Scoring goals remains the most critical factor in whether your team is successful on the pitch. This is why strikers retain a premium in terms of the prices for which they tend to be transferred from team to team. In recruitment, however, it is essential that we are able to take a step back from that obvious truth and consider the importance of players who will contribute to what the strikers do in front of goal.

Therefore, a team’s creative players are just as important for its success on the pitch as strikers — they are the ones who can unlock a stubborn defensive block and create the opportunities that strikers need to put the ball in the net. In the modern game, after all, few, if any, strikers are capable of creating and taking their own chances with any regularity.

Finding players who have creative skills with the ability to receive either wide or in the central spaces and in pockets of space has become increasingly important in terms of recruitment and squad building. When a team is possession dominant, for example, it is incredibly important that any player who is targeted to sign as an ‘8’, ‘10’ or even as a wide attacker has the ability to find space between lines and create opportunities when they receive the ball.

Of course, we can use data to identify creative players. This allows us to quickly cut through the noise and identify players in a large dataset who may be of interest when we are looking for those who can help our team take creative chances.

In this article, we have used data to identify three young (23 years old and under) players who are having strong creative seasons and who we think are in line for a move in the summer transfer window.

These players have been identified using bespoke data, which, unfortunately, we cannot share with the public. However, as we discuss each player, we will go more in-depth into the key aspects of their game that are important when looking to find creative footballers.

Malik Tillman, 21 years old, Midfielder, PSV (on loan from Bayern Munich) and USA

The first player that we have selected is the 21-year-old USA international midfielder Malik Tillman. He is currently on loan in the Netherlands with PSV Eindhoven, having developed through the youth academy at Bayern Munich and having been born in Germany. Tillman has had one loan spell previous to this at Rangers in the Scottish top-flight, but this season, he moved to a more competitive league to keep building experience. Despite playing for Germany at youth level and being capped by Germany up to U21 level, he chose to switch his allegiance to the USA for senior level, being capped eight times.

So far this season, Tillman has played 20 matches for PSV in the Eredivisie and scored six goals with six assists. As ever, we need to drill down into the underlying data in order to start identifying key factors that would make him of interest to a club come the summer.

First of all, we would say that he is not at the quality, right now at least, to make him of interest to Bayern as a first-team player for next season, but there will be several teams in the top-five leagues who are closely monitoring his progress.

For the most part, this season, we have seen Tillman used as an ‘8’ or an ‘8/10’ for PSV, although he has also spent some time in the wide areas.

His pizza chart, based on his performances so far this season, is extremely impressive across all parts of the game.

As you can see, he is in the 98th percentile for goal contributions, which combines goals and assists, and the 94th percentile for expected goal contributions, which combines expected goals and expected assists. Expected assists is one of the most relevant data points when we are considering a player’s creative threat, but this can also be combined with dangerous passes, from the passing section where Tillman is in the 78th percentile, which shows passes to the final third and the penalty area. Now, we have a player in Tillman who moves the ball into dangerous areas and creates a threat when doing so.

Looking at Tillman’s penetrating carries from central areas can also be instructive. As you can see from the larger pitch on the right-hand side, he tends to carry the ball in all different areas and showcases the ability to receive and break the line of opposition pressure either with a pass or a dribble. In the final third, he is also dangerous with his ability to dribble around the penalty area and penetrate into the opposition areas when dribbling in central spaces.

Tillman is a midfielder who can create either through his vision and passing or through his ability to carry the ball and run at opposition defences.

We do not think that he will be at Bayern next season, although teams in the Bundesliga and Premier League are likely to be closely monitoring his progress.

Bilal El Khannouss, 19 years old, Midfielder, Genk and Morocco

Our next player is the 19-year-old Moroccan international attacking midfielder Bilal El Khannouss of Genk. He moved initially, at a young age, within Belgium from Anderlecht to Genk. Since then, he has come through the prodigious youth system at Genk and is now a regular first-team player at the club. He is similar to Tillman in that he played for the Belgian national team throughout his youth international career before then switching and choosing to represent Morocco at full international level. He currently has 11 full international caps for Morocco.

As you can see from his pizza chart above, he is having a less well-rounded season so far than we saw from Tillman in the previous selection. His contributions for direct goal contributions and expected goal contributions are lower than we saw from Tillman, as he is in the 53rd percentile and the 51st percentile, respectively.

However, he still has an interesting creative profile, given the volume of passes that he plays and his tendency to access dangerous positions with these passes. Indeed, he is in the 94th percentile for passes per 90 and the 91st percentile for received passes per 90.

Often, when we are discussing creative players of this type, we see lower passing volume, but El Khannouss gets on the ball on a regular basis. He is also in the 78th percentile for dangerous passes per 90.

Once again, we can examine the player more in-depth using a penetrating carries map, and if anything, El Khannouss is more dangerous in this regard than Tillman was. The Moroccan international plays primarily this season for Genk as a ‘10’, although he can also play as an ‘8’ or a ‘7’. At the time of writing, he has three goals and six assists this season.

In possession, he is extremely dangerous in the final third and around the opposition penalty area. In these situations, he can carry the ball into the opposition area, beat a man, and then find the angle to thread a pass through and into the area.

It is incredibly unlikely that El Khannouss will still be in the Belgian Pro League at the start of next season, although he is likely to be expensive. He has the ability and potential to play in a top-five league for a side that will contend for regular qualification for UEFA Champions League football.

Oscar Gloukh, 19 years old, Midfielder, RB Salzburg and Israel

The final player that we will discuss in this article looking at creative players around Europe is the 19-year-old Israeli international attacking midfielder Oscar Gloukh. Gloukh really came to prominence in the European U19 Championships in 2022 as part of a talented Israeli team and then again in the European U21 Championships last year when he impressed once more.

His performances in the U19s, however, were vital in earning him a move from Maccabi Tel Aviv, where he had developed as a young player, to Austria, where he joined Red Bull Salzburg for a reported £7m in 2023. He has quickly impressed and became a part of the first-team setup at the Austrian side where he plays primarily as a ‘10’.

As you can see from his pizza chart, he is another midfielder who impresses with his outputs across all phases of the game. He is in the 88th percentile for goal contributions and the 81st percentile for expected goal contributions, and he is in the 87th percentile for dribbles per 90.

At the time of writing, he has six goals and seven assists in the Austrian Bundesliga. Interestingly, he also generates a high volume of passing as he is in the 82nd percentile for passes per 90 and the 91st percentile for dangerous passes per 90.

He has a clear preference for picking up possession of the ball in the left-sided half-space—and, once again, he provides a significant threat not only through his passing profile and volume but also through the way that he drives in possession to break lines and force opposition defences to adapt and move to defend him, thus creating space centrally for teammates.

Going forward, it is extremely unlikely that Gloukh will be in Austria for long as there is already significant interest in securing his services from teams in the Bundesliga, the Premier League and in Serie A. It seems a matter of when and not if the player will move on from Salzburg and into a regular Champions League team.

Conclusion

The second tier of European leagues has always been a hotbed for recruiting players ready to move to a top-five league. This remains the case now, and thanks to the use of data in the recruitment process, teams are better placed than ever to identify these players early.