At centre-forward in Total Football Analysis’ 2025 Breakout XI is 21-year-old Emanuel Emegha, who plays up front for RC Strasbourg Alsace, the youngest team in Ligue 1.

The striker, who stands at 195cm / 6’5” and weighs 83kg / 182lbs, has been a consistent attacking threat since moving to the Alsace club from Austrian side SK Sturm Graz about 18 months ago.

Emegha scored eight goals and made two assists for Strasbourg in 28 Ligue 1 appearances last season before going on to add a further three goals and one assist this term at the time of writing. 

The young forward has gone from strength to strength thus far in his career. 

He first really began making noise at SK Sturm Graz, where he scored nine league goals and provided three league assists in 2022/23.

That campaign remains the most prolific of Emegha’s career, but he managed to put up very similar numbers in a stronger league, the French top flight, last season, with just one more game played but about 500 minutes more pitch time.

The Strasbourg man has remained a significant threat to other Ligue 1 forwards this term, especially considering his young age and low level of experience at the highest level. 

This helps him stand out among other young talents in the game today.

This tactical analysis and player-focused scout report aims to explain why we selected Emegha for this team.

Our player analysis, using data and video analysis, will explain why this youngster is a rising talent to watch closely as we enter 2025.

Emanuel Emegha Data Analysis 

First, let’s look at the data that illuminates some of the key aspects of the Netherlands U21 international’s game.

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Figure 1 shows a pizza chart featuring some significant metrics related to Emegha’s all-around game, divided into three unique categories: attacking, possession, and defending metrics.

The numbers on the pizza chart represent Emegha’s performance in these criteria when compared with other centre-forwards from Europe’s top-five leagues in 2024/25. 

Looking at the viz, it’s evident that Emegha performs quite well overall in defensive phases, with good standing in defensive duels won % and defensive positioning (a metric which combines tackles and interceptions). 

The 195cm striker is perhaps surprisingly engaging in a slightly lower than average amount of aerial duels per 90, winning an even lower proportion in relation to other centre-forwards in Europe’s most prestigious leagues this term.

Offensively, Emegha performs best in goal contributions per 90 in the selected criteria. 

At the same time, while his pass accuracy is the standout metric in the possession section, he is generally not extremely involved in possession phases.

Emanuel Emegha’s Hold-Up Play 

Our next section of analysis focuses on the Dutch forward’s hold-up play and the way in which he links up with his teammates in possession. 

Emanuel Emegha 2024/25 & 2023/25 Heat Map

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Figure 2 displays Emegha’s heatmap for the 2024/25 campaign. 

Again, the 21-year-old isn’t heavily involved in his team’s possession. 

When he does link up with teammates, his involvement is relatively varied in terms of location. 

He will sometimes drop off centrally, while other times, he’ll drop into the half-spaces to receive passes.

Of course, he also has a heavy amount of involvement in the middle of the box, where his goalscoring abilities come to the forefront. 

Most of the time, despite his imposing size, Emegha is capable of producing a gentle first touch when receiving the ball to feet after dropping off from the forward line.

From there, he’ll typically attempt to lay the ball off into his teammates’ path to continue the team’s progress towards goal.

With that said, Emegha could work on having greater consistency in his first touch and link-up play.

The forward still misplaces too many of his first-time passes and loses control of the ball with a heavy first touch too often to really be considered reliable in this area. 

So, his first touch and first-time passing under pressure are neither major strengths nor major weaknesses in his game.

Emegha will generally move quite well off the ball into inviting positions to give his teammates a decent passing option. 

The 21-year-old has some room to develop his body further. 

By strategically adding more muscle to his frame, Emegha could enhance his usefulness for the team when receiving with his back to goal and closely marked by an opponent. 

In spite of his imposing stature, he’s currently a bit vulnerable to aggressive but legal physical defending.

Emegha could improve his physique and become more comfortable receiving while stationary with a defender on his back. 

He currently relies on his size and strength to retain possession, but he often tries to move around and receive in space, away from defenders.

The con with his current style of play in this regard is that at 195cm, he can receive while off balance right now, which can result in a loss of possession in less-than-ideal areas. 

Still, the Strasbourg man must be cautious not to sacrifice too much of his mobility or versatility, which are strengths in his game right now. 

Emegha can become a more complete forward with more physical development, but this must be done carefully, giving the 21-year-old time to get comfortable with the change.

Emanuel Emegha 2024/25 & 2023/24 Fouls Suffered Map

 

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Emegha is capable of drawing fouls from the opponent when he drops off to receive from deeper teammates in the progression phase, a trait that his team can use strategically—see his fouls suffered map from the last season and a half with Le Racing above.

Emanuel Emegha Goalscoring

This scout report's third and final section focuses on Emanuel Emegha’s goalscoring abilities.

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Emegha primarily stands out as one to watch thanks to his goalscoring abilities; see the Strasbourg man’s shot map from his time at Stade de la Meinau above.

The Dutchman is currently performing roughly on par with his expected goal (xG) numbers for the Alsace club.

He has scored a total of 12 non-penalty goals from 64 shots and 12.96 xG.

Emegha, a product of Sparta Rotterdam’s youth academy, has averaged 0.2 xG per shot for his entire Strasbourg career—a highly impressive level. Those numbers are actually even better for the 2024/25 season in isolation, with Emegha averaging 0.25 xG per shot this term.

The Dutch youth international’s shots are generally localised around the penalty spot—exactly where you’d want to see him taking the majority of his shots from. 

He takes on very few goalscoring chances from outside the penalty area; just six of the 64 shots visualised above originated outside the box.

Seven of the 12 goals featured on this shot map came from shots located either inside or just on the edge of the six-yard box, further highlighting this attacker’s impressive ability to avail of chances from high-percentage locations.

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Why does Emegha get so many chances from highly desirable locations? 

One key reason for this is the player’s off-the-ball movement inside the box.

We can see one passage of play in which Emegha’s off-the-ball movement helped him get an inviting goalscoring opportunity from close range above.

Firstly, we see Strasbourg approaching the danger zone from the left wing, with Emegha circled just inside the penalty box.

At this point, Emegha is positioned just in front of the opposition’s left centre-back—his marker—which is not the optimal position.

Emegha’s location here allows the opponent, Aïssa Mandi, to keep both the forward and the ball carrier out on the wing within his line of sight, giving the Lille centre-back fairly good control of the situation despite the opposition’s close proximity to the goal and the 195cm striker bearing down on the target.

Wise to this, Emegha completely changes the dynamic of this attack and makes it much more dangerous with his next move.

Though relatively subtle unless you’re looking for it, Emegha’s movement from in front of Mandi to the defender’s back is critical to the creation of this goalscoring chance.

As soon as the 21-year-old positions himself on the centre-back’s blind side, this attack’s level of threat undergoes a notable rise.

As we see in the bottom-left image of figure 5, Mandi struggles once Emegha is attacking his blind side, with the defender trying to quickly move his head back and forth to watch both the ball carrier and the attacker.

Lille’s left-back, Gabriel Gudmundsson, comes more central to try and assist Mandi in covering Emegha, but his marking job is not sufficient enough to prevent Emegha from escaping into space on the edge of the six-yard box and meeting the winger’s perfectly placed and well-timed cross.

The aerial threat directs the ball goalward with his head, getting his name on the scoresheet.

Figure 5 shows this kind of intelligent movement, which is a key reason why Emegha is such a goal threat. 

The 21-year-old knows where to place himself to be most difficult to control and most inviting for the playmakers on his side.

His ability to put himself in quality positions, like the one we see here, combined with Emegha’s teammates’ familiarity with his movement, has made him a major goal threat for this young Ligue 1 side.

In addition to this movement, Emegha is good at performing little last-minute bursts away from defenders and into space in dangerous positions, even when crowded with bodies. 

This makes him an inviting passing option close to goal and gives him room to actually get a shot off.

Not just a threat from crosses or cutbacks, Emegha can time runs in behind against a high line quite well.

Although his pace is not rapid by any means, the 21-year-old’s ability to time his runs for the playmakers and his long legs, which allow him to cover a lot of ground quite fast, make him a decent threat from those types of attacks as well. 

However, he’s probably at his best when receiving inside the box, as seen in Figure 5.

Conclusion

To conclude this tactical analysis piece and scout report on Emanuel Emegha, this young talent at Strasbourg has quickly made a name for himself in France as a potent goalscoring threat.

Some areas of Emegha’s game could use improvement, such as his strength, hold-up play, and reliability in the air, considering his height advantage. 

Currently, however, he is a very good finisher capable of consistently putting himself in high-quality goalscoring positions—a massively desirable trait for any young forward that will put him on the radar of even more prestigious clubs.