Italy has a history of producing world-class strikers such as Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti, Alberto Gilardino, Filippo Inzaghi — to name a few. One such striker is young Gianluca Scamacca.
He is a hidden gem who started his footballing journey in the youth setup of Roma. He made 2 of his stints in Dutch clubs PSV Eindhoven and Jong Ajax. In 2017 he joined Serie A side Sassuolo and was immediately sent on loan to Serie B side Cremonese. He had 3 more loan spells in PEC Zwolle, Ascoli, and Genoa before returning to his parent club Sassuolo.
He primarily plays as a center-forward. He is usually leading the lineup as a lone striker.
Looking at his season stats we can see his actions.
Goal Scoring Ability
In his previous 2 loans at Ascoli and Genoa, he scored 9 and 8 goals respectively. He was slowly announcing himself to the world. In the recently concluded season, he scored 16 goals, showing his attacking prowess. He possesses a thunderous right foot, as he has the ability to score a scorcher from a distance. He uses his strength to wriggle past his opponents at ease. Standing at 6ft 5 inches, he is dangerous in the air as he towers above others to score goals.
We can see that Scamacca falls in the first quadrant for per 90 values here. Scamacca has scored 0.87 times per 90 and he has shots on target with 1.62 per 90.
We can see that he scored 3 out of his 16 goals from outside the box, out of which few were headed goals. He has scored every 135 minutes. He has converted 20% of his chances. Though he missed 5 big chances to take his goal tally even high higher, nevertheless he finished in the top 6 of Serie A top scorers.
Scamacca ranks in the top quadrant along with players who attack, defend and progress with the ball.
Passing
The Italian usually drops into the attacking third to help his teammates to create attacking chances. He has a high amount of long pass completion % with 92%. He has made 0.5 key passes per 90. He is not a big passer, but he does the needful when required. He has made 9.0 accurate passes per 90 in the opposition half, taking his tally to 67%.
Scamacca has made most of his passes in the attacking third, as we can see from the heatmap.
The Italian has made a total of 985 passes out of which he has completed 421 of them. He is known for exchanging short passes and building up play with his teammates. He has exchanged 251 passes, making 10.5 passes per 90, having a short pass % of 80%.
We can see his passing profile. We can see that he has a short pass % of 80.2%. He ranks 63.5% in ground passes.
Aerial Duels
Standing at mammoth height of 6 ft 5 inches (195cm), the Italian has no problem in jumping in and winning the ball at ease. He towers most of the players. He scored 3 headed goals by either jumping or poking his head to goal or making the keeper save it. He has been instrumental with his aerial ability. He has dueled 106 times in the air out of which he won 59 times of them, taking his aerial win % to 95 percentile averaging 55.7 duels won aerially.
Where he made his Most Touches
We can see that the Italian has made most of Live ball touches, and touches in the middle third. He has made 33.7 per 90 live ball touches and 15.3 touches in the middle third. He possesses a silky touch, while showing characteristics of a modern day striker.
Taking on Dribblers
Scamacca, when compared to his defensive stats, has taken on dribblers with quite an ease. He usually sticks his foot to stop them in their path or he is good at 1 vs 1 situations. He has tackled dribblers 8 times, having 89 percentile and the % of dribblers tackled is at 50% taking his tally to 95 percentile.
Final Verdict
The Italian has usually been compared to young Zlatan Ibrahimovic, for possessing physical strength. He can be also compared to young Zlatan for being a pain in the defenders’ nether regions, especially in the final and attacking third.
As per the latest transfer mill, Arsenal are after the Italian. After losing both Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette in the transfer window, he would be looking to beef up his attacking power by bringing the Italian and another attacker(maybe Gabriel Jesus) to the Emirates.
With Sassuolo having signed the 21 year old talented Agustin Alvarez from Penarol, the doors are open for Scamacca to make his move.
However there is one caveat to the deal, as PSG has entered the battlefield to get the Italian. They will be able to provide him Champions League football, which Arsenal won’t be able to do.
Where there are transfer rumors, expect Manchester United to be linked to him. As per reports Man Utd boss Erik Ten Hag is interested in the 6 ft 5 inches, tattooed up to his neck Italian. As they lost the transfer race to Liverpool to acquire Darwin Nunez, his attention has shifted to bring in an attacker who will share the workload with the 37 year old Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo.
He is available at £30–35 million, which won’t be a task for the Manchester club. With the transfer window fully opened and players being bought at a very fast race, expect the two English clubs to make a signing soon enough as they’ve been linked with players. Now its time to take action. Where the Italian ends up, it remains a mystery.
