Player Analysis: Max Kilman — Wolves’ Gentle Giant
An Analysis on the first England futsal international to play in the Premier League
From Hard Courts to Grassy Fields
Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Fulham, 4th of May 2019. Many would associate this game as the epiphany of a certain Harvey Elliott’s talent — as he becomes the youngest player (16 years and 30 days) to grace foot in the Premier League. Nonetheless, that was not the only moment worthy to be printed in the record books. As injury time commences, Max Kilman made his bow as the first England futsal international to play in the holy grail.
Ironically, Fulham indirectly influenced Kilman’s decision to take up futsal in the first place, when they released him as a youth. Futsal inevitably honed his skills and decision-making, allowing him to play under pressure with ease. The improved technical abilities were greatly supplemented with his 6’4 ft stature, making him an attractive prospect to keep an eye on.
Despite that, many of the best futsal players struggle in football, simply due to the physical demands of the beautiful game. Unsurprisingly, many couldn’t cope with the sheer volume of sprints and aerial duels in a 90-minute game, across a much larger field. Making sure Kilman get through the physical hurdles was the next step in his progress, and he’s done so with the help of non-League football with Maidenhead and Marlow. Eventually, fine performances caught the attention of Wolves, who signed him in 2018. Fast forward a couple of years later, the defender shares the same pitch with the familiar stripes of black and white, in which his gold and black claimed victory.
This analysis will cover the Englishman’s performances with his club this season. All figures below are based on performance per 90 minutes played, according to StatsBomb via FBref.
Inverted Centre Back
Originally as an understudy to Conor Coady, Willy Boly’s injury meant that Kilman was granted a chance to impress new boss, Bruno Lage early in the season. ‘Impress’ was an understatement, for Kilman has now accumulated the most minutes (amongst outfield players) for Wolves this season. He has become a reliable sergeant in Lage’s army of wolves, marshalling the defence alongside Coady and Saiss as the right-sided center back. The caveat in that, however, is that Kilman is predominantly left-footed, which meant that he has been playing as an inverted center back for Lage.
Though unusual, Nuno employed similar tactics before, with the left-footed Romain Saiss occupying the right-side of defence. Now, the Moroccan is restored to the left with Kilman playing on the opposite side. Nevertheless, it should be an acknowledgement of Kilman’s adaptability and positional awareness, for excelling in a role that has helped Wolves culminate 7 clean sheets in the league so far.
In possession, Kilman receives the majority of his passes on the right half-space of his defensive third. He would carry it forward a little before distributing it to either Coady or Neves in the central areas. Being left-footed, the passing angles do not favor Kilman, as his passing options are limited to the ones in central zones. This could be exploited with pressing traps and Wolves could run the risk of surrendering the ball in dangerous areas.
Take the City game as an example. As Kilman receives the ball on the right, the option to progress the ball down the channel, is not possible as a left footer, with Foden closing the passing lane. He is forced to come inside to his left, where his passing options are targeted by City players already. He plays a risky pass to Neves, who was eventually tackled, and City was successful in forcing a high turnover.
In certain situations, however, being left footed in that position could open up opportunities for a direct attack, which is useful considering Wolves’ arsenal of rapid forwards. In the same game against City, Kilman comes inside to produce a near sublime ball forward to Moutinho. The execution was not perfect but had Traore been the one chasing the diagonal, the result may be completely different.
Aggression to the Max
As the flanking center backs in a back three, Kilman is offered the license to press further forward and more aggressively, with the insurance of Conor Coady sweeping behind him. This has allowed himself to assert dominance on opposition forwards regularly. Essentially, he is tasked to stop the opposition from transition at the earliest opportunity.
This is also reflected in his stats. Amongst central defenders with more than 720 minutes played, Kilman has accumulated 1.3 Aggressive Defensive Actions (Tackles, Interceptions and Successful Pressures) per 100 Opposition Touches, and 2.11 Passive Defensive Actions (Blocks, Clearances and Recoveries) per 100 Opposition Touches.
This signifies a far more aggressive defender when putting things into perspectives. His other defensive partner in Saiss is far more passive in his approach, accumulating 1.08 Passive Defensive Actions per 100 Opposition Touches. Coady, acting as the covering defender, sweeping for loose balls, and acting as one of the sides’ main distributors is not as active defensively as the other two — he only intervenes when necessary.
Impenetrable yet Porous on Occasions
As we dig deeper into his aggression, it is worth taking a look in his true tackles’ statistics. True Tackles is a metric that considers the lost challenges and fouls when making a tackle. The Englishman has completed 0.56 True Tackles per 100 Opposition Touches, which is amongst the highest in the league for a defender. His 0.36 Tackles per 100 Opposition Touches tells us that he wins the majority of the challenges he makes, making him an effective ball winner for Wolves’. In fact, amongst the best ball winning center backs in the league.
Judging by his true tackles map, the majority of his tackles occur on the right side, and a considerable number of challenges in the opponent’s half. This does show that he is actively stopping opponents from transitioning quickly. For a defender that regularly steps out and exposes himself in challenges, losing only 8 challenges so far is a testament to his defensive capabilities.
When confronting forwards, Kilman can be very difficult to beat. Complemented by his long limbs and massive stature, the defender is extremely agile for a person of his size. He is able to manipulate his body well to show attackers where he wants them to go, which either forces them backwards or end up having their passes blocked.
As we go back to the left-footed debate, this is one of the benefits it would bring. Again, referencing the City game. Jesus comes 1v1 against Kilman, but Kilman stood firm, jockeying firmly whilst showing the Brazilian outside, where he is forced to use his weaker left foot to deliver a cross. Jesus decides to cut inside which also favors the left footed Kilman, who easily shifts across and blocks the attempt. This would explain the cluster of tackles won on the right side of the penalty area, with attackers finding it difficult to confront Kilman.
This isn’t to say Kilman is not culpable of the odd mistake. In the game against Brentford, a series of mistakes by the defender has led to Wolves’ demise. As the pass is launched towards Toney, Kilman misread the flight and missed the ball as he came charging in. As he went to slide in with his left, the ball got caught underneath the defender’s legs as he couldn’t sweep it away as he was on the wrong side. The ball escaped his grasp and Toney went on to assist the goal.
Defensive Unit
For much of his aggression of the ball, Kilman is also a great reader of the game. He anticipates danger and regularly breaks up the play either by blocking or intercepting it. Much of that is a credit to his ability to scan the play and his positional awareness. Be it the deep runs from midfields or blindsided runs off the shoulders, Kilman recognizes the players around him and would track back regularly to cut off through balls.
Kilman’s big frame has come in handy in many occasions, which has evidently contributed in the high volume of clearances and blocks in the penalty area as shown above. The 6’4 ft is not afraid to put himself about to prevent a goal and his efforts in doing so has been vital this season.
This is illustrated well here. Grealish is making a blindsided run beyond Semedo on the right, with de Bruyne eyeing a through ball towards him. Kilman, occupied by his marker was aware of the scenario and stuck out an important interception to deny the chance. Once again, highlighting his awareness and reading of the game.
Passing Prowess
As discussed, Kilman’s role in possession is restricted due to playing on the opposite side of the pitch. Despite that, he frequently looks to progress play often with progressive passes towards more capable players in central areas, more notably in Coady, Neves or Moutinho.
Kilman has accumulated 3.38 Normalized Progressive Passing but only 2.52 of them have reached the final third per90. This is understandable due to the limited passing options, with Kilman forced to look for players centrally more often, where it is often crowded. Distributing passes out wide, where it isn’t as congested may be a causation to a high volume of passes into the final third.
This is proven with the destination of his progressive passes as shown in the heatmap above. The majority of his progressive passes are received in the right half-spaces and central zones of the pitch, which are key areas to influence games and conjure up opportunities.
Having completed passes through advance areas of the pitch make him a great distributor of the ball for a side lacking creativity at times. In fact, Max Kilman is amongst the top xT (Expected Threat) distributors from passes. He ranks 5th for the highest xT accumulated from passing, collecting 1.1267 thus far. This proves that Kilman constantly looks to break the lines, delivering passes to positive areas. Finding players in dangerous positions can only be an advantage for this Wolves side, who look rather toothless upfront.
Good Feet for a Big Man
His futsal upbringings are referenced a lot in his journey, for it has made Kilman a rather flexible and agile technician, despite his large frame. Almost as if he has twinkle toes, Kilman glides past players with ease and possesses great technique to manipulate the ball in tight areas, even making him hard to tackle. You’d normally associate this gravity defying feat with smaller players, but Kilman’s ability to maneuverer his way out of tight situations with the ball glued to his feet, is an underrated feature that should be praised more often.
With quality like his, it would be a waste to have him stay back at all times. This season, Kilman has proven to be amongst the best ball carrying center backs in the league. The Englishman has 7.23 Progressive Carries per 100 Touches and 1.54 Carries into the Final Third. His Progressive Carries has seen him carry the ball out of danger far more frequently per 100 touches, than the likes of Trevor Chalobah (6.13) and Harry Maguire (5.97), who are both brilliant ball progressors for their respective clubs. This goes to highlight Kilman’s comfort and trait in bringing the ball out of defence, one that has been realized by Wolves as he is amongst the top ball progressors within the team.
His technical proficiencies have also seen him complete dribbles within his own half, as he looks to surge upfield to dominate territories for Wolves, whilst joining in the attacks. He has attempted 0.5 dribbles per90 this season, winning a solid 77.8% of them. His sharp turns and change of directions often throw opponents off as he strides up the pitch.
As we look further into Kilman’s carries, he’d normally start his surge just in his own defensive third and carries it with purpose to the right half-space, before releasing a pass to his forwards. Having a center back that performs this task frequently, draws opponents out of position and frees up spaces for the likes of Traore and Jimenez to exploit.
Rejection to Validation
Making his Premier League debut at 22, Kilman was a relatively late bloomer in the scene. Nonetheless, his unorthodox rise to the top is an inspiration to many. Finding solace in the form of futsal, after rejection from Fulham. Kilman now finds himself the validation he deserves, in the city of Wolverhampton.
The murmurs of an England call-up are getting louder each passing week, with quality performances against the league’s best. But that has never phased the defender, for he seems to take everything by his (long) stride, one step at a time. Besides, it wouldn’t be his first call up to an international setup either.
Twitter: @chunhang7
P.S. Happy New Year :D Thanks for making my 2021 memorable. Cheers to a better 2022.
