WHAT DO THE NUMBERS SAY?: NICOLAS JACKSON
Nicolas Jackson is largely an unknown entity right now. The 21-year-old, Gambian born, Senegalese striker looks primed for a move to premier league side Chelsea. Despite Chelsea’s spending spree last season, there are still some serious gaping holes in the squad including in the center forward position. And with Kai Havertz seemingly on the move to London rivals Arsenal (more on that here: Kai Havertz to Arsenal). It makes sense that Chelsea find a striker for the team.
So, what do the numbers say about Nico Jackson?
Since context is very important when dealing with numbers we first have to have an understanding of how Pochettino will like to play and from that, get an idea of how his strikers should operate. I will keep this simple; high press without the ball, narrow wingers, full backs high and wide. From this we can decipher that Poch will favor a striker who is competent in the defensive phase–to set the tempo for the team press. In addition to that, he should be able to interact with his narrow wingers in possession and also has great movement to get at the end of crosses from the fullbacks.
Defensively, he is serviceable and since he is 21 years old, he can definitely be coached up and improve in that regard. He is above average(71st percentile) in tackles won for forwards in LaLiga last season (0.62 tackles/90). Majority of those tackles were in midfield which is probably more a reflection of Villareal’s defensive approach. A team that sits back in the defensive phase will have their strikers around the halfway line or lower meaning that their defensive contributions will be in midfield.
Nicolas Jackson is great at dropping deep and carrying the ball into dangerous areas(2.76 ProgCarries/90 – 1.46 CarriesIntoBox/90). He also is very good at receiving in wide areas and taking opposing players on, averaging a ridiculous 62.2% success rate on takeons per 90 as well as being the absolute best in the league at creating goal chances off take ons (0.36 SCA_TO/90). Nico Jackson is no Harry Kane though. He will not give you those ridiculous cross-field passes to switch the point of attack or the precise through balls to find a player behind the opposition defensive line but in the final third, he has the potential to be a wildcard and generate multiple shots for teammates and himself.
The job of the striker is to score and Nico Jackson scores well in that department. Get It?
Shot selection is everything for me. High xG shots, close to goal. Nico Jackson checks those boxes (0.20 npxG/shot – 13.40 Average shot distance/90). His shot volume is a little worrying though(2.34shots/90) as he ranks in the 36th percentile for shots taken in LaLiga last season, a number that can go up when playing for a more talented team that keeps the ball more and creates more chances. Nico Jackson can be a goal machine in the future. His 12 goals in 1598 minutes (17.7 90s) in La Liga this season is very impressive as well as the 4 assists to go with it.
There are some weaknesses obviously. The 21 year old has a slight frame making me worry about his ability to cope with physicality. He also had 5.3 Miscontrols + Dispossessions per 90 which tells me he struggles somewhat with his first touch and further confirms that he can easily be shrugged off the ball. Both aspects will have to improve for Nico to fully reach his potential and be a long term starter for a top tier team but he is clearly super talented and in the right footballing situation i think, he could be the best player on a contending team.