Depth of Talent: Davide Frattesi
Unione Sportiva Sassuolo Calcio is an established mid-table Italian football club that had served Italy more than any other club there, despite its short presence in top-flight football. It felt as if they were on a mission to resurrect Italian national football, and how could it be otherwise when they nurtured not only players such as Pellegrini (current captain of AS Roma), Locatelli, Raspadori, Scamacca, Berardi, and Politano, but also coaches such as Di Francesco and the innovative De Zerbi.
Davide Fratessi was a strong candidate to make that list last summer, but his return move to AS Roma fell through. The 23-year-old couldn’t hide his dissatisfaction with the club’s handling of his transfer dossier, which appeared reasonable after generating money from Raspadori and Scamacca’s departures to Napoli and West Ham, respectively.
He remains for another season, which can be good for his growth because it is clear that he still has to work on secondary parts of his game that I’d like to detail, along with his strengths, in this scouting piece.
Looking at Fratessi’s profile, you can see that he’s ranking well across multiple offensive metrics. A dynamic carrier whose presence in the last third cannot be overlooked.
Progression
Frattesi plays a crucial role in bringing the ball farther up the pitch, whether as an offensive outlet that may receive progressive passes or by carrying the ball. The major stream in which Frattessi runs to locate himself in a shooting opportunity or to receive passes is half-space channels.
his constant runs through pockets spaces, or technically speaking half-spaces, do allow him to move further up the pitch and establish himself as a front outlet ready to receive passes so that he can get into a good shooting position.
A player can move the ball forward in one of two ways: either by carrying it or by playing progressive passes. This can occasionally be misguiding when judging a player’s ability to get the ball forward because it can be done collectively by falling and forming triangles, which finally move the play forward but through quick and short passes. Instead, we need to place more emphasis on the player’s creativity and his impact in the sequences of play that lead his team to either score or shoot. The goal and shot-creating actions offered by Opta are perfect for this purpose.
The graph below shows the top Serie A midfielders in terms of creativity, and Fratessi had a good spot there. (Look at SMS).
It’s safe to say that Frattesi excels at carrying the ball steadily, and his smooth dribbling undoubtedly helps him do so. An excellent collection of this pattern, for instance, is shown in the GIF below.
Additionally, the Italian doesn’t always require the ball to hurt the opposition; instead, his persistent runs in the back create openings for his teammates, notably the wide attackers in Dionisio’s system, who depend on him for space.
In this scenario above, the right-back Toljan’s reception of the ball instantly set off Frattesi’s run, drawing the full-back and forcing the opposing midfielder to track him down. This was a clever move that created space for the wide attacker to operate with ease. (video cannot be uploaded)
Final third output
Let’s discuss how the good skill set our midfielder possesses contributes to getting him, consistently, to good shooting areas, hence make of him a serious goal threat.
When Frattesi joins attacks it has to be in the search of space between the right back and central defender, mainly through runs behind the back and carrying the ball and that is enough to get him to crash the box where he had touched the ball 3.36 times per 90s, allowing him to rank on the 97th percentile in that regard.
Here Frattesi took a good decision in carrying instead of paying the ball into space for more who had dragged the right back, creating a 1v1 situation for Fratessi that he came up with due to his excellent dribbling and burst of explosiveness. (video cannot be uploaded)
Frattesi has scored four goals this season, matching his tally of the last season after only 12 games. Looking at what is supposed to be his shot map, one could easily conclude that it belongs to a center forward with only two shots out of a total of 26 from beyond the box, the remaining shots were taken from inside the penalty area, mostly the right area.
Given that he produces 0.12 non-penalty xG for each shot, it is reasonable to say that his decision-making throughout the shot is top-notch.
Defensive Actions
The Italian has strong off-ball positioning and is always willing to forgo his offensive role in order to track a runner or cover spaces left behind, which are apparent situations due to his side’s lack of defensive organization.
While Frattesi’s defensive ability has never been at the top compared to his fellows in Serie A, it may be readily improved and it can easily be spotted as an area that Fratssi has to work on.
Before I discuss his defensive performance in terms of data, I’d want to make reference to this match versus Milan, where Frattessi tried to cover the space left by the right-back Muldur by tightening Leao repeatedly, and given that he has done the same in multiple games, this can also be seen as a positive trait. (video cannot be uploaded)
Interceptions and ball recoveries provide us a clearer insight into a player’s defensive abilities than tackles do, yet Fratessi recorded less than 0.10 interceptions per 90 and recovered the ball less than 4 times per 90, which is still much below the average of his fellows.
Conclusion
Frattesi had recently been used in center positions and continued to perform effectively, scoring the game-winning goal against Hellas Verona.
He is a regular box-crasher who uses running and carrying to get into strong shooting positions and establishes himself as a receiving outlet. He is also a solid game reader, but he still needs to improve on his defensive contribution.
Overall, I believe that it is certain that a major Italian club will approach him next summer. In fact, I anticipate Mourinho’s Roma to be the front-runner in the competition for his services because Frattesi is a really exciting future prospect for Italian football and he is still 23-year-old.
References
Data: Understat.com and FBREF.com
Code for charts: notebook
Inspiration: DSamangy and sonofacorner
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