Erik Expósito 2023/24: The forward driving minnows Śląsk Wrocław’s quest for Ekstraklasa glory – scout report

If you haven’t heard of Śląsk Wrocław, you’re likely in the majority.

The Ekstraklasa 2023/24 leaders have spent much of the last 10 years in the Polish wilderness, even flirting with relegation, since their last top-flight title win in 2012. In fact, they finished just above the relegation zone in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, only escaping by three points and a point, respectively.

The ongoing campaign, though, has been unexpected and bordered on the magical. Wrocław currently sit atop the standings with 41 points from 19 matches, already more than what they managed in each of the last two seasons (35 in 2021-22 and 38 last season). They are three clear of another unexpected competitor, Jagiellonia Bialystok, in second place. Traditional Polish giants Lech Poznań and Legia Warsaw are third and fifth, respectively.

The best defence in the league has largely driven Wrocław’s title challenge, as they have conceded only 15 goals so far. Their 31 goals scored is only fifth in the league but has been enough to keep them on top.

Interestingly, 14 of those 31 goals have come from captain and talismanic No. 9, Erik Expósito. The Spaniard has led the team admirably, starting and completing every game of their league campaign so far, and popped up with vital contributions. Interestingly, he is set to become a free agent this summer, and a few teams may be interested in taking a punt on him if he doesn’t renew his contract with the Polish side.

This scout report and tactical analysis will delve into Expósito’s exploits and provide some analysis of his role within Śląsk Wrocław’s tactics in build-up play, creativity and goalscoring.

Background

Expósito, born June 23, 1996, began his professional journey with Málaga’s U19 team before moving to his current fifth-tier outfit, Atlético Malagueño, in the summer of 2015. Six months later, he signed for Rayo Cantabria but was on the move by the summer of 2016, joining Las Palmas’ reserve team on a free transfer.

He spent two years in Las Palmas before moving to Córdoba in August 2018 on a loan deal. The forward returned to his parent club in January the following year after scoring no goals in 10 appearances on loan and completed the season with them. Overall, he played 39 times for Las Palmas’ reserve team, scoring 11 times and 11 matches for the senior team, netting once.

In the summer of 2019, Śląsk Wrocław signed Expósito on a free transfer. He had decent returns in his first three seasons, recording 39 goals and 18 assists in 130 matches across competitions to keep them in the top flight. However, the Spaniard has truly exploded this term, scoring 14 goals and laying out three assists in 19 Ekstraklasa games.

Profile

Expósito is a centre-forward by trade and has primarily operated as the lone man upfront for Śląsk Wrocław this season in either a 4-1-4-1 or 4-2-3-1 formation. Mateusz Żukowski and Piotr Samiec-Talar often play on the flanks. Patrick Olsen and Petr Schwarz take up the central roles in a four-man midfield, with Olsen dropping to holding midfield when the team uses a 4-2-3-1 shape.

Despite being deployed upfront, Expósito’s touch map shows his tendency to drop back, with a concentration of touches in the right and left half-spaces, an aspect that will be explored later on.

Expósito’s primary role in this team is undoubtedly to score goals. While he favours his left foot, scoring 11 goals with it, he has occasionally mixed it up, netting twice with his head and once with his right foot. His goals have come with him attempting a decent 2.53 shots per game, with an impressive 54.7% of them on target.

His shot map below shows that he is not necessarily a penalty-box poacher but can also trouble goalkeepers with efforts from distance.

It’s worth noting that he is currently over-performing his non-penalty expected goals (npxG) of 6.35 to quite a degree, and the gap is expected to close down as the season progresses. However, as evidenced by the shot map, Expósito’s ability to get his shots on target will always stand him a chance of scoring consistently.

So, how does he score his goals in this Śląsk Wrocław system? Let’s dive into the footage!

Expósito’s fit in Śląsk Wrocław’s system

Wrocław have averaged only 44.05% possession per game in the Ekstraklasa this season, but this doesn’t limit their chance creation as their passing is largely solid. They complete 81% of their 325.68 passes per game, including an 88.3% accuracy on lateral passes, 55.8% on long passes, 64.8% on passes into the final third and 69.1% on progressive passes. Apart from this, they are also efficient on the counter, with 49.8% of their counterattacks ending in a shot.

A quick look at their build-up play, such as in this sequence from their 2-1 win over Zagłębie Lubin, provides some interesting insights.

As the goalkeeper and centre-backs exchange passes, the right-back advances further than the left-back, who provides a passing option, while the holding midfielder and one central midfielder drop into the defensive half. The right-winger drops to a central space close to the halfway line in anticipation of a line-breaking pass, with Expósito (marked in black) in the right half-space described earlier. The other central midfielder operates as a de-facto centre-forward, and the left winger is hugging the touchline on his flank.

The right-back then spots a run down the middle, but his pass is underhit and only finds Expósito, who heads it straight up. While a defender wins the second header, Wrocław win the ball back and recycle it to the left flank, where their winger has space to run into. The sequence ends with him cutting inside and shooting, but the shot is easily saved by the goalkeeper. Note that Expósito is away from his marker and in an ideal position to get a shot away if a cross comes in or if the goalkeeper parries a shot to the right.

Wrocław’s counterattacks present another perspective on their attacking patterns. In this sequence from the same match, most of their players are understandably behind the play when they win the ball back, but a runner has just begun making his way forward on the right. Expósito can be seen scanning the area for a potential run through the heart of the defence.

The pass finds the runner, who then finds a teammate down the middle. The latter plays another pass to Expósito, who, noticing that the defence is off balance due to an overlapping player on the left, goes for the clever pass back down the middle. Unfortunately, he marginally overhits the pass, and the goalkeeper comes off his line to collect it.

Goalscoring

With his role in the system now somewhat clear, let’s take a look at some of Expósito’s goals this season.

One of his best goals this term came in Wrocław’s 1-1 draw with Górnik Zabre in October. The goal originated from a set-piece routine, which saw a free-kick from the left played to the right side of the box to Expósito (marked in black). The Spaniard outmuscles his marker before sitting another down, and a couple of good touches takes him away from two more (all marked in pink), giving him a yard to shoot, but he still has multiple defenders in front of him.

That doesn’t deter him, though, and he smashes a left-footed effort into the top corner, leaving the goalkeeper helpless.

As discussed earlier, Śląsk Wrocław possess the ability to score both through patient build-up and counterattacks. An example of the former can be seen in this sequence from their 3-1 win over Lech Poznań back in August.

After a spell of possession to spread the field out, Wrocław’s centre-back floats a ball to the left flank. Notice that when he plays the switch, Expósito has his back turned towards goal, but with the ball in mid-air floating towards the wing, he turns to make a run into the box. The left winger takes a touch before noticing Expósito’s position between two defenders and crosses it into the box. The Wrocław skipper adjusts his feet well and shows incredible neck muscle strength to head the ball into the far corner while moving in the opposite direction to score.

Similarly, Expósito’s threat on the counter can be seen in the play below from his side’s 2-1 win over closest competitors Jagiellonia back in September, a game in which he scored twice.

In this case, the 27-year-old reads a throw-in and quickly applies pressure on the recipient, drawing a turnover. The ball is picked up by Wrocław’s right-winger Samiec-Talar, who, as explained previously, drifts centrally when they attack. He then slides a pass through the defence to Expósito, who takes it wide before thundering a left-footed shot past the goalkeeper’s near post and into the back of the net.

Creativity

Expósito’s positioning in the right half-space gives him the opportunity to play passes in behind the defence to his players. This season, he has provided three assists while averaging 1.1 key passes per game. The map below of his progressive passes also shows how many times he can fire passes into advanced areas.

An interesting aspect that stands out is the volume of passes that come from the left flank. While he spends plenty of time on the right side during build-up, his tendency to drift to the left and deliver a dangerous in-swinging pass/cross from there tends to keep defences guessing.

Consider the sequence below from stoppage time in the 3-1 win over Lech Poznań. Expósito initially falls to the ground under the challenge of two defenders but gets back on his feet and looks up to spot an open runner. He picks out an excellent switch with his left to find his teammate, who dinks the ball over the goalkeeper to score.

In contrast, Expósito’s creativity from the right side is slightly different as he can cut in onto his favourite foot before playing a pass from a more central area, like in this play from their match against Górnik Zabrze, which also provides a glimpse of his close control. The Spaniard is initially marked by two defenders, with a third defender joining in to help, but he leaves one of them on the floor and dribbles past the other two before carving the defence open with a pass into the box. Unfortunately, it’s a tad overhit and his teammate fails to reach it.

While these are more direct efforts into dangerous areas, Expósito also offers the ability to play a first-touch pass with his back turned to goal, enabling players in space to move forward. This makes up for his reduced participation in one-twos or quick pass-and-move plays in comparison to his initial seasons at Wrocław.

For instance, in this sequence from the team’s 2-1 win over ŁKS Łódź, he receives a pass from midfield, neatly lays it off to a teammate with a one-touch move and turns off his defender. The ball is then played out to the right wing, with Łódź’s players scrambling to get back, opening up options for Wrocław.

Weaknesses

As touched upon in the previous section, Expósito is not as involved in quick build-up play, even though he takes up spaces that could potentially allow him to do so. This could be a reason for his teammates, on average, passing to him only 9.69 times per game.

His passing has been inconsistent for much of the season as he has only completed only 70.3% of his attempted passes in the Ekstraklasa this season. That number falls to 50% when only forward passes are taken into account, a worrying figure given he attempts only 4.2 forward passes per game.

Additionally, for a well-built forward at 6’3″ and 182 lbs, he wins only 33.9% of his total duels, 27.6% of his offensive duels and 42.3% of his aerial duels. He also loses possession 14.56 times per game, often due to an inability to pick the right forward pass.

Conclusion

As stated earlier, Expósito’s contract expires at the end of this season, but he claimed last month that he intends to continue at Śląsk Wrocław and help them fight for glory in the future, while the club have stated that they do not intend to sell their captain this month.

It is unlikely that the Spaniard, who turns 28 this year, will be able to alter his game to remove his weaknesses. However, these could also be considered his peak years as a forward, and if he is able to breach the 25-goal mark this season, he could be a vital addition to a team with a system that covers his weaknesses and needs goals.

At the moment, though, a sale looks unlikely, and Wrocław have one of the most in-form strikers in Europe. Expósito will hold the key if they are to lift a first Ekstraklasa title in 12 years and make it back into Europe.