Ansu Fati – The future of Barcelona :
Anssumane “Ansu” Fati Vieira (born 31 October 2002) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for La Liga club Barcelona and the Spain national team. He has been hailed as the future of Barcelona and the one to lead them to great heights.
On 24 July 2019, Ansu Fati signed his first professional contract with Barcelona, agreeing to a deal until 2022. On 14 September 2019, in his first career start, Fati became the youngest player in the history of La Liga to score and assist in the same match, at the age of 16 years and 318 days. He scored a goal in the 2nd minute which was assisted by Frenkie de Jong and later assisted Frenkie de Jong’s goal in the 7th minute of an eventual 5–2 home win against Valencia.
Fati’s playing style has been compared with that of former Barcelona player Lionel Messi. A versatile forward, Ansu Fati is capable of playing in any attacking position; he started his career as a striker, although he was later moved to the position of a left-winger. Being adept with either foot, despite being naturally right-footed, he is also capable of playing on the right flank, in the center as a false 9, as a second striker or number 11, or in a free role as an attacking midfielder or number 10.
The La Masia graduate possesses outstanding dribbling skills which, when combined with his speed, makes him incredibly difficult to stop in one-on-one situations. He also has a keen eye for goal and ability in the air as well as his vision and ability to control play from midfield. Some of his weaknesses in the game were selfishness and decision-making.
Football Analytics breakdown :
Pass Distribution :
We can see that from the above heatmap, Fati pass distribution is usually down the left side, with rarely on the right side.
Goal Scoring and Ball Carrying :
Ansu Fati has 3 goals to his name already, with 9 shots. His shot accuracy this season is 46%.He has 1 major chances created to his name already.
This season he has played only 5 matches, with 213 minutes under his belt. In the Champions League, he has played 3 matches, getting 154 minutes. He has 0 assists to his name. Interestingly he had 2 assists last season, but he has the next 6 months to notch up assists and try to beat or level his score.
We can see that Fati is a decent Ball Carrier, he falls in the first quadrant with 3.5 compared to Cristiano Ronaldo who has 9.5 as his ball-carrying actions.
We can see that Ansu Fati ranks highly in ball progression with 10, he is only behind Angel Di Maria who ranks 12.5.
Next, we see Fati carrying into a dangerous area ( into the penalty area and six-yard box). We see that he ranks 2.8 which is in the first quadrant.
The next metric which we have compared is goal/Shot On Target. We can see that Fati falls into the first quadrant with 0.25.
Key Passes and Passes into the danger zone :
The next Metric which we have measured is his Key Passes. We can see that he falls way short in key passes with 0.8. It is due to his selfishness to not pass the ball but to go for the glory.
In passes to the dangerous zone, Fati ranks only 2.7 compared to Crociata, who ranks at 5.1.
Conclusion – Can Fati be the next Lionel Messi?
Ansu Fati is blessed with Electric pace, supreme confidence, and the skills to matchmake him the ideal modern winger, and with his killer instinct in front of goal ever-improving, Will Fati, the 19-year-old replace Messi, who is a legend, and lead Barcelona to a new era? That remains to be seen.
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Author – Manav Pal
