Mumbai City FC just signed Greg Stewart on a two-year deal to boost their chances of bouncing back from their disappointing performance last season. We all know how instrumental Stewart was in Jamshedpur’s journey to the Indian Super League shield, and it’ll be interesting to see what he brings to the table for the former champions.
In this tactical analysis, in form of a scout report, we will be performing an analysis of Stewart, his possibly preferred role within a team’s tactics and how influential he is in all phases of the game. We will also be talking about how he would be able to create an impact for Mumbai City in the upcoming season.
All the visualisation created have been filtered to midfielders who have at least played a minimum of 600 minutes and Stewart is marked in red in all scatter plots for easy identification of the player.
Player profile
Greg Stewart is an experienced attacking midfielder who has played for clubs like Birmingham City and Dundee FC in the past. He was playing for Rangers before he made his move to the Indian Super League last year. The 31-year old player has 20 goal contributions this season out of his 19 appearances in this league stage, and he went on to become the player of the season.
Upon looking at his player profile we can see that Stewart has been remarkable when it comes to attacking metrics where almost all of his percentiles are greater than 80. In terms of passing metrics, we can see that he has excelled in smart passes and through passes which are two important metrics to take into account for an attacking midfielder.
From a defensive perspective, he involves himself in as many as duels possible and doesn’t shy away from aerial duels. He’s also pretty good in defensive duels and his work rate when without possession needs to be appreciated. Apart from these he also brings danger in terms of set-pieces and is a huge asset to Mumbai City next season.
Influence in the attacking third
Apart from being a creator, Stewart is also a finisher. He along with influencing the play also has a direct influence on the team’s ability to score goals. Ten assists are no easy task, but he also managed to bag ten goals.
Among all the midfielders who have played a minimum of 600 minutes, we can easily spot Stewart in the top right outperforming other midfielders by a huge margin. He alone averages a goal per 90 value of 0.52 and an assist per 90 value of 0.419 which is really high, especially considering how many foreigners struggle to create an impact in their debut season on Indian soil.
It’s his skill set and experience of playing for clubs at a very high level that helped Stewart to adapt very easily to these new conditions. Knowing what to do, when to do it and also being able to execute it perfectly are valuable qualities of Stewart’s that make him a great asset in the Indian Super League.
He combines very well in the attacking third with the striker and the wingers based on the situation. From the match situation, we can see that he backheels the ball into an open area and combines very well with Valskis for the move to result in a goal. He tries to bring the best out of any situation he’s put into and is very creative in the final third.
Along with creating goalscoring situations, he’s also able to put himself in goalscoring positions with great regularity; the proof of that statement could be his numbers in goals and assists this season (20 goal contributions, ten goals and ten assists).
We can see how many touches he’s got in the opponent’s penalty area per 90. He averages 3.01 touches in opponents’ penalty area per 90 and also averages 2.67 shots per 90. His numbers in these metrics too are insane.
On why Stewart would be an upgrade to Cassio Gabriel — Gabriel, in his debut season, was able to successfully create chances and had a wonderful influence in the attacking third, but when it comes to direct influence by adding goals from midfield, Gabriel could have performed better. Now that the team has Stewart, it’s definitely a better upgrade and there should be better results — without any doubt, in our view.
We will have a separate section to compare the numbers between both Stewart and Gabriel.
The impact created through passing
Upon looking at his player profile, one can see that his percentile has dropped in the percentage of accurate passes when compared to other midfielders and this is because of the attacking, risk-taking nature of the player and how he constantly keeps looking for attacking options and avoids playing safe.
We can spot Stewart in the top right corner section indicating that he has performed really well and just below Hugo Boumous of ATK Mohun Bagan. He averages 1.68 smart passes per 90 and 3.56 passes to the penalty area per 90.
One thing that the player excels at is playing in confined spaces. He constantly scans his surroundings and is well aware of the fact about where the opponents are, who is marking them and prepares himself beforehand on what to do. This way of playing has helped him play in confined spaces and also by doing this, he tends to create space for his teammates.
From the match image, we can see how confined his spaces are and yet he’s able to make a pass to the flanks and proceed with the attack. Since it’s confined, he also gives his opponents a feeling that they can win the ball if they outnumber him, as a result, he not only can attract opponents but also creates space for his teammates to make a pass into. This highlights the impressive levels of ‘gravity’ that Stewart possessed, a term we could use to describe how he draws opposition players in, thus potentially creating space for his teammates elsewhere. It’s thanks to his ability in tight spaces that he’s then able to take advantage of this quality to find his teammates in space.
In situations where he’s completely closed down, he can dribble past the players and try to move into space to attempt a pass. Since he’s physically imposing and also has good control of the ball, the chances of him being dispossessed are quite low.
What makes him more threatening is that he’s quite unpredictable at times. His next moves are not obvious and it’s often why defenders struggle to stop him.
In the match image, when every player is expecting a cross into the penalty area, we can see Stewart silently sneaking in a through pass to his teammate who is entirely free and completely unmarked. His vision and execution act as an added advantage to his team as he pulls out the magic in the most unexpected moments to help his team win a game. He’s often a step ahead of the defending side, giving his team a competitive edge.
Comparison to Cassinho
As mentioned earlier, Stewart and Cassinho are two extremely good players but Stewart in place of Cassinho is an upgrade to what they already have.
From the above radar comparison, you can see that these two players are extremely similar and have high percentiles in all the above-chosen metrics on the radar yet, Stewart has been able to outperform Cassinho in most of the metrics — especially in xG per 90. Mumbai City right now needs midfielders who can add goals to the side and Stewart is exactly capable of performing that task, which is why I believe signing him was an upgrade from Cassinho.
In terms of passing and progression, they are similar too, but one thing to notice is that although they both have lower percentiles when it comes to pass accuracy, Stewart has a higher success percentage in both final third passes and forward passes, indicating that he can execute his vision better with accuracy when compared to the rest of the midfielders in the league and especially better than Cassinho.
Conclusion
Stewart definitely will outperform his previous season in the Indian Super League and will mark his foot stronger in the upcoming season. With a different team now, he’ll be looking to continue his success more than before and will look to meet his expectations.
He’s a hard-working and pure professional and would influence the Indian players both off and on the pitch. He’s the best player in the Indian Super League and is the greatest asset for Mumbai City this season. If used well, he’ll be able to combine very well with Bipin and others to produce his magic and have a greater influence than before. One thing we can be sure of is that Stewart will once again offer us exciting football to watch in the upcoming season.
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