08And don't get me wrong, like Cole Palmer can do that as well.
09:11You saw him do it brilliantly against PSG in the Club World Cup final,
09:14but that is a part of his game.
09:17Whereas for Siemens, it is his game.
09:19Last season, he made 123.
09:21And my God, thank you, Opta, for this.
09:24Long, progressive carries with the ball.
09:27Again, massively favouring this side over this side
09:31with only Marmouche and Musiala in the league
09:34creating more goals than he did from this type of action.
09:39They got five, he got four.
09:42And purely in terms of numbers,
09:43he did this more than five times every single game,
09:46which would put him ahead of every single Chelsea player.
09:49Here, Barnetto, who, remember, almost exclusively plays in the wide areas
09:54where there's more space,
09:56not in the central areas where it's really hard to do this.
09:59Which, you know, given Mureska still really wants Chelsea
10:02to be a more high-possession, methodical, cerebral, patient attacking team,
10:06they are still one of the best sides in the Premier League in these situations.
10:11Second most direct attacks in the league behind Liverpool,
10:13the second highest number of shots from counterattacks.
10:16They are so dangerous in transition
10:19where there is space available for players to run into.
10:22And Xavi Siemens is absolutely class at that.
10:25So he not only helps them to be more creative around the box against low blocks,
10:29but in games where it is a bit more open
10:31and there is space to run into,
10:33he just thrives doing that.
10:35And, like, if you look at his numbers for this,
10:37he doesn't beat people like you'd expect from a winger.
10:39They're quite low.
10:40But his carrying and his creating from carrying numbers
10:44are every bit as impressive as his passing.
10:48Truly, get you a man who can do both.
10:51So, where does he fit in to this Chelsea team then?
10:56And, well, to be fair, if you've been watching me for long enough,
10:58you will know I hate talking about best 11s
11:02because if you are a side competing in, like,
11:04three or four competitions with a really big squad
11:06and a manager who makes individual tactical tweets based on the opposition,
11:10you don't have a best 11.
11:12They're an old thing.
11:13They don't really exist anymore.
11:14But just hypothetically, everybody being fit,
11:17going into a big game,
11:22that's what I would do if I was trying to include him.
11:25You would start him here and allow him to drift out into this space.
11:28You would start Palmer here and allow him to drift in to this space.
11:32You get your width from your fullback
11:34and then you shuffle the defenders across.
11:36Now, obviously, some problems with that.
11:39There's no room for Enzo.
11:40There's no place for De Laap.
11:42If you're tucking your left back in,
11:43you're probably going to want Hato over Mark Kukurea,
11:46so you leave him out.
11:47It's maybe not the best use for Rhys James,
11:50but he can do that.
11:52So, yeah, fuck knows, to be quite honest with you,
11:54but that's why I'm doing videos on YouTube
11:56and Enzo Mareska is a qualified football manager
11:59making around about £4 million.
12:02Yeah, so we will get him in there somehow
12:04and we'll just find out together.
12:06But, yes, that's it.
12:07That's the video.
12:07I started doing it thinking he was a good signing
12:09and now I think he's quietly a great signing.
12:11If he doesn't mind how many minutes he's getting.
12:14But, Chelsea fans, another video for you this summer.
12:17Let us know what you think of him in the comments down below.
12:19Do you not want another centre-back?
12:20I kind of feel like they should be buying another centre-back
12:23instead of another attacker,
12:24but that is just me and you can get him,
12:26me, across all the social medias,
12:27at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
12:30Subscribe to the channel.
12:31Why not?
12:32We're going places and it's loads and loads of fun
12:33and we've got some cool, nice, exciting announcements to make.
12:36And if you haven't already dropped it in the comments,
12:39hashtag welcome Archie would make me incredibly pleased
12:41and probably be quite nice with him as well.
12:44That's it.
12:44Goodbye.
12:45Bye.
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