Once seen as one of the most talented young players in the world, Adnan Januzaj has had a very different career from what was expected of him. In the last two seasons he has played less than 1500’ and is now set to join Las Palmas, can he fulfill his potential at his new club? In this article, we will be investigating how Januzaj can help Las Palmas and how Las Palmas can be the ideal club for him to perform.

Name: Adnan Januzaj

Position: Right Winger/Left Winger

Age: 29

Country: Belgium

Height: 186cm

Preferred Foot: Left

Last Club: Sevilla

Januzaj began his career in Anderlecht’s academy before Manchester United came and signed him for their academy for €375k. After just two seasons in the first squad, Januzaj went on consecutive loan spells to Borussia Dortmund and Sunderland, and from there he was signed by Real Sociedad for €8.5 million. There he stayed for 5 seasons before joining Sevilla on a free transfer when his contract ended.

At Sevilla, he spent just 6 months before being loaned out to Istanbul Basaksehir and then stayed one more year in Seville where he has not had much game time. Before we start with the data analysis it is important to mention that the data from Januzaj is from two seasons ago in his last one with Real Sociedad as he has not been involved these past two seasons in Seville nor in Istanbul.

Here we can see that Januzaj has the most expected goals per 90 which shows his ability to get into goal-scoring positions. Nonetheless, his ability to score goals is not as good with just more than 0.05 goals per 90 compared to more than 0.24 xG per 90.

In this image, we can observe that Januzaj has far more expected assists than Las Palmas’ players. Overall, Januzaj adds a new level to Las Palmas’ offensive output as his expected goals and assists exceed that of Las Palmas’ players.

Here we can see that Januzaj is far superior to Las Palmas’ players when it comes to crossing with a high success rate and more than 3 crosses per 90. This is something that is highly valued by Luis Carrión as he likes his wingers wide with the ability to cross the ball into the box.

In this image, we can see Januzaj’s outstanding dribbling ability with more than 8 dribbles per 90 and more than a 50% success rate. As Las Palmas’ manager likes traditional wingers that can dribble and cross, Januzaj is the perfect fit for the squad.

Here we can see that Januzaj likes to get involved in the play with a similar amount of passes to Marvin Park suggesting also that he likes to come inside and take advantage of the space between the midfield and the defense. This is something important for possession-based sides as it gives them more passing lanes and the ability for the full-back to get higher up the field with Januzaj coming inside to generate chances from there.

This chart compares Adnan Januzaj with the rest of the La Liga players in the 2021/2022 seasons in his position using percentiles in different aspects of the game. The percentiles work in the way that whatever the number, he is better than that percentage of players. If it is 70, he is better than 70%.

In the chart, we can observe that Januzaj is in a very high percentile for actions leading to shots which is something highly valued by any manager and shows us his chance-creating ability. In addition, he is in the 62nd percentile for xAG which is expected goals and assists combined which is not low. Nonetheless, his output in goals and assists is very low and his percentile reflects this.

In addition, we can see that in the possession-based aspects, he is in a high percentile for successful dribbles, progressive ball-carrying, and progressive passes. This tells us that he has the ability to get the ball forward and into more advanced areas which is key for possession-based sides.

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When looking at the defensive part of his game, we can see that he does rank quite low in some of the KPIs, nonetheless, we can see that his 1vs1 defending is quite low with him being in the 70th percentile. Overall, defending is an aspect that he may have to improve in as in Las Palmas he will be tasked with defending and helping the full-back.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Adnan Januzaj can be the Canarian club’s signing of the season if he can recover his level at Real Sociedad as he has not had much game time in the past two seasons. However, if he can recover his ability to create chances with his dribbling and crossing, he can be a major asset to Las Palmas and Luis Carrión.

In addition, he has many years of experience in Spain’s top-flight and in European competitions which adds to his possible importance to an inexperienced Las Palmas side. Nonetheless, if he does not recover his performances, he can be a major burden for Las Palmas though he has more quality than any of the players currently in the squad.

By: Juan Fernandez Valencia / @ScoutLaLiga

Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Fran Santiago / Getty Images