Who is Miha Zajc?
Which winger/attacking midfielder has taken the seventh most shots per 90 minutes in Europe’s top five leagues this season, just behind Gareth Bale and ahead of Mohamed Salah?
Guess the title gives it away…
It’s Miha Zajc.
Empoli began this season with Aurelio Andreazzoli, who guided the team to the Serie B title the previous season. The Tuscan manager had a great first result of the 18/19 season with a 2–0 win against Cagliari, but couldn’t push on from there as his side only picked up a further three points (all draws) from their following ten matches. Andreazzoli’s final game in charge was a 5–1 drubbing at the hands of Ancelotti’s Napoli, forcing the Empoli board to make a change and replace him with Giuseppe Iachini. The new manager got an immediate reaction out of the squad as his side took ten points from his first four matches in charge, although they have since lost four matches in a row in a tough run of fixtures.
One of the few bright sparks through Empoli’s very poor run under Andreazzoli was Miha Zajc. The Slovenian was signed by Empoli during the January transfer window last season for €1.7M from NK Olimpija in the Slovenian top division. Zajc started nine of the first eleven matches of the season, either as the furthest forward midfielder in a 4-diamond-2 formation, or as one of two no. 10s behind a striker in more of a 4321 formation. Since Iachini’s appointment, Zajc has only started two matches, losing his place to the (also) impressive 18-year-old, Hamed Junior Traorè*, in the team’s new 352/532 system, but Zajc was so good under Andreazzoli that it is worth taking a closer look at him.
*Traorè’s form has just earned him a move to Fiorentina for €12M, but he will be loaned back to Empoli until the end of this season to help them in their battle against relegation.
Sven Mislintat on what is most important to him when scouting a player: “Small details, which aren’t shown in data. Like Julian Weigl, who I scouted for Dortmund while playing for 1860, who could scan the whole pitch with a little shoulder check. I look for the special, for a weapon.” via Zeit Online.
Since I read the transcript of that interview, I haven’t found a better way to describe what makes a player special when you first see them. Miha Zajc’s weapon is his movement and appreciation for space. He has the ability to create separation from his marker before receiving the ball, both when he is in the imaginary box in-between the opposition’s defensive midfielders and center backs, and when he arrives into in the box to get on the end of a chance.
Zajc’s timing when making his runs into the opposition’s box has seen him take 2.35 shots in the opposition’s box per 90 minutes, the third best of any non-striker in the Serie A. His massive 0.39 non-penalty xG per 90 is also the best of any player for Empoli, who have managed a middling 1.17 xG/game this season. Zajc hasn’t been able to convert all of these chances but I’m not too worried having seen his technique. He, like many before him, should convert his chances at a rate closer to his xG90 over time.
Whilst this isn’t as apparent through data that I have access to (it might be through packing data), Empoli’s build up and means of progressing the ball are totally dependent on Zajc’s ability to find space. His scanning, double-movements, sharp changes of direction, and willingness to cover vast areas of the pitch to find space are an incredibly valuable set of skills. All of those habits would also translate extremely well to better teams who have progressive passers willing to find Zajc in those spaces, something that doesn’t happen enough at Empoli. A team like Wolves with Neves and Moutinho, or Southampton with Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, would be massively improved by a player who their deep-lying progressive passers could find in space on every possession.
While his abilities to both get on the end of chances and help his team progress the ball with his movement are probably his best attributes, those are certainly not the only strings to Zajc’s bow.
Zajc has a turn of pace and level of upper-body and core strength, that belies his appearance, and allows him to carry the ball past players and hold them off, demonstrated by his 1.7 dribbles per 90, allowing him to be a threat on transition.
There is also a degree of unpredictability in the Slovenian’s play. He can receive the ball comfortably on either foot, has a taste for a drop of the shoulder or a step-over, and the decision-making to competently involve himself in quick combination play around the box. Whilst he isn’t the most creative passer you’ll ever see, 1.2 open-play shot-assists per 90 and 0.2 xG assisted per 90 is pretty solid.
Oh, he doesn’t mess about with his set-pieces either.
Every player has their weaknesses, and anyone who has watched Zajc for any period of time will know that he can be frustrating to watch at times. He does hardly any defensive work, which isn’t exasperating as much as it is something you acknowledge would need to be compensated for by the rest of the team. That said, he does seem to have these periods in a match where he totally loses focus, or maybe becomes frustrated with himself, and starts misplacing simple passes that he absolutely has enough technical ability to complete 95% of the time. It is very possible that these bad habits are what has pushed him out of Iachini’s plans since his appointment at Empoli.
These weaknesses will probably hold him back in terms of ever playing for a “top-six” Premier League team, or an equivalent in another league, but I have no doubt that he would add a lot to many mid-table Premier-League clubs, or even Europa League contending clubs in the other European “top-five” leagues.
The short and sweet is: Miha Zajc is better than a rotation player for the 17th best team in the Serie A.
P.S. I have watched more than one of Zajc’s matches, but the medium through which I watch matches and player highlights would probably not take too kindly to me posting screen captures of their footage online. So I had to find publicly available match footage of Empoli from several months ago for the clips in this video, which is apparently quite difficult. Luckily I was able to find enough examples from this match to accurately represent what I see in Zajc. If you wish to see more of what Zajc can do on the ball in particular, Youtube.com is your friend.