Kulusekvski and Ødegaard: The Missing Pieces?

On the benches of two of the biggest clubs in the world, two of the maestros of the game historically will sit and on occasions stand and bark orders to their own midfielders. Pirlo and Zidane are probably to most the benchmark for technical quality. And while the 2006 World Cup final may remember them for very different things, they both have a permanent seat in the Football Hall of Fame. In management however, Zidane is the one with the CV. 3 Champion's League, 2 La Liga titles and some other titles to Pirlo's just over a week as Under 23 manager at Juventus. 

Strangely this is not about, these two idols of the game but two talents they would be responsible in moulding this season. In ways success hinges on unleashing the undeniable creativity that either player posseses. Kulusekvski for Juventus and Pirlo. Odegaard for Madrid and Zidane.

Dejan Kulusekvski

There will always be skeptical comments when a club signs a teenager with just over six months of professional football for around €35 million (according to transfermarkt). At that point he had 4 goals and 7 assists in half a season and was still playing for Sweden's under 21s. But watching Kulusekvski, you could see this was more than just the purple patch of purple patches. The boy was talented and in a fairly average Parma team he looked like a superior. The fact that he is 186cm / 6'1 helps but Juventus saw something in him that made then splash out on a deal where everyone won. Atalanta sold a player they had bought for 165k for €35 million, about 212 times their initial investment. Parma to keep their mini (ironical I know) superstar till the season ended. Juventus got a supreme talent and gave him time to develop. 

But what exactly does Kulusekvski bring to this Juve side and what did he do to convince Paratici that he could bring something to the Old Lady?

Before I go into the stats and numbers, let's get the obvious things out of the way. He brought youth to an ageing side. He also brought a versatility to a team crying out for just that. Last season, Kulusekvski played mainly as a right winger but filled in capably as a number 10 or 8 when required.

Now the numbers!

The table above shows Kulusekvski's performance using certain stats from last season against those of his new teammates. 

Starting off with his direct influence on the scoreline, it's obvious that he is ahead of most of his Juve teammates. In fact only Dybala (who matches both his Expected Assists and Actual Assists) and Douglas Costa (whose per90 numbers are deeply influenced by the fact he didn't complete many 90 minutes) can rival him. Bentancur and Pjanic both overperformed their expected assists by a sizeable gap. He plays more key passes (passes leading to shots) than all but Dybala and Costa (once again, don't trust his numbers). It's the same story with the passes in the penalty area (PPA). The numbers highlight just how poor Juventus have been creatively in the midfield this season. He was constantly creating shooting chances with over 4 per game and with a better forward line than Cornelius and Gervinho at Parma (no disrespect but Ronaldo and Dybala are different gravy) more than just 0.46 of those will become goals. But it's also worth noting that he also provides Juve with an impetus they lacked last season. Kulusekvski is ready to dribble with the ball and drive into the heart of defences to create chances. Juve's midfield lacked that and if he's played there he offers that to the team. Once again Dybala and Costa (-_-) are the only ones who completed more dribbles and created more shooting chances with dribbles. 

But in all honesty, Juve were desperate for the spark he would provide. And in many ways he showed that on his debut. Beyond his brilliantly finished debut goal, he showed a lot of the positivity on the ball that was lacking all year. 3 key passes and playing in a fairly fluid position behind and beside Ronaldo up top, Kulusekvski was amazing and he was subbed off to an applause. He's only 20 but the signs are up and up for Kulusekvski and judging by that first game Pirlo might be able to push him to the next level.

Martin Odegaard

It's all fun and games till you realize Odegaard was playing professional football in Norway at 15. Where were you at 15? Or more importantly did Real Madrid sign you at 16? Things didn't entirely go perfect for Odegaard after Madrid came knocking but you have to applaud how he's dragged his career back on track. He's gone from a series of loan spells in Netherlands and Spain (which to be fair were very good) to impressing Zidane enough to recall him to the team, cutting short a 2 year loan spell.

Odegaard's case however is in many ways different from Kulusekvski. He didn't just burst into the scene and get snapped up. But he's coming into a midfield that is fairly old and closing in on the end of it's cycle. Casemiro is 27 but Kroos and Modric are 30 and 35 respectively. Modric is the player who he is directly expected to replace and that should be the case given the position he plays. Madrid are not screaming for creativity the same way Juventus are, but for a period last season Modric lost his place in the team and Fede Valverde came in. Valverde is an amazing player but creating chances is not his biggest strength and so with that a lot of the creative burden was shifted to Toni Kroos who mostly did the conducting.

Do the numbers agree?

Odegaard was better than all his Madrid teammates in Expected Assists and that number will only improve with a higher quality of frontmen ahead of him. Kroos equalled him for Key Passes and that shows both how creative Odegaard is and also how much of the creative load Kroos bore last season. Valverde, came in for Modric, had only 0.9 to compare to their 2.14 and Modric's 1.89 and that is proof of the creative drop-off. He's also head and shoulders above the rest in terms of passes into the box, Isco's 1.98 is the "closest" to his 2.6 passes into the box per 90. But asides his elite creative abilities, Odegaard will offer Madrid a lot of progression. He offers a lot of ball progression both by carrying and passing. Whereas Valverde, offered more security and energy when he came in for Modric, his 3.73 progressive passes per 90 is some way off Modric (6.4) and Odegaard(8.86). 

Zidane seems to trust Odegaard and that is important. While their draw against Real Sociedad was not exactly a spectacle, Odegaard was trusted from the start. (Not sure about dropping Casemiro for him though). 2 key passes in 90 minutes on his 'second' debut is something he will definitely improve upon when he settles into the side. But it's important with a manager like Zidane to have his confidence.

There's no doubt Kulusekvski and Odegaard will be formidable additions to their individual teams. Real Madrid and Juventus both won their league titles last year and so breaking into those teams will be tough. But here are two insanely talented footballers, with very different back stories, trying to make it to the top of the game. In Pirlo and Zidane, they have managers who have been at the top. Hopefully, the only way is up.