Jake

Is Hugo Ekitiké an Alexander Isak regen? Everyone, including us, keeps saying the Frenchman is a mini version of the Swede - let’s use data to figure out the truth

Is Hugo Ekitiké an Alexander Isak regen? I profiled three iterations of both players alongside a set of elite centre-forwards to find out how similar they are, for @scoutedftbl.com. Dive in.

That is far too kind for me to deal with, Billy.

The best decision of my adult life has been to commit full time. Not just on a work level, but it has transformed my personal life. Thank you so much to everyone that has made this past year possible. But to keep it going, we need even more support.

That’s a relief. At the same time, there is an art to saying and showing all of that in as succinct way as possible which I’m still getting to grips with.

I can’t help myself.

Three weeks of curating this newsletter now :-) hope people find it fun and useful. Would love more feedback!

Three explosive striker prospects and a new Scottish starlet The Shortlist, March 14th 2025

Explosive strikers scoring goals across Europe, a Scottish starlet that you need to know about, even more changes of international allegiance, and the delightful talents of Désiré Doué.

All that (and more) in The Shortlist, our bitzesize youth football review that drops every Friday.

I try v hard to shout out independent publications where possible, because they need all the help they can get.

@backheeled.com, @scoutedftbl.com, Not The Top 20, Ranks FC & Gegenpressing Newsletter all bring life to my inbox and pod feeds. Thanks guys.

It’s all just mental. I’m happy to sit back and resist it.

The #discourse around him is low-key the most outrageous

Too kind. 🔥

Mika Biereth Madness The mind-blowing stats behind the Monaco man's match-ball collection

Just another weekly dose of brilliance from @jakeentwistle.bsky.social.

If you want it, go for it. You either don’t get it (same outcome as not applying) or the outcome is a massive positive. Of course, if it’s not an area you want to go back into then you can be happy knowing it’s not what you want.

Mika Biereth Madness The mind-blowing stats behind the Monaco man's match-ball collection

Mika Biereth has more Ligue 1 hat-tricks (3 in 7 games) than Rasmus Højlund has Premier League goals (2 in 22 appearances) this season.

Plenty more where that came from in Monday Night SCOUTED.

Picked him out in the Durán article as a potential homegrown record sale in the future. Good to see he’s kicking on again.

Cheers, Andrew. That’s great to hear.

I put Mika through the Osimhen Test, explored a new way to evaluate strikers inspired by the duality of Denmark’s February 2003ers and found a mountain of stats to show just how mad his start at Monaco has been. Really enjoyed this one.

I was swapping between the Expected Stats and SCAs for the final part but tried to focus in on the ‘value’ of it. The fact Doku showed up as so low fits people’s perception. Then there’s the quantity vs quality debate over it.

The most fascinating U23 players in the Big Five Leagues Redux.

I tried to create way too many ‘custom’ metrics and apply them to way too many players before taking way too long to make decisions.

Technically, this was still published on a Monday... so I made it, just.

I hope it’s ✨ fascinating ✨

He looks very good in the Victor Osimhen Test. An elite goal-hanging poacher.

Im still addicted to Twitter so spam on there. But I could not agree more:

This includes a link to an interactive Scatter Plot and a searchable table for all of the key poacher metrics from 2020/21 to 2023/24. Have fun.

MNS tonight includes the Osimhen Test and a closer look at some titanic teenage performances since the last post. It will arrive in your inbox after the Chelsea game. Subscribe via @scoutedftbl.bsky.social
to get it first.

Using @fbref.com, I make that the second time two teenagers have scored a goal in the same league game against a team managed by Pep Guardiola.

The other match? Tom Davies and Ademola Lookman in that 4-0 Everton win.

MLS is the big-game left-back. Calafiori is the game-breaking left-back. I love that balance and variety.

Narrator: the Egyptian did not continue on the left and we did not have to wait until Rodri is back.

Orri Óskarsson peeling off the centre-back to score his first goal for Real Sociedad against PAOK.

Orri Óskarsson hanging off the centre-back to score his first goal for Real Sociedad against PAOK.

Two goals for Orri Steinn Óskarsson in Real Sociedad's 2-0 win against PAOK in the UEFA Europa League last night. Both were headers, peeling and hanging off the back to disengage from his marker – and he should've scored a third. It could be the little jolt his first season in Donostia needs.

Sad: missed that Plzen piece. Glad: Prince Adu will soon become king.

Midfield trios is absolute prime time for this. Melted hours picking three players and putting them into a radar. The skill / value comes from what you include in that radar and how you are applying it (recruitment / opposition analysis). Great stuff.