Sven Botman is a 21 years old Dutch professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Ligue 1 side Lille OSC. He joined the French top-flight from Ajax last summer in an £8m deal. He never played at a professional level for his boyhood club that he joined at the age of nine. He was called up to the senior Netherlands squad for the first time in his career in November 2020.
The Dutch international has played 6,320 minutes so far in his professional career, scoring twice and assisting five times. He has been linked to multiple Premier League clubs like Liverpool or Manchester United during the winter window, and they are reportedly going back in for him during the summer window.
This is why I decided to make a scout report on him, going through his strengths and weaknesses to better understand what his game is like. Throughout this scout report, I will compare Botman’s underlying numbers to Gabriel’s when he was still at Lille. The Brazilian centre-back was highly touted last season and both have played in the same system, which makes the comparison much easier.
Mentality
I don’t know how to define it but I guess mentality is the best word for that. There is something I noticed about Botman when his team is losing. He almost always becomes stronger in duels and shows his determination to get back into the game. I remember something against Celtic when Lille were losing 2–0 where he stepped out to prevent his opponent from crossing and let the ball go out. He then immediately took the ball and quickly gave it to his goalkeeper, Mike Maignan. I guess everyone wants to come back from a losing position but I found him even more determined to do it than most.
Passing and ability to drive with the ball
I have watched Gabriel at Lille quite a lot last season and I found him pretty conservative in his passing, which hasn’t been the case (or I would say less so) for Botman this season.
Botman is assured with his passing and often immediately passes the ball where he sees space, which gives more speed to his team’s overall play. Similarly, the defender knows how to set up his nearest full-back with ground passes into space, which prevents the latter from taking an extra touch once he has received. This is such an important yet overlooked asset for a centre-back, to know where to put the ball to find momentum.
The centre-back is remarkably calm on the ball and often reads the play before it happens, therefore he doesn’t find himself under pressure which is a good thing. However, when he is put under pressure, he often struggles to get out of it. This is a shame because I have seen him going out of difficult situations so he is capable but often fails to properly do it. He can panic, as depicted below.
He also switches the ball to the opposite side well, which is an extremely valuable asset for teams who are left-side heavy with a quick change of play to surprise the opponent’s defensive block (hello Manchester United!).
He can equally set up runners on the same side as him with a through ball, as depicted below.
He also makes himself available to receive smartly. In the stills below, you can see José Fonte having no passing lane but Botman created him one by moving into the right pocket to receive Fonté’s pass.
All in all, the defender plays clever progressive passes into midfield or out wide, whether it is by a disguised pass in the middle of the pitch or a quick pass into the left half-space towards Jonathan Bamba. He is also able to find passes we, as watcher, wouldn’t think of, like against Ajax in the Europa League.
His switches and long balls into the final third could prove to be extremely useful even though they are easily cut out on occasion. He is comfortable with the ball at his feet though he rarely steps far out of the defensive line with the ball and prefers to pass rather than carry the ball forward.
On the other hand, Botman can still drive forward and take the initiative, which is seen in the GIF below. He sees space and drives with the ball to find Bamba between two defenders. The momentum he created with the risks he took helped his team score a goal.
This is seen with the underlying numbers we have at our disposal, highlighted below. When I watched Gabriel last season, I found him not particularly good at carrying the ball forward and Botman is not better either. On the other hand, however, the Lille defender is better at everything else when it comes to passing. His passes are more accurate, he is a better progressor of the ball but also knows how to put balls into the final third.
Build, ability in duels and positioning in 1v1s
Standing at 6’4, Botman’s build is particularly impressive. As a comparison, he is the same height as Virgil Van Dijk, his Dutch teammate. But he isn’t only tall, the centre-back is also using his height to great effect as he is successful aerially but there is something even more impressive to this part of his game; his headers who come from aerial duels on the defensive end are often targeting a teammate, therefore, it doesn’t give another possession and a possible wave of pressure to the opponent.
The 21 years old has a good leap. I have often seen him easily out jump his opponent in a duel. There are two examples below. In the first one, you can see his vertical leap in action, easily winning the aerial duel and heading the ball towards his teammate.
In the second example, you can see Botman going into a duel against Zlatan Ibrahimović and easily winning it against the Milan striker.
Botman is also smart in duels as he often anticipates and tries to go ahead of his opponent to not battle the ball but instead makes it a simple ball recovery if you will. This is seen below, where Botman has time to get ahead of his opponent to receive the long ball.
The Dutch defender’s ability in defensive duels is highlighted by his underlying number in this metric, where he is fifth for defensive duels success rate in Europe’s top 5 leagues.
Finally, Botman is also able to follow runners into depth and keep up with them. This was one of my worries when I watched him a bit when he was still at Heerenveen as he felt slower than he does now, which means he has already improved in this regard.
When following runners into depth, he positions his body well, not showing them the inside. This is depicted in the GIF below.
You can see in the GIF below how quick Botman follows the Ajax player to intercept the ball.
Another example that I will now break down is when Lille played against Milan in the Europa League. Ante Rebić receives the ball while running into depth. Once he receives the ball, Botman wants to go ahead of him. Once it is done, the centre-back now orientates him towards the byline and blocks the shot of the Croatian striker.
In this part, we went through Botman’s biggest asset on the defensive end, which is his build. Even though he is a bit lightweight, the Lille defender can still win his duels, whether they are on the ground or in the air. He can also defend wide areas as he is quicker than his size could suggest. He always shows the outside to his opponent while not giving the latter the opportunity to cut inside.
Defensive awareness
What immediately strikes you when you watch Botman play is his awareness. He always scans, which makes him aware of his surroundings.
Constantly scanning his surroundings allows him to react quickly to difficult situations such as the one depicted below. Botman first faces the ball-carrier in case he doesn’t want to pass the ball towards Moise Kean but Botman knows Kean is on his right as he has scanned before the pass towards the ball. The defender waits for the ball-carrier to make the pass towards the Italian and can block the shot by not showing the inside to his opponent.
The Lille centre-back is also really good at following runners when Lille are in a mid-block. What do I mean by that? When in a mid-block, you still leave space for someone to go beyond your defensive line. Sometimes, your defenders will not follow them as they didn’t see their movements beyond the last line. Indeed, when runners start their move they have the edge because they are the ones to initiate it but since Botman often scans he knows how to anticipate this. He almost always knows where his closest opponent is, which allows him to follow anyone who wants to make a dangerous run, something the Dutch defender also evaluates well.
This constant scanning will equally allow him to anticipate second balls to clear danger if needed, as seen below.
Unfortunately, his lack of aggressiveness that often comes down to his good reading of the game can prove to be an issue when there are players who run at Lille’s goal. A prime example of this is against Celtic. On Celtic’s first goal of the game, while Botman is not responsible for the dangerous situations Celtic found themselves in, I believe that he should not have thought too much about the runner behind him. If he pressed the ball-carrier quickly enough (i.e. immediately decided to apply pressure), Botman would have slowed down and probably even annoyed Mohamed Elyounoussi before the Celtic forward took his shot.
This “over-analysis” cost him more than once this season. He can be attracted towards a forward infield but instead of 100% committing, Botman stays in between the runner and the player who receives the ball, which is a bad decision to make. Lille already conceded once from this situation and another similar situation almost led to the same outcome. Both are highlighted below.
He is often in the right place at the right time in the box, which is thanks to his awareness but the centre-back struggles at reading cross when in the box, whether it is from a cross or a corner kick. He has been responsible for two goals against Lille this season already. On a corner kick, he was not following his opponent close enough, consequently allowing the latter to score from a header.
Botman needs to learn when to step out. He already scans more than most centre-backs of his age, which is a massive asset regarding how he can handle runners and make the right decision. However, this asset can become an issue as he still doesn’t know when to step out of his backline from time to time.
To end these two parts, we will take a look at Botman’s underlying numbers compared to Gabriel’s when the Brazilian was at Lille. It backs up what we saw, with Botman being less aggressive than Gabriel while still being dribbled past more often as he will not step out in time to stop them. We can also see that the Lille centre-back is thriving in all defensive duels, whether it is aerially or on the ground.
Conclusion
After the first six months at Lille, I wasn’t sure about whether Botman was ready for his next move or not but now I feel he is ready. He is getting more experienced with more Europa League games where he was really good despite Lille going out against Ajax, he is in a team that challenges PSG for the title until the last game of the season and his decision-making becomes better with time. When it comes to his ball-playing abilities, he isn’t necessarily impressive but he is assured and if he improves his ability to release pressure off his teammates by driving with the ball at this feet, he will become a complete ball-playing centre-back.
