Even before I was lucky enough to work in recruitment the European U21 Championship was long my favourite of the international youth tournaments. While the U20 World Cup is always interesting, the sheer quality that would be on show in the European tournament has always made for compelling viewing.

The tournament, for me, peaked in 2013 when Spain beat Italy 4-2 in the final. This was a final that included the likes of Lorenzo Insigne, Marco Verratti and Ciro Immobile for Italy and Isco, Koke and David de Gea for Spain although it was the performances of the now-Liverpool midfielder Thiago Alcântara that really stole the show. The Spanish midfielder was imperious throughout the tournament but it was in the final that he fully ran the game and cemented his place as the most coveted young midfielder in football.

This year the tournament takes place in Romania and Georgia and once again the teams taking part are sure to be full of incredible young talent with players looking to either show their clubs they are first-team ready or to put themselves in the shop window.

In this article, we will look to pick out five forwards from the tournament that we believe will have a strong tournament this coming summer providing scout reports and tactical analysis.

Cameron Archer, 21 years old, Aston Villa and England

Cameron Archer is a name that is on the lips of Aston Villa fans. The young forward has long been lauded as one of the most talented young players at the club, amongst a generation of young and talented players but so far he has not made the breakthrough at first-team level.

Indeed, he has enjoyed two loan spells in the Championship having spent the 2021/22 season with Preston North End and then the second half of the 2022/23 season on loan at Middlesbrough.

While there were flashes of real talent during Archer’s loan spell with Preston, it has been the second half of this season, as Middlesbrough made a push towards the Championship playoffs, that has shown that the young English striker is ready for exposure at Premier League level. Indeed, in 1644 minutes for Middlesbrough Archer finished with 11 goals and 5 assists — impressive numbers.

As you can see from the pizza chart for Archer, his underlying data was also impressive, even when taking in the caveat that he only played half of a season at Middlesbrough. He finished in the 95.65th percentile for goal contributions and the 84.65th percentile for expected goal contributions. He is also in the 74.1st percentile for shots per 90 and the 98.9th percentile for touches in the opposition area.

All of these numbers will be monitored by the decision-makers at Aston Villa and even before this tournament, they will have been making plans to give him minutes next season.

The shot chart for Archer in the Championship this season shows a forward who is aware of the need to take shots from positive positions. Of the 11 goals that he has scored this season, only one came from outside the penalty area with the vast majority being taken from the width of the goalposts.

If England want to push towards the final stages of this year’s tournament the performances of Cameron Archer will be key.

Arnaud Kalimuendo, 21 years old, Rennes and France

France are traditionally one of the powerhouses of these youth tournaments, well, of any tournament really, and this year should be no exception. The sheer depth of talent across France, and especially concentrated around Paris and the surrounding regions, is incredible and once again the French squad should have genuine strength in depth across all positions.

One of the most interesting young forwards at the tournament should be the 21-year-old Rennes forward Arnaud Kalimuendo. He is not exactly an unknown name after having been signed last summer by Rennes for a fee that was reported to be in the region of £20M from his boyhood club PSG. While this season Rennes have underperformed expectations — at the time of writing they sit sixth in Ligue 1 — Kalimuendo has had a promising first season. In 2862 minutes this season he has scored 10 goals and made two assists. Kalimuendo is a mobile and aggressive attacking player who has the ability to either lead the line or play more in the half-spaces.

In keeping with the general performances from Rennes this season, we have seen Kalimuendo struggle slightly in terms of his underlying details. With that said, he has already shown quality, especially as a 21-year-old, and he was in the 50th percentile for goal contributions and the 61st percentile for expected goal contribution. He has not generated a great deal of shots and he is in the 39th percentile of shots per 90. He has, however, shown good positioning in terms of leading the line for Rennes as he is in the 83rd percentile for touches in the opposition area.

Kalimuendo is similar to Cameron Archer in that he has only scored one of his goals from outside the penalty area with the rest of the goals concentrated inside the area.

With Kalimuendo having only just moved last summer it is unlikely that his performances at the tournament this summer will result in his being in the shop window. Instead, he is likely to stay at Rennes with a view to improving on his outputs from last season.

Thijs Dallinga, 22-years-old, Toulouse and Netherlands

If Rennes underperformed their expectations across the 2022/23 Ligue 1 season then Toulouse have outperformed theirs. They were only promoted back to the top flight following the end of the previous seasons and this season they have been comfortably mid-table, sitting 13th at the time of writing. One of the secrets of their success has been the intelligent approach to recruitment and squad building as they use data extensively to identify targets.

This led to their purchase last season of the Dutch forward Thijs Dallinga. The young forward had excelled in the 2021/22 season for Excelsior, albeit in the Dutch second tier, and his data throughout the season at that point was consistently excellent.

Dallinga is a powerful forward who has excellent attacking instincts and movement. Over the course of this season, his first in a top-five league, he accrued 3155 minutes with 18 goals and three assists. Dallinga is in the 35th percentile for goal contributions and the 47th percentile for expected goal contributions. He is also in the 46th percentile for both shots and touches in the opposition penalty area.

Dallinga’s shot chart could almost be used as a coaching tool to teach young forwards about the importance of shot locations. All but one of his goals have come from between the goal line and the penalty spot and they have all come from shots that are taken in the width of the goalposts.

Fabio Silva, 20 years old, PSV (on loan from Wolves) and Portugal

Fabio Silva has long been lauded as one of the great hopes for Portuguese football in an attacking sense. He was the subject of a big money move already when he moved from Porto to join Wolves, in the English Premier League, for a reported £40M in 2020. Since then, however, he has struggled to establish himself for the first team and he has been overtaken for the national setup by the Benfica striker Gonçalo Ramos.

This season has seen the Portuguese forward go out on two loan moves, to Anderlecht in Belgium for the first half of the season and to PSV in the Netherlands for the second half of the season.

Whilst in Belgium we saw Silva play 1632 minutes with seven goals and one assist, in the Netherlands he played 690 minutes scoring four goals.

His underlying data at PSV has been excellent, albeit with the caveat of a smaller sample size, and he is in the 39th percentile for goal contributions but the 77th percentile for expected goal contributions. He is in the 75th percentile for shots per 90 and the 97th percentile for touches in the opposition area. Interestingly, he is also in the 91st percentile for dangerous passes (passes to the final third and passes to the penalty area).

Once again Fabio Silva has had a good season in terms of his attacking output and he has a strong shot map with positive shot locations.

Lorenzo Colombo, 21 years old, Lecce (on loan from Milan) and Italy

Finally, we have selected the 21-year-old Milan and Italy striker Lorenzo Colombo. The young Italian forward has spent the last three seasons out on loan away from Milanello — first to Cremonese, then to SPAL and finally this season to Lecce.

Now, there are suggestions that he might have been positioning himself to gain first-team minutes next season for Milan. Lecce have impressed this season and they currently sit 16th in Serie A having built a young squad through sensible and creative recruitment. Colombo is an effective striker who is capable of playing on his own through the middle or as one of two strikers in a strike partnership. He is mobile with a real presence and the ability to create separation from opposition defenders in the penalty area.

In 1581 minutes in Serie A this season he has scored four goals and made one assist. His underlying data has also been strong, especially given the league position of Lecce, he is in the 42nd percentile for goal contributions, the 43rd percentile for expected goal contributions, the 50th percentile for shots per 90 and the 45th percentile for touches in the opposition area.

In keeping with the theme of this article we can see that Colombo typically takes his shots from good shot locations.

Conclusion

The European U21 Championship will be a good testing ground for the most promising young players in European football. We expect the five forwards who we have picked out and identified to have strong tournaments.