It is the 18th day of the January window, so far an active window for the owners of Southampton and Rasmus Ankersen currently tasked with recruitment, with the signings of Mislav Orsic of Croatian heavyweights Zagreb and Charly Alcaraz from Racing Club in Argentina. Nicolas Jackson is potentially the next name through the doors of Staplewood.
Who is he?
21-year-old Senegalese International Nicolas Jackson is close to a €20m move from Villareal to the south-coast club, with many fans already voicing their opinions on the potential signing, with the price tag and his goalscoring record being bought to the spotlight of those discussions, which is harsh, to say the least, especially when he’s primarily deployed on the wing or behind the striker. A great example is his involvement in the friendly between our two clubs.
The Southampton Performance
In pre-season when he played against Southampton, he displayed the ability possessed as he stole the first half. The ball is cleared by Pau Torres after a spell of Southampton pressure, almost in suspense for what feels like an eternity for the ball to bounce out for a throw-in, it deceives everyone including the Villareal fans.
It bounces back into play, Jackson is the first to react, he races towards the rebounding ball in which he picks it up in Villareal’s half, his first touch takes it past Lavia after a rash decision to commit leaving him in a foot race with Bella-Kotchap who has proven that it isn’t an easy task to win, it doesn’t matter. He shrugs ABK out of the way, racing into the box as cooly as you like, where he picks out Yéremy Pino despite the best efforts of Bednarek’s attempted acrobatic clearance for a diving header past an on-looking Bazunu.
Southampton 0–1 Villareal after a lung-busting 56-metre solo run from Jackson. It summarised what Jackson is all about.
The Stats
During Jackson’s three years in European football, it has never been about his finishing, despite the views of some Southampton supporters. It has been about using his qualities to their best effect, his vision and progression up the pitch. Here is a chart by the brilliant kristianoko highlighting his creativity comparing him to similar targets on Southampton’s radar and own players, however, there is a glaring problem with FBRef. Jackson has played 53% fewer minutes than the other targets with his game time limited to cameo appearances and half-time substitutions.
Despite this, he is defensively solid with 3.3 ball recoveries and 0.3 tackles in the defensive third per 90, creatively excellent with 2.16 progressive passes and 1.47 passes into the final third per 90. One attribute to highlight is his ability to draw fouls, ranking in the 90th percentile in fouls drawn leading to goals, when facing opponents he makes the right decision drawing 1.57 fouls per 90. That is more than enough for Ward-Prowse to bang a free-kick in the top corner and for us to see out a game.
Conclusion
Jackson is a diamond in the rough waiting to be moulded into the complete player, especially with his finishing. The price tag may put people off at first, still with 3-and-a-half years left on his contract with Villareal, it makes sense to value him as highly especially in the notoriously expensive January window. He would fit in with Nathan Jones’s system and the style of play in mind with his directness and ability to pick a pass.
He has all the potential to become a top-quality winger… just without the goals.
Price rating: 6
Ability rating: 7.5
Statistical rating: 8.5
Total rating: 7.3/10 (B)
ratings are based upon a football manager style rating system, taking into account potential and statistics in the role they play in their current team and the team they’ll join.
