Player Analysis: Paxton Pomykal

Paxton Pomykal. Heralded as the “American Frenkie de Jong”, Pomykal is a special talent for FC Dallas and the United States. As almost every major team in Europe makes the shift to attacking, possession-based football, Pomykal is the poster boy for the continuation of the trend on American soil.

One of Pomykal’s best talents is his excellent ability to break the opponents lines. He accomplishes this by dribbling close to an opposition player. This dribbling creates a 1v1 and, additionally, attracts some of the other players. This is due to the principle that more time on the ball attracts opposition players.

Here we see that Pomykal (shown in yellow)  is situated himself in a 2v1. This is clearly a numerical superiority against Pomykal. However he uses this to make a threading pass to one of this teammates. With this pass (shown in pink), he has eliminated two forwards (shown in red). Moreover, the teammate with the ball can now advance into space (shown in purple).