Jarne Steuckers has had a very good first two seasons at senior level in professional football. After being promoted from the Sint-Truiden U21s at the end of the 2021/22 season, Steuckers was sent on loan to Dutch Eerste Divisie side MVV Maastricht. There, he excelled for the second division side, finishing with nine goals and eight assists. He played in a more attacking midfield role while also drifting wide right and playing in a wider position.
After returning to Sint-Truiden last summer, the 22-year-old Belgium became a favourite for new manager Thorsten Fink, with the German deploying him as one of the two central attacking midfielders in his preferred 3-4-2-1 formation, usually playing on the right. He also was used at times by Fink as the right-sided wide forward when the formation was altered to a 3-4-3. He had another great season, with seven goals & six assists in all competitions for the Belgian side.
His performances persuaded Genk to sign the youngster this summer, with Steuckers re-joining the club he played with at youth level for a bargain fee of only €800,000, due to a release clause in his Sint-Truiden contract. The move for Steuckers also reunites him with Fink, with the German recently being announced as their new manager. Fink likely played a role in the transfer, with Steuckers being a perfect fit for the tactics he will likely deploy at Genk. This tactical analysis and scout report will take a detailed look at Jarne Steuckers and what Genk fans can expect from him.
Positional overview
For Sint-Truiden this season, Jarne Steuckers played a prominent role. The Belgian youth international is normally deployed on the right-hand side, whether that be as a wing-back, attacking midfielder, or even further advanced as a wide forward.
The heatmap shown above is able to give us a bit of a more in-depth picture of the areas on the pitch that Steuckers tends to find himself. The 22-year-old is heavily involved on the right side of the pitch, with most of his involvement coming in the attacking half. Steuckers tends to operate in either the wide channels or the half-spaces, where he looks to try and get in possession as often as he can, with his ball distribution one of his strengths, especially passes to the final third and into the penalty area.
Take a look at this radar chart of Steuckers above, and we can see just how impactful he was for Sint-Truiden in possession or build-up phases of play. The 22-year-old ranked in the 99th percentile for both passes per 90 minutes and received passes per 90 minutes this season, showing that when Sint-Truiden were able to possess possession into the attacking half of the pitch, Steuckers was key in continuing to progress the ball into the final third. His progressive passes per 90 in the 89th percentile and dangerous passes per 90 in the 95th percentile also are able to demonstrate his consistent tendency to look and play forward and progress play, something that is a principle in Thorsten Fink’s style of play.
High rate of progressive passing
One thing that should have been fairly obvious from the radar shown above is that Jarne Steuckers’ biggest strength is when he is able to link up play in the attacking half of the pitch. Steuckers was one of Sint-Truiden’s key chance creators in the 2023/24 season, shown by his six assists in all competitions for the Belgian side.
When diving a little bit deeper into the passing range and ability of Steuckers in the attacking half of the pitch, let us take a look at the data viz graphic shown above. We can see how impactful Steuckers has been for Sint-Truiden in the final third, with most of his progressive passes into the penalty area occurring either in the wide channel, or from the half-space. For Sint-Truiden this season, Steuckers averaged 6.78 passes to the final third per 90 minutes, with a success rate of 67.9%. Also, the Belgian averaged 6.12 passes to the penalty area per 90 minutes, with a success rate of 54.5%.
The image above shows an example of Steuckers’ ability in possession inside the final third. In this phase of play above, the 22-year-old receives possession on the sideline before facing up the opposition fullback. Steuckers is able to get the defender off balance and then proceeds to drive centrally into the half-space. As he gets closed down by the opposition midfielder, he looks up to spot the forward and plays a perfectly weighted through ball, splitting the centre-backs and into the path of the forward, making a run into the space behind the opposition defenders.
The forward’s first-time finish was saved well by the goalkeeper, but this chance came from almost nothing. Steuckers was able to use his vision and quality in possession to play this line-breaking pass and give the forward a chance to convert.
We can see from the figure above how often Steuckers looked to operate in the half-spaces for Sint-Truiden. In this phase of play above, the Belgian youth international received possession in the half-space from the wing-back, with Steuckers able to operate in space due to the opposition defence dropping off to attempt to protect the space behind.
However, Steuckers is able to spot the run of the attacking midfielder from deep, looking to run into the pocket of space behind the opposition’s defensive line. The 22-year-old is able to look up and quickly spot the run and space before playing a floated ball over the top of the opposition defence and into the space behind for the attacker to run onto. It results in a half chance, with the attacker getting closed down and forcing his shot to be high and wide.
As this section has illustrated, Jarne Steuckers’s biggest strength is his quality in possession, more specifically, his ability to create chances through his passing and play progressive passes in the final third that lead to goalscoring chances. For a little more context, Steuckers finished with 28 key passes in the Belgian Pro League for the 2023/24 season, the second most of any player.
Ability to take players on with his dribbling
Though definitely not his strongest trait (ranking in the 38th percentile for dribbles per 90), Jarne Steuckers is a confident footballer with the ball at his feet and does not shy away from facing up defenders and looking to drive at them to take them on.
The data viz graphic above shows the ball progression of Steuckers last season in all competitions with Sint-Truiden. The 22-year-old tends to pick up possession in the attacking half of the pitch, usually in the wide channel and then looks to drive inside towards the half-space and the edge of the penalty area. Under Thorsten Fink, Steuckers usually tended to play as an inverted attacking midfielder/winger, with him starting on the right but being left-footed. This allows him to come into the half-space more to combine with teammates, but it also allows him to cut inside and take defenders on before taking shots on goal or crossing back post with his favoured left foot.
The image above shows an example of Steuckers’s dribbling ability, which could be considered his trademark move. He tends to receive possession either hugging the sideline or just inside the half-space. He will then turn and look to face up the closest defender, keeping the ball close and looking to force them to one side. Once Steuckers gets the defender off balance, usually looking to get them to reach to the outside, he will then look to drive centrally and move the ball onto his left foot.
In this specific phase of play against Mechelen, after receiving possession, he moves the ball onto his right foot, making it look like he is going to dribble outside the defender. Once the defender commits, the Belgian midfielder quickly switches the ball to his left and dribbles into the pocket of space centrally, putting the defender off balance and allowing him to have the space to play a switch of play pass into the central area.
While it may not be his strongest attribute, Jarne Steuckers is a very capable dribbler who does not hesitate to drive at opposition defenders with the ball at his feet when given the opportunity.
Becoming a consistent threat in front of goal
A strength that is continuing to improve in Steuckers’s skillset is his goalscoring threat in front of goal. The 22-year-old is now having back-to-back seasons of getting close to reaching double-digit goals. The Belgian youth international finished with seven goals in all competitions for Sint-Truiden this season, though they did not necessarily attempt many shots. Steuckers averaged only 1.51 shots per 90 minutes this season, with only 34.6% being on target.
The data viz graphic above shows the shots attempted by Steuckers this season, and we can see how he does not have the biggest shot output. His goals have come from a variety of areas, scoring from inside the penalty area and from outside of it as well too. The 22-year-old only averaged 0.11 xG per shot this season, though did just about perform his xG, highlighting he was clinical in front of goal when given the opportunity to score.
The image above gives a glimpse at the quality in front of goal that Steuckers has the ability to possess. In this phase of play above, the ball finds its way to Steuckers, who is currently acting as the most advanced attacker for Sint-Truiden. After receiving possession, he begins to drive towards the edge of the penalty area, with two Antwerp defenders looking to close him down and prevent a shot.
Though the angle gets tight due to the centre-back looking to eliminate the possibility of shooting towards the far post, Steuckers still looks to aim his shot towards the back post. This catches the goalkeeper out, with him positioning himself to defend the near post area. Steuckers hits his shot cleanly, with his left-footed shot catching the goalkeeper out. The Belgian youth international offers unpredictability at times in front of goal. While he does not average a large output of shots, he has become consistent the last couple of seasons in front of goal, with Fink hoping he can stay at this level or get even better next season for Genk.
Weaknesses
When it comes to weaknesses in Jarne Steuckers’s game, most of them are present on the defensive side of the game. Referring back to the radar pizza chart in the first section, we can see how Steuckers ranks pretty low in almost all the defensive metrics. A lot of this is down to his tendency to stay in advanced positions when Sint-Truiden were out of possession, but in general, he is not a great defender and definitely needs to refine his game in this area.
The graphic above shows the defensive territory of Steuckers this season for Sint-Truiden, and we can see the low impact he tends to have on the defensive side of proceedings. From a statistical perspective, the 22-year-old only averaged 3.13 defensive duels per 90 minutes in the 2023/24 season, with just over a 50% success rate. He also struggles aerially, with only 0.84 aerial duels per 90 minutes last season and a 34.5% success rate. Some of this might be down to his height (5’10”), but this is definitely an area of improvement.
Conclusion
As this tactical analysis and scout report have illustrated, Jarne Steuckers is a fantastic signing for Genk, especially at the price they paid due to a release clause in his Sint-Truiden contract. While he may struggle from a defensive perspective, Thorsten Fink knows how to get the best out of the 22-year-old, who likely will be an instant starter for his coach at Genk from next season onwards.
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