News reports suggest Everton are on the verge of acquriring Juventus starlet Moise Kean this week. What can the data tell us about him?
Bare basics tell us he still won’t be 20 years old until next February. He’s played less than 1700 minutes in Serie A during his short career between parent club Juventus and Verona where he went on loan in 2017/18. That’s less than 19 full games to you and me. Not much to go on but he’s packed a fair whack in already.
Everton fans want a goal scorer. Well he’s that. Roughly 9 xG with 10 goals to actually show for it all told. He shoots in decent volume in decent positions. Here’s his shot map for last season at Juventus:
A quick look at his radar shows you that beyond that shooting profile he carries the ball pretty well to beat opponents but beyond that we’re struggling. Moise isn’t one for setting up colleagues, can’t head it, and like Cristiano Ronaldo, left all that boring final third defensive work up to Mario Mandzukic:
Quite how that sits into Everton’s current forward line is a difficult one. Richarlison, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Dominic Calvert-Lewin all put shifts in when they pull on the blue shirt. The Goodison Park crowd won’t stand for anything else these days and manager Marco Silva’s set-up requires it too.
You also have to consider that Everton’s favourite way of creating chances under Silva is the humble cross – mostly launched from the boots of Lucas Digne and Sigurdsson. Eyes back up to Kean’s shot map. Yep, not one header in there.
It’s also interesting to note that Kean only started getting real game time in March, netted 6 times from then on, but Juventus’s team xG did this:
But you want positives, don’t you? I reckon the eyes will give you more of those. Go and have a look at some highlight reels. Kean looks great receiving the ball on the deck with his back to goal. He gets on the half turn very quickly if defenders get too tight. He has two good feet, good close control and good acceleration to get away. His running style with the ball puts me in mind of a Samuel Eto’o/George Weah hybrid. I’ll watch that all day long.
Can the kid score goals? No doubt.
Can the kid play? No doubt.
Is he the right fit for Everton right now? Doubt.
Would I mind if Everton bought him anyway? Doubt.