Following his signing in 2020 as a free transfer to Twente from Volendam, Gijs Smal’s career has been on the rise. At 25 years old, he can say that he is one of the best full-backs in the Eredivisie, possibly even being the future of the Netherlands, with the National Team already making contact with the left-back to represent the Oranje.
Despite displaying a good level in the last two seasons since he signed with Twente, this one has been his best; in terms of numbers, he has registered 8 G+A that are summed up in seven assists and one goal between Eredivisie and the UEFA Europa Conference League play-offs where they look to win a place in the group phase. However, they were eliminated by Fiorentina.
This level has been striking for teams from the five big European leagues, such as Borussia Mönchengladbach in the current market, which Smal has decided not to talk about, but it is almost a fact that next season, due to quality and form, we will see him with another team that surely will be playing in a European Competition. All will depend on how their excellent run in the Eredivisie finishes off, as they’re currently fourth with 35 points.
We’re going to take a deep look into why Gijs Smal has been so good this year in the Eredivisie, doing a tactical analysis in form of a scout report, as well as an analysis of the 25-year-old defender in both phases of Twente’s tactics.
Technical skills in build-up
In modern football, build-up with low full-backs looking to attract and be the most progressive players on the team have gained popularity. It can be seen in top examples like Oleksandr Zinchenko or João Cancelo in the Premier League. Gijs Smal is another one who handles great technique under pressure and without pressure where his ideas must surface to make his team move to the attacking third against mid/low blocks.
He looks to receive the ball low in his own third, because of the tactical aspects of Ron Jans, where they try to draw the pressure and then be direct with their long-balls into space. In addition, he is a player who positions himself wide open but has a tendency to take the ball and drive inside where he feels comfortable and then return to his channel.
His first touches with the ball are the first thing that calls attention to his game since they have a high sensitivity, which allows him not to make unnecessary turnovers or losses. The ball is glued to his foot and this allows him, with his control, to progress faster since he does not have to worry about extra touches to accommodate himself.
He manages a fairly high range of passes within his decisions and executions, where he is constantly looking to find a teammate between the lines. He uses his right leg in many of these situations, especially under pressure when he is forced to turn his body since it has no angle, and he uses it well even trying to be progressive. He is not a player who likes to go from side to side but is quite direct in his decisions with the ball.
He is an intelligent player who does not rush in his decision-making, he always wants to find the best way to escape pressure or to break a block. He is risky to play inside passes or passes through his own channel as well.
However, Twente’s build-ups are not usually always on the ground, as their first-line players are often asked to be direct in their approach with the ball. After soaking up the rival press, long balls are a constant in their game — something that Smal handles in a very positive way. He offers passes into space and for the dropping movements of his forwards.
In situations under pressure, Smal is very composed and calm. He is a player who normally scans his options before receiving but waits for his next pass to indicate the moves for him to execute. He is always looking for one-two combinations that can place his team further up the field, but if that can’t happen, he looks for other ways to progress.
This is the long pass, in which he is quite effective and precise. Many of his long passes travel with good ideas and land on the right player/zone. He varies between playing them into space or to the chest/foot/head of a player who points for a movement ahead of the opposition’s defensive line. Something positive about him is that he is certainly unpredictable, he gives little notice of the pass with his body postures and this allows him to be precise in his executions since his passes are rarely intercepted.
Another of the tools that Smal offers to progress from his own third is his fast and aggressive ball-carrying which can constantly change channels, direction and pace. When he takes the ball and decides to move his team to higher ground, his speed is a great tool, as well as relying heavily on the auto-pass to get past opponents looking to stop him.
This also makes him unpredictable because not only does he take the ball and run until he reaches the penalty area but in the meters he advances, he is slowing down, accelerating, changing direction, opening up new angles and even launching the ball into space. Many of his carries have ended with crosses or one-two combinations which generates a lot of threat for Twente on this side of the field.
It’s something that always comes in handy for a team that can run out of ideas in their build-up, and the individual quality added to their physical intensity is something that adds a lot to Twente’s progressions. He likes to give a lot of touches to the ball to shield it well and be difficult to dispossess.
Gijs Smal is quite a useful full-back in the early phase of his team’s possessions. He also shows things that he could work with in different systems/roles, even playing as an inverted full-back or wing-back since he is quite deep and progressive, as well as on teams looking to have longer possessions. He has a great technique to offer progression with his pass, be it long or short, he shields the ball well under pressure and is intense to drive the ball forward; he is a complete and brave player in this part of the pitch.
End-product
His intentions in his own third are extremely positive, but what Gijs Smal offers with his end-product, in addition to being quite solid, is that it is varied. He can offer from crosses and deep moves, such as through passes or shots on goal due to his good technique. He is quite smart at detecting which channels to take, whether to overlap or underlap in case his teammates play inside or outside. In the same play, he can mark different movements, which makes him quite mobile and intense in his search for the ball.
His ball-carrying is seen again in the attacking zone, where he applies auto-passes to penetrate the box and perform speedy cut-backs. His decision-making is quite impressive, on the run and statically, as he raises his head before launching a cross or pass, therefore when he enters the box with great power he finds the right receiver for him to finish the play.
One of the most positive attributes of Smal’s playstyle is the calmness that he exudes before deciding what he is going to do. He’s a player that normally looks to cut in or cut out, depending on which channel of the field he’s occupying. It is there that he looks to create a new angle of pass to send the cross he wants with more space.
This denotes intelligence in his decision-making since if he did not have this tendency to generate new places from which to control the ball and execute his passes, we would see a rather hasty player whose passes were constantly blocked by the rival, something that happens very little in the Twente matches. That is also why he has registered so many assists this season, as he always has time and space to decide and take the cross.
Despite using his right leg, he prefers not to when he’s on the attacking third. That is why when someone tries to force him to send a cross with this leg, he always looks to change his position and body posture to decide what he wants and how he wants it. So, he can cut inside but he’s going to take a time to open his body again to his left to send an outswinging cross.
Gijs Smal is quite a deep full-back to attack the penalty area. Either with one-two combinations or by himself with his carries. But he normally arrives in this zone with the first one, the link-up play with attacking players that allow him to enter the opponent’s box where his crosses go with power and tension to find a tap-in as close as possible to the net.
It is here where his variety in the end-product begins to enter his game since beyond the fact that he can enter with speed and make cut-backs or also outswing-cross to the far-post from distant areas, he is very deep and looks to make crosses to the near-post where a teammate can later surprise a defender or even the goalkeeper of the rival team.
Even this type of powerful execution on the run, entering the box and sending the ball to the near-post, is prone to a rival error such as a badly rejected rebound by a defender or goalkeeper, which can be scored by a teammate. His offensive ideas are extremely vital for Twente to generate danger and occasions in matches.
The good thing about Smal is that even in attack, he’s very unpredictable. He can create a one-two combination coming from out wide, but in the next play, he attacks with an underlapping run. As well, when he enters the box this deep and close to the goal, he doesn’t make the same cross every time. He looks to chip it to the far post too, trying to confuse everyone defending there.
Probably the best attacking facet of Gijs Smal is his through passes from outside to inside. An extremely surprising tool for the last defensive line, since it seems that when he will try to dribble, drive the ball or do a back-pass, he executes a fascinating pass that breaks the last defensive line, looking for a diagonal unmarking movement from his forwards. He’s already had plenty of assists like that and passes that end up being shooting chances, so it’s no coincidence.
We have already commented on his technique, but what really makes it wonderful are these passes that he has turned into a trademark of his game. He positions himself wide and before an opponent’s run, he executes a through-ball with the correct force and direction, as well as adding a curve effect to the ball to give it much more elegance.
Where we normally see full-backs going on the attack with a lot of intensity, returning the ball back without ideas or even making turnovers and losing the ball in that area under pressure, Smal adds a splendid and necessary touch in a modern football that seeks that attacking and technical emphasis on its full-backs.
At 25, Gijs Smal and his offensive contribution, which he manages with intense, unpredictable, precise and even elegant decisions and movements, make him the complete package of a full-back in possession. One who can assist with a wide variety of crosses, attack the area, sometimes shoot looking to score goals from outside the box or inside, step on several channels of the pitch and with quite mature decision-making on his part that surely will keep evolving, as he’s able to play in different systems and roles.
Defensive ability and issues
Normally, such offensive full-backs in football have serious or certain problems in their defensive aspects. In transitions, they can be very badly positioned behind their backs, they can mistime their tackles to try to steal the ball or show deficiencies in 1v1 duels. Even though Smal has certain defensive issues, he has other very good ones that make him generally a complete player in both phases, of course, with some things to improve.
He shows irregularity in his 1v1 duels. When the player comes running towards him, he has a good body posture to hold him so he does not find spaces. However, when he has to defend these situations on the edge of the box where players want to dribble closely and send crosses, he is easily outmatched as he is not very agile in his reactions.
He also has great technique on his slide tackles, which he even uses in 1v1 duels. But at the same time, this has been one of his issues as well, as he prefers above all to go to the ground and tackle, even defending ecstatically. If he chooses to steal the ball with other techniques, he could be a very solid defender trying to recover the ball in an organized shape.
He is aggressive and determined when he jumps off his line to anticipate a pass, but also wields calm and awareness to stay on his line when necessary. His positioning is very good as he stays well in line and closes/opens when necessary. He’s concentrated on crosses to the far post too. He takes and changes coverings and his marking extremely well, he is always scanning the entire situation so that his rivals do not escape.
Sometimes he can go quite high to press and steal, as he can also stay on his line many times. Normally his decisions here are correct most of the time. He doesn’t try to defend so close but rather, to open his body to cover all possible passes in front of him and intercept the ball. And if something doesn’t go well, he uses the slide tackle resource.
In transitions, he is a top defender, with the correct timing and posture to defend into space, although he can be a little passive going into a clash at these moments. He is more of arriving before and cutting passes than going to physical duels after a rival’s reception.
This has also been an issue for Smal in certain plays since he brings too much time for the rival to make a decision, so he doesn’t go and mark him closely and he will have more space to finish the play. Despite having good detection of rival movements as he anticipates much of them, when he is not so attentive and reacts late his team can suffer. Surprisingly, movements in front of him are more of a problem than behind him, as his positioning and scanning are good.
Defensively, Smal can improve, but he shows positive signs in everything. He is a player with good positioning, decent postures and timings in his returns in transitions, as well as fast to track back, but with certain problems when it comes to the technique he chooses to steal or physical intensity to stop the opponent’s movements.
Conclusion
Gijs Smal is undoubtedly one of the products in the left-back position with the best present and future in the Netherlands given his incredible contribution to his team’s possessions. Not only that but also his intelligence, maturity and technique with which he gets things done, plus the number of resources he can bring to different coaches and teams in the world, as well as at this moment in Twente. With things to improve defensively, he still in general terms remains an extremely complete full-back.
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