Who Is Kaiky?
Kaiky Fernandes is widely regarded as being one of the most promising defenders from Brazil and has already attracted attention from a top club competing in the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League like Barcelona at the age of just 18.
Having been a key player for Santos FC in the Brazillian Serie A, the player made a move to La Liga to play for UD Almería.
In this tactical analysis in form of a Kaiky Fernandes scout report, we will be performing an analysis of the young defender’s abilities, tactics and what sets him apart.
He has only played 38% of the available minutes for Almería, but the player is of top quality and we’ll soon see why.
All the visualisations used in the piece only include players who have played greater than 500 minutes in the current season.
For easy identification of the player, Kaiky will be represented in yellow, while the remaining players will be marked pink!
Kaiky Style Of Play & Player Overview
Kaiky is an 18-year-old right centre-back who stands 186cm tall and is well-built.
The Brazillian was an integral part of Santos FC and has also represented Brazil at U16 and U17; he now plays for Brazil’s U20 team.
The player profile is a data representation of his performance in the last calendar year.
Upon looking at his player profile, we can see that he has been really good with the ball at his feet and is also a potential threat in the attacking metrics.
One can see his percentiles are really impressive in smart and through passes, while his progressive runs per 90 are also something to take note of.
He also has a few goals under his belt from set pieces making him a threat inside the box from such scenarios.
We’ll further analyse all his traits in the upcoming sections of the analysis.
For Almería, he fits in at right centre-back in their 4-4-2 formation and also their 5-3-2 formation.
The fact that he slightly underperforms while defending when compared to when in possession could be a reason why he hasn’t been a regular starter but he has been extremely influential whenever given a chance to play.
Kaiky tends to start whenever Almería use a back-five, and due to his qualities on and off the ball, which will be analysed in detail as we progress deeper into this scout report, we feel he may suit the wide centre-back position in a three-centre-back system better than a two-centre-back partnership.
This role highlights his strengths and masks his weaknesses better, at present, but he can fulfil the role in either shape within this Almería squad.
Kaiky Heat Map
The heatmap gives an overall perspective of his area of involvement and we can see how high he progresses up the pitch.
Once in the final third, he always prefers to exploit the space behind the fullback, by lofting a long ball into the space and sometimes he prefers to carry the ball himself into the space.
In the next section of this scout report, we will look at his way of progression.
Kaiky Ball progression
One of the key traits of a centre-back when in possession is to have the ability to make the right decisions under pressure.
With more and more teams trying to build their game from the back, passing under pressure is a required quality of any centre-back in the modern world of football.
With many players still struggling to build up under pressure, Kaiky is an excellent ball progressor under pressure.
In this match figure, we can spot that he is being pressed by two players from Villarreal by blocking his potential passing lanes.
The pivot player is also tight-marked by the opponent.
But Kaiky is able to make quick decisions and is able to spot the free man on the opposite side without panicking and retains possession without losing the ball.
At match situations when all passing options are locked, Kaiky loved to carry the ball himself into the space to try to create options by creating movements.
We can see how he moves into the centre by carrying the ball and this way he has more options to choose from than when at the right.
This action by him is very frequent as he always looking to carry the ball into the middle when running out of options.
He has also made some penetrative carries into the final third when he’s found space.
In the visualisation which depicts his carries this season, we can see a cluster of carries from the right half to the middle in the defending third explaining how frequently he does this to create space.
But it’s also important to see some of his long carries into the penalty area which look threatening.
In the next section of this analysis, we’ll look into his influence in the final third
Kaiky final third
Kaiky is very good at exploiting spaces via through balls.
He constantly looks to pass the ball right into the space behind the full-back and looks to feed his winger constantly.
We can see from the match figure how he makes a pass right in between the gap in the defensive line and exploits the space behind the fullback.
He’s wise enough to scan potential spaces and make the right pass even under pressure.
Almería being a team which enjoys below-average possession, Kaiky is not able to show off his in-possession skills as he has very less time on the ball.
So the data won’t do justice if we look to compare his smart or through passes per 90 with other centre-backs who enjoy a lot of time on the ball.
Hence we’ll calculate the ratio of these metrics, that’s how many passes of his total passes are through passes or smart passes to analyse his threatening pass ability.
Kaiky only attempts 27.44 passes in a game on average which is very low when compared to the other centre-backs from teams who enjoy high possession, but Kaiky can create as much as threat possible with the limited passes he attempts.
In the scatter plot, we can see how he ranks top in terms of smart passes ratio per 90 and is also third in terms of through passes ratio per 90.
More than 1.2% of his passes per game are smart passes and more than 1.8% passes of his passes are through passes which is very well greater than most of the centre-backs in the league.
He also has the potential to play the balls into the penalty area causing threats to the opponents.
From the bar chart, we can see 3.10% of his passes are made into the penalty area and he actually tops the chart in this comparison with other centre-backs in the league.
It would be amazing to see how he could take his game further when able to play in a team with more possession and how well he could influence the game by causing a threat in the final third.
So far we have looked at how good he is when in possession, but as a defender, it’s even more important how he performs off-the-ball and that’s work we’ll be looking at in the next section of this scout report!
Kaiky Defensive ability
When defending, Kaiky is very disciplined and hard-working.
His work rate off the ball is really impressive and admirable.
His positioning gives him an advantage while defending as he’s able to make very good interceptions and blocks during the game.
We can see Kaiky has made some key shot blocks inside the penalty area in his zone by putting himself in the path of the shot.
Kaiky is someone who contributes through his instinct to anticipate danger and his positioning.
In the above match situation, we can see how Kaiky can anticipate a pass and rushes to close down the opponent and apply pressure.
At the age of 18, he’s able to think ahead and is also able to read the game comfortably which helps him perform key actions in the defending phase of the game.
He manages to win more than 50% of the duels he engages in, but that’s quite low in percentile when compared to the other centre-backs in the league.
Especially if he’s looking to play for top clubs, it’ll be important for him to increase his win percentage in the duels as it’s the only way to gain the confidence of the manager as a reliable defender.
Conclusion
Kaiky Fernandes ticks all the right boxes to become one of the best defenders in the near future.
The player is excellent when in possession and is able to create chances for his team.
While in defending, the player is excellent in positioning and reading the game but still needs experience to put it into action which he will be able to do by playing more and more games at the top level.
On the whole, it’ll be interesting to see how he develops from here and how wonderful the 2023 year is going to be for him!
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