The Best U23 Wingers in the Segunda
With the winter transfer window open and the summer transfer window incoming, clubs are beginning to scout the best young players who are showing signs of potential. This is a data analysis to find the best U23 wingers in La Liga 2 that will be fought over in the summer.
The data metrics we will be looking at are:
- Key Plays/Assists
- Goals
- Crossing
- Dribbling
Furthermore, all the wingers in the charts have more than 400 minutes under their belt this season.
Using Data to Find the Best U23 Defensive Midfielders in LaLiga
We will begin by forming scatter plots of the data metrics mentioned beforehand, to find the level of the wingers aged 23 and under, compared to the rest of the wingers in the league. In this manner, we can identify how they are performing and decide which wingers clubs should be keeping an eye on. Later, we will find the best wingers depending on how they perform in the scatter plots and we will look at each one individually.
Key Plays
The amount of key plays and xA a winger has tells us about his ability to generate opportunities for his teammates.
Goals
How many goals a player has shown how decisive he is and this for wingers is key as they are offensive players counted upon to have high figures in this aspect.
Yago Santiago does not appear in this graph because he has the same values as Adu Ares.
Crossing
Crosses are a fundamental part of how a winger plays and can also tell us the profile of the winger. If he attempts many crosses that means he likes to stay on the wing, and vice versa, if he doesn’t attempt many crosses that means he likes to play more central and in between the lines.
Dribbling
Dribbling is usually one of the standout traits of wingers as the ability to dribble past opponents in 1vs1 situations can be very helpful for the team, and they are usually in situations to make this happen.
Results
In our final results, we can observe that the best wingers U23 in La Liga 2 are Carlos Álvarez of Levante, David Mella and Yeremay Hernández of Deportivo de la Coruña, Luismi Cruz of Tenerife, and Haissem Hassan of Real Oviedo.
Carlos Álvarez
Position: Right Winger/Left Winger/Attacking Midfielder
Country: Spain
Age: 21
Height: 168cm
Preferred Foot: Left
Current Club: Levante
Context: Carlos Álvarez came up through the ranks of Sevilla and in the summer of 2023 left to join Levante where he has been playing since. The charts show us that Carlos Álvarez’s greatest capabilities are in his ability to score and create opportunities for his teammates having high xG and xA values while also ranking highly in key plays, though his most standout is his ability to create goal-scoring chances.
The fact that he also fails to produce high numbers in dribbles and crosses tells us that he is a player who likes to come inside and produce opportunities receiving the ball in between the lines to then attack the defensive line. The only question mark is with the sale of Andrés García, his teammate in the right-back position who usually took the flank to provide crosses, will he be able to perform at the same level?
David Mella
Position: Right Winger/Left Winger
Country: Spain
Age: 19
Height: 169cm
Preferred Foot: Left
Current Club: Deportivo de la Coruña
Context: Mella has been his whole career at Deportivo and has been playing in the first team since last January at just 18 years of age. In addition, last summer he participated in the Spanish U19 squad that won the U19 Euro Championship alongside the likes of Assane Diao now at Como, and Yarek Gasiorowski of Valencia.
David Mella is presented as a direct profile of a winger with high xG values, nonetheless, apart from this he does not lack in his chance-creating plays. Furthermore, he is a very active player in his dribbling as although his success rate is not as high, the number of these that he attempts is quite high, and with age, his success rate will probably increase. Moreover, his crossing precision is not low and shows that he is also able to cross the ball into dangerous positions.
Overall, Mella is a winger that likes to get into goal-scoring positions and appear in the box. If he can continue with these numbers and improve his dribbling success rate as well as perhaps his xA and key plays, I am sure that he will be a very interesting forward in the future.
Luismi Cruz
Position: Right Winger/Left Winger/Attacking Midfielder
Country: Spain
Age: 23
Height: 166cm
Preferred Foot: Left
Current Club: Tenerife
Context: Luismi began his career at Sevilla, however, with the lack of first-team minutes he went on loan to Barcelona B, and then to Tenerife who would then sign him permanently for just €300k this summer. The charts show that Luismi is an excellent player when it comes to generating opportunities with the third highest xA per 90 in the league. In addition, he also ranks highly in key plays showing that he is a decisive player for his team. Furthermore, his xG is just above average showing that he does not only resort to his chance-creating but can also score goals.
We can also see that his dribbling and crossing attributes are quite poor, meaning that he prefers to play in between the lines rather than on the wing, similar to Carlos Álvarez in Levante. Overall, despite Tenerife currently in a relegation battle, Luismi is showing that he is capable of being one of the best chance-creators of the league. If Tenerife does end up relegated, I am sure that one of the clubs aspiring for promotion will have Luismi in their squad next season.
Using Data to Find the Best U23 Attacking Midfielders in LaLiga
Haissem Hassan
Position: Right Winger/Left Winger
Country: France
Age: 23
Height: 175cm
Preferred Foot: Right
Current Club: Real Oviedo
Context: Hassan began his career at Paris FC before moving on to LB Châteauroux. After one season in the first team, Villareal signed him for €2 million, where he played in their B team for the first year, the following season he was loaned out to Mirandés which was followed by another year in their B team. In the summer of 2023, Sporting signed him on loan and after a successful season, this summer Oviedo decided to spend €1.5 million for his services.
Hassan can be seen as a traditional winger who likes to dribble and cross the ball frequently doing this with a very high success rate in both dribble completion rate and cross precision.
In addition, he is a magnificent player when it comes to creating goal-scoring opportunities, ranking very highly for xA and producing more than 1 key play per 90 showing that he is decisive for his club and a testament to their fight for promotion this season. However, when it comes to expected goals he ranks quite poorly, probably due to the fact that he remains on the wing for the majority of the match. Hassan is nevertheless having a remarkable season and it would not surprise me if he would be playing in La Liga next season as his numbers in the second division are excellent.
All in all, the Spanish second tier is an incredible breeding ground of talent. It’s helped to produce talented coaches like Nikola Popović, whilst it’s also helped to churn out promising footballers like Miguel de la Fuente and Javi Puado. Don’t let the name fool you; there’s nothing second-rate about the young wingers who are coming out of the Segunda.
By: Juan Fernandez Valencia / @ScoutLaLiga1
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Marcelo Endelli / Getty Images