At 28 years of age, Oliver McBurnie has already plied his trade in England’s fifth tier, fourth tier, third tier, second tier, top-flight, as well as the Professional Development League. Having joined Sheffield United for €19 million in 2019, McBurnie has experienced both relegation and promotion with the Blades and scored a total of 29 goals and 7 assists in 159 appearances. Today, though, he has a new adventure ahead of him with Las Palmas.

Name: Oliver McBurnie

Position: Center Forward

Country: Scotland

Age: 28

Height: 188cm

Preferred Foot: Right

Last Club: Sheffield United

McBurnie began his career in Bradford City where he stayed one year and a half in the first team before going on a 6-month loan to Chester. After that, he was signed by Swansea City for €350,000 and was loaned out to Newport County after 6 months at the club. Later, he was loaned out to Bristol Rovers, and a year and a half later he was loaned out to Barnsley. One more season at Swansea is all he needed to get the move to Sheffield United for €19 million.

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Goals + Assists

Strikers are often counted upon to get high numbers in goals, not so much in assists. Nonetheless, it is also an important aspect to take into account and can tell us the profile of the striker.

In this image, we can see that McBurnie has the most expected goals among Las Palmas’ players which shows his ability to get into goal-scoring positions. This is clearly one of his strengths as he has close to 0.45 xG which is almost a goal every 2 matches.

Here we can observe that McBurnie has the second most expected assists showing that his chance-creating capacity is not a deficiency in his game. This tells us that he is a player capable of scoring and assisting and shows that he can be decisive for his team which can be a major asset for Las Palmas.

Dribbling

How many dribbles a center forward attempts and completes can tell us his profile as it means that he is more agile and looks to carry out these actions.

In this image, McBurnie has the least dribbles attempted which shows that this is not one of his strengths and tends to avoid it, meaning that agility is not one of his characteristics. However, this is not something essential for his position, though, it is something that adds value to his profile.

Passing

How many passes a center forward attempts tells us if he drops to support and help in the build-up. In addition, this can tell us if he is a target man or if he gets involved in the play.

In this image, we can see that McBurnie is a player that is not very involved in the possession of his team and prefers to stay up front and wait for the ball to come to him. This is not necessarily a liability in his game though it would help if he would be more involved as Las Palmas like to have possession.

Aerial Duels

For center forwards, it is important to be able to win aerial duels as when needed, their team will probably play in long and they are counted upon to win those duels to be able to attack at the defense.

From this image, we can deduce that McBurnie’s ability to win aerial duels is exceptional with almost 14 aerial duels per 90 and close to a 45% success rate. This is very impressive and can be very useful as Las Palmas will surely be pressed so having a player that can win aerial duels and attack from there can be very useful.

This chart compares Oliver McBurnie with the rest of the Premier League players 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 this chart, we can observe that his xG is in fact not a standout characteristic in his game. The reason why his xG before was great among Las Palmas’ other strikers is because their xG is very low. In addition, his chance-creating ability is not one of the most important parts of his game.

Furthermore, we can see that he is a player that does like to have the ball being in the 77th percentile for passes attempted and in the 81st percentile for touches. This can be very useful for Las Palmas as they are a possession-based side so the players in the squad must be comfortable having the ball in their feet. Before, he did not stand out in this statistic because Las Palmas’ players are crucial in possession and are in very high percentiles for passes and touches.

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Finally, we can see that McBurnie’s defensive characteristics are the most important being in high percentiles for all of the aspects. This shows that he is a player committed to defending and can be an asset when pressing, this can be very useful as Las Palmas like to press the opposition.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Oliver McBurnie is an excellent signing for Las Palmas as he is rather comfortable on the ball which is important for Luis Carrión, the Las Palmas manager, who likes to have possession. In addition, he is very determined in the press and in defence which can be a major asset as Las Palmas likes to press the opposition.

Moreover, he has the ability to win aerial duels which gives them more options in attack as they can play over the press rather than through it. Finally, he has more xG than all of Las Palmas’ forwards meaning that can be their main goal-threat up front. Nonetheless, he has no experience in Spain though having played in the Premier League he shouldn’t have many issues adapting to the quality, to the style of play he may need some time.

By: Juan Fernandez Valencia / @ScoutLaLiga

Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Quality Sport Images / Getty Images