When Hyderabad FC announced the signing of former Paris Saint-Germain striker Bart Ogbeche for the 2021//22 season of the Indian Super League, it was quite evident that the team also needed a backup striker to share the weights of goalscoring responsibility for the team. The 24-year-old Spanish striker Javier Siverio ended up being the chosen one, and he did have a role in the team’s journey to the cup. In this tactical analysis, in form of a scout report, we will be analysing his tactics, his key traits and what makes him a reliable striker.
Only strikers who’ve played a minimum of 400 minutes are taken into account while creating data visualisation in this piece. Also, Siverio has been highlighted in red in all visualisations in order to identify the player more easily.
Player profile
The 24-year-old striker stands 182cm tall and could be aptly described as a poacher inside the box. Having played in the Spanish division for his entire youth, Siverio’s first destination outside his country was India and he enjoyed a wonderful first season. Having only played 1073 minutes, (39%) the player has 17% of goal participation in the team.
By taking a look at the player profile, one can see that the player has wonderful figures in attacking metrics and works very well in the defensive metrics too. The reason why the player has below-average passing metrics is that he creates more value with his off-the-ball movements than with the ball by passing. We’ll look into that later in the upcoming sections of this analysis.
One thing that would catch your attention is that the player has 0.44 headed goals per 90, which is relatively high.
He also has the highest headed goals per 90 stat among all the strikers in the Indian Super League followed by Ogbeche. This is definitely the player’s strongest area and I’ll be explaining the reasons for this as we progress with the scout report.
To start with, we will analyse his role as a striker and how he has performed in it for Hyderabad this season.
Role as a striker
Although he wasn’t the first choice striker for Hyderabad, Siverio had a greater responsibility to fulfil as he was replacing Ogbeche’s role and had to perform well in order to gain the trust of the team and the fans as an adequate replacement for the Nigerian. The player managed to score seven goals and assist one with quite a few of them being crucial goals.
One can say the player has performed better than expected in terms of his goalscoring ability, as he has outperformed his xG by a positive difference. From the scatter plot, we can see he has made it into the top-right grid performing above average in both the metrics. He averages an xG of 0.48 per 90 while his goals per 90 are at 0.59 with a goal conversion rate of 23.33%.
The factor influencing these numbers the most is his high presence inside the penalty area when in possession, as this, inevitably combined with intelligent and effective movement which are often the most important aspects of a striker’s game, allows him to get onto the end of a lot of chances.
Only a handful of strikers have made it into the top-right grid, and Siverio is one of them. He averages 4.05 touches in the penalty area with 2.65 shots per 90. He also has a very good shot accuracy of 53.33%.
The reason why he has higher numbers in these metrics is because of the way he plays in the attacking third, especially off the ball and how he creates the space for himself once inside the penalty area.
One particular trait exhibited by Siverio is his wonderful positioning in between the defenders in the attacking third when the ball is on the flank. Sometimes he drags himself along with the centre-back and quickly moves away into space behind him. This way, the defender constantly has to look back at the player and also keep note of the ball which puts the defender under pressure.
Staying in the defenders’ blindspot is his very strong technique which only a few strikers with elite mentality and maturity can pull off. This is the factor that gives the player enough space and time to score goals, especially the headers.
You can see that the centre-back is more focused on the ball at the time of cross and fails to keep Siverio in his sights. This is where Siverio’s positioning becomes a huge asset. Now the player has time to judge the flight of the ball and enough space to execute his moves without being pressurised by the defender.
Off-the-ball movements
Only if we could quantify Siverio’s off-the-ball movement one would understand how influential his movements are when in possession. His off-the-ball movements are very well synchronised with the tactics of the team.
First and foremost, his ability when out-of-possession is to act as an option for the ball possessor. Playing in-between the lines, Siverio is constantly moving and attacking spaces to not only confuse the defenders but also to act as a passing option when the ball possessor is looking for better options.
He makes this constant diagonal run into the penalty area while attacking. This way, the player is able to move into the penalty area possibly trying to meet through balls and crosses.
He positions himself in such a way he’s between the centre-back and the full-back. In this way, he tries to attract two players to him. As a result of doing so successfully, he’s able to pin two players with him and drag these two players whenever running into the box.
Since Hyderabad have two very good full-backs and are their key players, these movements help in creating space for their left-back.
In the match image, we can see his diagonal run into the penalty area and along with this run the player also drags both the full-back and the centre-back along with him creating ample amount of space in the flanks for the left-back to exploit.
So, these diagonal runs from Siverio influence the team in advanced areas of the attacking third and also perfectly fit into the tactical system of the side which is why the player has been able to shine in his debut season.
Defensive duties
Whenever the team has needed goals, Siverio has been brought in as a striker with Ogbeche falling back into an attacking midfielder role, where he delivered. However, there were times when he had to come in replacing Ogbeche where he had to play a defensive role to defend the lead and also try to score.
We can see that Siverio is among those players who involve themselves in maximum duels and also manages to have a very good success rate. He alone is involved in 16.82 duels per 90, winning half of the duels he’s involved in with his strongest area of defence being aerial duels.
As the first man to defend upfront, Siverio reads the game very well and doesn’t rush to recover the ball but rather gently reads the game and keeps moving to try to put pressure on the ball possessor. In moments when he’s beaten, he doesn’t give up but rather pressurises the ball possessor forcing him to make mistakes by not giving him time to think.
Conclusion
Siverio is one of those strikers who constantly demands more from himself and doesn’t settle which is a strong character trait to carry at the age of just 24. With so much football left ahead of him, the player is sure to become a promising striker in the league if he continues to play here.
With his one-year contract finishing up, teams without a doubt can look to buy him on a long-term contract as the player, if groomed very well, will surely turn out to be every defender’s nightmare! Will he continue to play in India? Will he play for Hyderabad? Only time can answer these questions, but one thing I’m sure of is that if he plays, he’s sure to score a ton of goals!
Comments