Scouting: Stefano Sensi
The January transfer window is nearing a close, with Leicester City yet to invest in any signings or reinforcements. If reports are to be believed, and they’re coming from reputable sources, the Foxes need to offload peripheral squad members before dipping into the transfer market.
A specific area of the squad that has shortened in depth is central midfield, especially after an early loan recall from Chelsea for Italian midfielder Cesare Casadei. Other options include Wilfred Ndidi, who is still nursing an injury (although, he’s speculating on a two-week return time), and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall who has recently filled into a right-side #8 role — but that’s his weaker side of the two #8s.
If you delve deeper there’s Dennis Praet, who has barely been called upon in Championship games this season, with only a single start (Gameweek 2 vs. Huddersfield Town), and totaling just 168 minutes across this campaign. I think Enzo Maresca is wary of the Belgian’s injury record, which has plagued his entire career even before joining the East Midlands outfit.
Across his career, he’s missed one game at an average of every 3.87 games played — it’s a simplistic equation of dividing a player's total number of games (for Dennis Praet, this would be 329) played by the total number of games missed through injury (85). Below, I’ve compared this to other current Leicester City players.
Another loanee, Yunus Akgun, has also seen minutes in central midfield roles. Primarily signed as an option in width, his interior abilities have transitioned him into a high #8. Unfortunately, his lob-sided attacking profile, means the composition centrally needs to be balanced for Akgun to feature/thrive as an #8, which hasn’t been a priority for Maresca.
All of this pre-amble is to contextualise why Stefano Sensi, currently of Inter Milan, could be the next Italian to ply his trade in Leicester. Fabrizio Romano has provided a few updates on the developing situation, which suggests Sensi is open to the proposal of Championship football, with half an eye on promotion and the ability to play in the Premier League.
With this all said, what can Leicester City’s fans expect out of the Italian midfielder? What style of player is he? Does he solve the previously reported issues of profiles centrally? I will try to answer these, whilst also using the newly developed packed data points to highlight how Maresca could use Sensi.
I’ve watched some video footage, only of his time on loan at AC Monza (during the 22/23 Serie A season), as scouring this season’s play time isn’t worthwhile — a collective 30 minutes across three games, doesn’t provide any sample size to investigate. Instead, I’ve watched (from publicly available sources) 6 games with a combined 378 minutes played in those games. It’s still not a lot, but it’s provided some clear patterns, and ideas, whilst outlining a few flaws as well.
Minutes breakdown:
Inter Milan (A): 29 minutes played
Lazio (H): 94 minutes played
Juventus (A): 34 minutes played
AC Milan (A): 66 minutes played
Juventus (H): 57 minutes played
Napoli (A): 98 minutes played
There’s a pattern for the games I’ve watched when looking at opposition quality. For footage to be available, Giovanni Stroppa’s side and then later, Raffaele Palladino’s side, needed to be playing one of Serie A’s “big hitters”. AC Monza themselves, playing in the Serie A for the first time in their 110-year history, were largely overlooked by broadcasting companies, so Sensi’s scouting review comes from games competing with some of Italy’s best talents. Again, this is important context.
Position?
Of course, we understand that Stefano Sensi is a central midfielder. But, there are multiple roles and positions available under that umbrella, so which one suits the Italian the most? On tape, he’s played in the #6, #8, and #10, whilst also functioning on both the left and right side. He’s versatile and likes to use both feet in possession (IP), but it also suggests that Monza’s coaches didn’t find the perfect position for him. Why?
As the #6, Sensi can become the nucleus of his team’s possession sequences. If you want an easy comparison, think of Harry Winks in the current Leicester City side. Both players are brilliant at orientating their movements to find spaces for the CBs to pass into, whilst retaining possession with smart selections once they receive the ball.
The deeper positioning allows them to become “tempo setters” for the team, rotating the ball at a speed they see fit, opting for progression when possible, but ultimately being the calming influence IP. As an aside, for a lot of the footage, I couldn’t tell what Sensi’s stronger foot is. A lot of his actions are completed with his left foot, yet all data sources state he’s right-footed. Either way, it’s an impressive aspect of his profile.
Impressively, Sensi’s packing numbers are considerably better than Winks’. Comparatively, Sensi has better numbers than any of the current Foxes players — with his data being collected from his Serie A campaign (2022/23), a higher standard than the Championship, where the Leicester players’ data comes from.
One in three, or 35.29%, of Sensi’s passes, interact with (go beyond) an opposition line/player. As a midfielder, this is very impressive. Often in his role as the #6, Sensi would receive play from the CBs — who have found him beyond the first (and maybe second) pressing line, so hypothetically, if he was to complete a square pass into his midfield partner, this would achieve a score of 0 in packing terms. As you can see, Sensi doesn’t opt for this simple pass that often, instead looking to play progressively and help move attacking sequences forward.
Whilst having this ability to break lines is impactful in deeper positions, Sensi sometimes drops too deep, as in beyond the CBs (image below) to receive possession. This doesn’t benefit the team, it manufactures the reception lines so that the CBs are now receiving through the first pressing line. Whereas if the roles were normalised, that would be Sensi receiving in that environment. A player that is comfortable with either foot and under pressure, is the type of player you want receiving “in traffic”, not your stereotypical CBs — not that Pablo Mari (AS Monza’s CCB) is incompetent.
I find Sensi to be very functional as the #6 IP, but I do have a couple of simple concerns. His progressive nature is excellent, and he’s not just breaking single lines with his passes. Incredibly, for every packed pass he completes, Sensi is rewarded with a packing score of 5.7. That’s, again, better than every Leicester City player I’ve analysed — and once again, in a more difficult league. The wider graph is shown below.
This is a different style of concern, and it’s not something I normally pick up on, but I’ve acknowledged his levels of concentration fluctuate a lot. For a player with innate qualities, he constantly misplaces simple passes and gifts the opposition high turnovers — a big problem for a #6. In Serie A, these passes ended with shots for the opposing teams, perhaps in the Championship, the Foxes could recover.
Why I put this down to concentration is due to Sensi overlooking simple details on the pitch; such as the placement of opposition pressing players or the available passing lanes open to him. If the environment is there to make a line-breaking pass, these details are calculated with real intent, but the simplicity of other actions becomes nonchalant to Sensi — at least it seems. It’s easy for this to be resolved/fixed, and it could just be an issue from the smaller sample size of games I’ve watched.
However, these concentration issues also transition into his out-of-possession (OOP) roles. I don’t know how fluently I can explain this, but Sensi’s defensive awareness is inconsistent. Within his isolated role, such as tracking a runner (man-marking), Sensi is committed to those tasks, whilst also being smart with his movement to cover additional passing lanes. But transferring this to a wider OOP system and his role within that, Sensi struggles to have an impact.
It’s fair to say, that Sensi offers a lot more IP than OOP. Above, I’ve added an image that shows the Italian ignoring the wider OOP structure to apply pressure in width. In isolation, it’s not a big issue, but this movement vacates his partnering #6 in the wider second pressing line, and gifts AC Milan easy progression through AC Monza’s block. If Sensi stays in his position, there’s better coverage for this sequence. This is simply an example of a much wider issue OOP.
Whilst functioning as a #6, Sensi constantly positions himself “in limbo”. It can be a fairly isolated position defending transitions as the #6, but you have to commit to one of two things; pressing a player or dropping into a shape. In the previous example, Sensi does commit to pressing a player, which is the wrong decision for that sequence. But, often, Sensi will hesitate on whether to drop or press and does neither. In the end, this does nothing defensively for his side. I’ve tried to show this below in a three-part series.
I’d explain his OOP exploits in this fashion if you can simplify the responsibility and create a task environment where Sensi only needs to understand what is expected of himself — i.e. pressing or man-marking, then he’s valuable. However, once the OOP role requires wider structural dependence or perhaps requires Sensi to proactively support a teammate, his lack of defensive awareness is clear to see.
If he’s not playing as the #6 in the Foxes system, Sensi would operate as a high #8 — which shares elements of both the #8 and #10 role from his time in Italy. The negligence of the wider OOP roles isn’t as impactful when taking up a more advanced position. In fact, in the footage where Sensi played as a #10, he was granted an old-fashioned “luxury” role with very few responsibilities OOP.
While the AC Monza formations fluctuated between 3–4–2–1 or 3–4–3, Sensi would play as a wide #10 (both sides) in the second pressing line, but due to his limitations OOP, his role would focus on marking/covering an opposition player that would sit deeper. Very little tracking is required, and this allowed Sensi to focus on the side of the ball he favours.
When playing as a high #8 or #10, Sensi showed an excellent understanding of half-space pockets and how to manipulate the opposition block to receive. When you compare his reception numbers to the current Foxes squad, his availability to receive (4.94) is identical to Abdul Fatawu (4.98) and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (4.88). Two of Maresca’s more advanced players in the IP formation, 3–2–4–1, with both receiving possession frequently.
I’d suggest it’s this ability to naturally occupy spaces and generate high territory for his side that Maresca wants to add to his current Leicester City squad. The positive elements of his IP role as the #6 still transfer to a higher role, receiving through the lines and connecting play with smart passes. This allowed AC Monza to play into Sensi (high) and convert this into gained territory by offloading onto players who had the freedom to progress.
Earlier, I mentioned Sensi’s versatility has provided previous managers with the conundrum of where to play him. Surprisingly, when featuring in the higher role, he could interchange positions with the active roaming #9 (Dany Mota) and subsidise his wider movements by becoming the focal point of I Biancorossi's attacks.
Of course, a 5ft5 not overly quick ball-player isn’t an optimal profile for a de facto striker. The previous point merely illustrates Sensi’s ability to read teammates' movements, and how to readjust his positioning to aid in attacking sequences. In the relatively low sample size of sequences where Sensi operated as the #9, he did a great job of linking play. It’s about understanding his skillset and utilising it wherever he finds himself on the pitch.
Translating this to Leicester City, if you think of the options available to Maresca in the #9, there are plenty of players who offer selfless movement. Thomas Cannon, Jamie Vardy, and Patson Daka all drift into the five vertical channels (wing, half-spaces, and central) which, only occasionally, vacate territory in the stereotypical #9 position. With Sensi playing as a high #8, you have a player capable of reading a sequence to mitigate this.
Overall, Stefano Sensi is a versatile central player. Is strongest asset is his ball-playing and finding teammates through the lines, adept with both feet. His flaws come off-the-ball, but if Maresca can manipulate his role, these wider structural issues could be subsidised by a player that is good at 1-v-1 pressing.
Ultimately, just like the other options in central midfield, it’s about availability. For a rumoured €2 million fee, there’s little risk for a player that could easily transition his game upwards and feature in the Premier League — if the Foxes were to get promoted. He’s shown his qualities in the Italian top flight.
But, just like Praet, Sensi’s injury record is worrying. Across his entire career, Sensi has missed one game through injury at an average of 2.75 games played. But, what is more worrying is that these injuries started to heavily ramp up in the 2019/20 season, after playing an injury-free season in Serie B (with Cesena), and then three full seasons in Serie A (with Sassuolo) with a few smaller injuries.
If you were to re-run the numbers from the start of the 2019/20 season, Sensi has made 81 appearances in Italy, and has missed 77 games through injury — that’s an average of 1.05 games played before missing one through an injury. Perhaps that’s the biggest dice roll of this transfer, can Leicester City keep him injury-free and therefore unlock his ability? Or, just like his time in Milan, will Sensi struggle for consistency and fall victim to his versatility and inability to remain available?
