Owen Wijndal-Scouting Report

Player Profile:

Name: Owen Wijndal

Age: 20

Nationality: Dutch

Club: AZ Alkamaar

Position: Left back

Introduction:

AZ Alkamaar are team that have been subject to high praise in the footballing world, with their young core, they managed to finish level on points with European giants Ajax which equated to them finishing the Eridivisie in 2nd place. Myron Boadu, Calvin Stengs, Teun Koopmeiners have attracted most of the attention, and while I have still seen a good amount of praise of Owen Wijndal, I haven’t seen as much as I think that he deserves.

The left plays a big part in Arne Slot’s team and in particular in their build-up from the back as the Dutch manager prefers this style of play, keeping the ball moving and on the floor and when they don’t have it, being aggressive in their counter-pressing to make sure they win it back before the opposition can start a counter. Owen Wijndal is a smart passer of the ball and this why he is so vital in possession and his partnershsip with Oussama Idrissi is one of Alkmaar’s biggest threats goig forward.

In the full-back analysis I will go into different aspects of their game in particular, how they contribute to build up play, their defensive abilities, how they contribute to attacking play and then anything else that I notice which is specific to that player.

Defending:

Owen Wijndal has a unique way of defending for someone that is as young as he is and that is being aggressive and putting pressure on his man from behind attempting to force him backwards. He doesn’t give his opponent a chance to breathe and is very strong and physical when defending in this manner. Below shows an example of this defensive technique and when it results in him forcing the opponent to play backwards.

Despite my high praise of his defensive technique above, there is a few downsides to it which are exposed when he plays against teams of better quality. An example of this is presented below were Wijndal rushes to his man, who is stood with his back to goal, as he always does but as the quality of the team and players he’s up against being at a much higher standard (in this case Ajax) the player receiving the ball plays a quick one-two with his teammate which then leaves Wijndal stranded and also acres of space behind him that can be exploited by the man with the ball. Though nothing comes of this, if Wijndal was to take a further step in his career to a team in a league of better quality than the Dutch then he would have to improve his decision-making on when and when not is best to step out the defensive line to apply pressure to his man.

Wijndal doesn’t just use this technique when his opponent is positioned with his back to goal, he does it in 1v1 situations as well using his quick burst of speed to cover a short amount of ground in a little time to then attempt a tackle. Players that aren’t the quickest and lack agility will struggle when trying to beat Wijndal in a 1v1 situation. He averages 2 tackles p90, however his aggression in these challenges causes him to be a bit rash sometimes and give silly and unnecessary fouls away which has led to him racking up 6 yellow cards in his Domestic league this campaign.

So assessing Wijndal’s defensive capabilities as a whole, there is definitely room for improvement and that involves him improving his decision making in certain situations, e.g when stepping out the defensive line to apply pressure, and also when playing against stronger opposition being more positionally disciplined as his aggression to win the ball back can often leave him out of position and by better players and coaches this fault in his game would be exploited.

Build-up play:

Owen Wijndal contributes quite a lot when his side are in possession and is very effective in all thirds of the pitch. In the defensive third during the beginning of the build-up, Wijndal positions himself deep, proving width, to be able to receive the ball from either the goalkeeper or Teun Koopmeiners who drops into the role of left centre back to get the ball from the keeper which creates more space in the middle of the park. Then when the ball comes to him, he plays a quick first time pass into the player in the central area or he is comfortable at playing the ball backwards as he’s not one to risk giving the ball away in his own half.

Below shows the two possibilities off when Wijndal receives the ball in his own third. The first clip in the video shows Wijndal be more conservative in possession, not taking any chances and instead gives the ball back to where it came from. The second shows him, despite being under pressure, be more calm on the ball as he looks to play the ball to the player occupying the central midfield role.

Wijndal’s calmness and sharpness when passing the ball is one of his biggest strengths and is one of the reasons that Arne Slot prefers to focus his build-up more down the left flank than the right. Wijndal plays 51.1 passes p90 and does so at an accuracy 88% which makes him one of the best passes in the Eredivese.

When Alkamaar do begin their play down the right hand side, they are great at shifting the ball over to the opposite flank where they know Wijndal will be stationed with acres of space unoccupied in front of him which using his aggressiveness he will more or likely drive into which will then begin their attack. An example of this is presented below.

Inverted full-back:

Something we’ve seen from Pep Guardiola in recent years is the use of the inverted full-back and the effect it can have in build-up play. This is something we’ve also seen from Owen Wijndal in Holland this season where he comes in as an extra man in midfield to either offer more passing options or to create space for Ousamma Idrissi to take up. This is exampled below were Wijndal receives the ball in the middle of the field and then goes onto use good ball control to wriggle his way through a couple of opponents and then moves the ball onto Idrissi who is in the space opened up by him.

In Attack:

The above leads nicely onto the attacking aspects of Wijndal’s game and in my opinion, his play in the final third is without a doubt the strongest part of his game and he makes his way up and down the left hand side brilliantly. The full-back averaged 1 dribble p90 as well as this he managed to rack up 6 assists in the Eridivisie which as a 20 year-old full-back, that’s very impressive. I think a good place to begin is to address his unique partnership with Oussama Idrissi. The two have an excellent understanding of each other, Wijndal respects Idrissi’s ability of cutting inside and shooting (which has contributed to his 13 league goals this season) and his quality dribbling capabilities. Idrissi repects Wijndal’s excellent movement in the final third and his crossing.

The two compliment each other brilliantly and this is shown firstly by the overlapping runs which are made by Owen Wijndal. This situation is the most common when the two are mixing together. These runs occur when Idrissi is positioned on the edge of the box looking like he’s about to shoot. Because the opponent are aware of threat he possess when coming onto his right and shooting, the full-back often tucks in as well to provide extra protection. Now that the full-back is tucked inside, there is a massive space down the flank which is they took up by Wijndal who bursts into the space to receive a perfectly timed ball played by Idrissi. This situation is played out in the clip below and though Wijndal doesn’t receive the ball on this occasion, it represents it perfectly and shows his determination to get into these areas.

As well as making over-lapping runs, Wijndal also holds the ability to be able to make an underlapping run into the half space areas. There are to possible outcomes from these underlapping runs, one being he receives the ball in a great area in the box which ables him to put in a cross in or two being he drags a man out of position which creates space for Idrissi to exploit and get a shot off. The clip below represents number one as this is the most common occurrence out of the two. Idrissi has the ball out wide, and once again he has been able to draw out the full back which creates space for Wijndal to drive into to attempt a low cross. I will delve deeper into his crossing in the next section.

Crossing:

From reading above, we know that Wijndal can enter dangerous areas in the box, but that’s no use if he doesn’t make the most of it is it? Well, he does. Wijndal is a great crosser of the ball and this has heavily contributed to him getting six assists in the Eredivisie. Below is a video which contains two of Wijndal’s assists from this year which also show examples of both his over and under lapping runs after linking up with Idrissi. The first of the two clips show Wijdnal making an overlapping run then play a weighted ball to Boadu to steer in. The second sees Boadu scoring again but this time from an assist from an underlapping position where Wijndal is extremely patient and uses good ball control to make it to the edge of the byline to be able to play a low cross to the far post.

Though Wijndal hasn’t registered a direct assist from this type of pass, he does tend to try it a lot and that is cutting the ball back to the man positioned on the edge of the box after making a sharp underlapping run into the half space. He has created a lot of chances for his team by cutting the ball back and no doubt that this has contributes to his 1.6 key passes p90.

Physicals and Mental:

Wijdnal has all the physical attributes that you’d want from a modern day full-back. He has great acceleration and also possess superb stamina which assists him in being able to dominate his flank. He is also fairly strong and won’t back down from a physical challenge with an opponent, always holding his one. He has a good attitude going forward, always looking to make darting runs into dangerous areas, however it would be nice to see this same determination going the opposite way as on the occasion he is caught out of position he doesn’t make as much effort as I’d like to see from him to get back.

Conclusion:

Wijndal is one of Europe’s most promising left-backs and I have no doubt that at one point in his career he will be playing for a top team in the big leagues that play attacking football on the front foot.

The question is when? While Wijndal is an excellent attacking full-back there is still room for improvement regarding the defensive aspects of his game. Ones that could be exploited against better teams. So Wijndal could either stay put at Az Alkamaar, gaining Champions League experience and improving on a few areas of weakness throughout the campaign. If he has another impressive season, he could become Ronald Koeman’s favoured left-back and could have himself a breakout tournament at the 2021 Euro’s.

Or he could look to move on this summer as a raw full-back who isn’t the finished article, especially defensively. This could possibly halt his further development. So in my opinion he should favour the former if he wants to carry on developing on the road to becoming a top class full-back.