Martin Baturina Scout Report: Why He’s Being Called The Next Luka Modrić

Croatia has always been blessed with incredible footballers, and despite its small size, its sporting success has remained strong.

Much of their success is due to the quality of their youth products, mostly from the famous Dinamo Zagreb academy.

The latest hot prospect rapidly gaining interest from the likes of Arsenal and Juventus is Martin Baturina, the Blues’ 20-year-old midfielder.

Baturina has already been likened to Real Madrid and Croatia legend Luka Modrić and could soon be on his way to playing for one of the European powerhouses.

But what do we know about this young talisman?

Martin Baturina Style Of Play

Standing at 172 cm (5’8”) and weighing 68kg (149lbs), Martin Baturina is a prototype diminutive technician with a skilful right foot and lower centre of gravity, which enables him to twist and turn out of pressure.

The 20-year-old is a dynamic presence in Dinamo Zagreb’s midfield, usually performing the role of an attacking midfielder, just behind the frontline or a left-sided interior with a licence to roam the half-space.

The following graph shows us the data analysis of Baturina’s profile, identifying some of his strengths and weaknesses.

Immediately, we are drawn to specific categories the 20-year-old dominates.

Martin Baturina Player Radar Map

Dinamo Zagreb are one of the teams in 1. HNL that dominate the ball and control games, and Baturina is often a big part of that possession-heavy approach.

The data analysis of

this with high accuracy as well.

While he isn’t necessarily a tempo setter or a significant deep presence, Baturina certainly likes to be highly involved and needs to touch the ball often to maximise his influence.

Interestingly enough, on the other end of the spectrum, the 20-year-old also registers a lot of touches in the opposition’s penalty area and produces a lot of dribbles, both for progression and creation purposes.

In short, this makes his presence palpable on both ends of the pitch, as confirmed by the heatmap we’ll see next.

Martin Baturina Heat Map

The visual clearly depicts a left-sided preference for Baturina, but interestingly, he likes to both drop deep and advance high and be more central or wide, depending on the team’s needs.

We’ll explore this further in this tactical analysis, but even just by judging his movement, we can already see that the 20-year-old is quite versatile in his approach.

While it’s not easy to pinpoint a singular best role for him as of yet, an 8/10 hybrid can do his profile justice until he eventually evolves into the player he will be once he matures mentally and physically.

Martin Baturina Progression Analysis

The progression he offers demonstrates a considerable part of Baturina’s influence on Dinamo Zagreb’s tactics.

Judging by the statistical analysis from the previous section of our scout report, we can conclude that the 20-year-old is a good progressor both in passing and carrying.

He worked his way up to the 62.45th percentile in progressive passing and all the way up to the 90.8th percentile in dribbling, which are often the instigators of his progressive carries.

But sticking to his passing for a moment, the following graphs will show us his tendencies in possession as well as the areas he occupies (and accesses) the most when deploying passes.

Martin Baturina Pass Map & Touch Map

Again, visible clusters are forming in some regions of the pitch, like the left half-space. Still, the general consensus is that Baturina is an all-phase midfielder who likes to be as involved as possible, registering touches across the thirds.

The graph on the right confirms this thesis, while the graph on the left shows us that while he has a keen eye for a progressive, line-breaking pass, Baturina’s preferred mode of progression still lies in the carries.

But considering he is among the most influential and involved players in his position and considering Dinamo Zagreb’s ball-heavy approach, it doesn’t surprise the 20-year-old Blue is also a good recycler and retainer of possession.

The data analysis already confirmed this, but the graph on the left shows a busy passer in key areas of the pitch.

That said, to call him an elite progressor via passing would not be true; sure, he can do it, and he has a highly creative right foot, but Baturina would rather beat his marker and run with the ball than break lines from deep.

Martin Baturina Progressive Carries & Passes Map

The graphs you can see here show us the difference between his progression via running and passing.

On the left, we see the former, and on the right, we see the latter.

Here, the lower volume of progressive passes, especially in comparison with progressive carries, can be seen.

In fact, Baturina doesn’t crack the top 30 in 1 when it comes to passing.

HNL, while he is the player with the second-most total progressive carries in 2023/24 (55) and third in progressive carries per 90 minutes (3.7) at the moment of writing.

It’s no surprise either, as the graph shows.

He uses both as a progression tool in deeper areas and as a creation tool in higher ones.

Generally, Baturina will receive from the backline, twist and turn to evade the pressure, beat the marker and then conquer territory through his carries.

The other option is to draw fouls to move the height of his backline and gain territory that way.

Our following example shows us a sequence where we see his dribbles as a progression tool.

Here, Baturina drops slightly down the left half-space to give his defender an accessible vertical passing option to progress play initially.

But as soon as he receives the ball, he turns his marker and advances up the pitch along the left flank.

In these instances, the play doesn’t always result in a direct chance on goal or even in the retention of possession, but it serves to advance the team higher up the pitch and conquer territory.

In this particular sequence, the opposition team manages to tackle the ball.

However, Dinamo Zagreb can still reap the benefits of Baturina’s run since the play has now firmly shifted to the other team’s half.

The 20-year-old’s frame gives him agility and flexibility to outmanoeuvre his markers, akin to what Barcelona legends Andres Iniesta or even Lionel Messi used to do.

Naturally, this isn’t a direct quality comparison with two of the best players to have ever graced the pitches but rather a body profile comparison, as Baturina boasts some traits similar to the aforementioned duo.

His dribbling proficiency is undoubtedly something to point out, and in these instances, it becomes an excellent progression tool in the face of extreme pressure and/or tight man-marking.

Let’s look at another example that combines these traits.

Here, Baturina once again receives the ball with his back turned to the opposition’s goal and proceeds to turn his marker immediately.

But staying true to his profile of a progressive metronome who influences all areas of the pitch, the 20-year-old carries the ball before linking up with a teammate out wide and then continuing his run to provide the team with another advanced passing option.

Once he eventually receives in a high and wide position, he attracts two markers, retains the ball nonetheless and lays it off to a teammate who is now free thanks to his efforts.

In essence, that is Baturina’s actual value to Dinamo Zagreb’s progression tactics; he evades pressure, provides and creates advanced passing options, and successfully connects the thirds from deeper to higher zones of the pitch.

Final third analysis

Baturina has a precise skillset to influence play and his team’s tactics higher up the pitch.

However, in 2023/24, across all competitions, the young midfielder has only registered three goals and no assists to his name at the moment of writing this scout report.

If we break it down even further, we get 0.22 xG per 90 and 0.09 xA per 90.

While that return may seem low for a player of his talent, not everything he does is accurately seen in the pure output.

Our following visual will show us Baturina’s shot assists throughout the domestic season and the location of all the fouls he’s drawn so far.

The fouls are essential because they are linked with one of his most important tools: dribbling.

Martin Baturina Shot Assists Map

Looking at the graph, we can identify the areas where Baturina’s creativity shines the most.

And it seems that most of his shot assists originate in and around zone 14 (just ahead of the opposition’s penalty box), which is generally regarded as one of the most critical attacking zones on the pitch.

Conversely, the fouls are distributed more towards the half-spaces, which makes sense considering those areas where Baturina is most active, especially when carrying the ball from the deep.

While the 20-year-old cracks the top 30 in 1.

HNL in total key passes played in 2023/24 (6), his per 90 return is not as impressive (0.4).

That said, he ranks 12th in the league for smart passes (9) and 15th in smart passes per 90 (0.6).

The most impressive stat, however, is deep completions, which represent a non-cross pass targeted to the zone within 20 metres of the opponent’s goal.

In that category, Baturina ranks fifth in total deep completions (24) and seventh in deep completions per 90 (1.61).

So, what does his creative passing usually look like on the pitch?

Even though the numbers may not always show his creativity or technical quality in deploying deadly passes, Baturina is quite versatile in his distribution.

As we can see from the previous examples, the young Dinamo Zagreb midfielder is comfortable passing from various zones on the pitch and with different types of passes.

Often, we see him distribute from the deep and into the runners, but when he gets higher up the pitch, he has no issues breaking the lines and sending a pinpoint pass to his teammates’ feet.

This is what makes him unique and what makes him influential, especially in the higher zones.

But if we look back at the first visual in our tactical analysis, we’ll see that Baturina ranks highly among the players who share his role in 1 in terms of touches in the opposition’s penalty area.

We’ve already mentioned how he’s essentially a player who likes to influence his team’s tactics across the pitch constantly, so seeing him with a role to play deep and high should not be surprising.

What usually starts as a press-resistance tool in deeper areas often turns into an offensive tool once Baturina penetrates the half-spaces with his carries and enters the box.

We can see those carries and his shots in the following graphs.

Martin Baturina Shots & Penetrating Carries Map

Penetrative carries seem to be Baturina’s strong suit, and this, again, does not come as a surprise considering how impactful those carries are deeper on the pitch as well.

But they do offer attacking utility when the young Blue can start higher in the half-spaces and then burst forward to reach a good position to either shoot or create from.

That being said, it seems he has yet to fully develop his attacking contribution, although 2022/23 was much more productive by all standards, with six goals and 10 assists.

If we conduct a quick analysis of his shot locations, we’ll discover that he prefers the left-hand side and should have at least one more goal to his name at this stage of the season.

HNL.

The central locations of his shots and the relatively high xG values suggest that Baturina knows how to get into solid shooting positions but is not consistently converting.

Last season, however, he scored six goals from 5.32 xG, slightly outperforming his expected return and nearly doubling his 5.34 xA. He also has 10 assists.

While ideally, we’d have a larger sample to work with before judging the trajectory of his output, 2022/23’s return was his highest in Dinamo Zagreb’s colours so far and could still be an outlier.

Granted, the team is struggling much more collectively in 2023/24, and this could also hamper Baturina’s influence.

That said, his shot map from last season reads similarly to the one we saw earlier in the scout report; only then, he had an xG per shot of 0.15 compared to this season’s 0.09.

Either way, he seems pretty good at finding decent positions to shoot from, and this should, in theory, also predict a positive net return in the near future.

This sequence shows us a relatively standard turn of events when Baturina receives the ball higher up the pitch, between the lines and in his favoured left half-space.

The 20-year-old is very good at manipulating the ball in tight areas, turning and progressing into a good position to shoot from.

This is another thing we have to mention that is impacting his xG per shot and his total output: shooting from a distance.

Last season, he made 13 shots from outside the box in 1.

HNL, hitting the target five times and rattling the inside of the net once from those five attempts; all things considered, a decent return.

This season, he’s already shot eight times outside the box and hit the target three times, but he has no goals to his name yet.

Naturally, being in a team whose tactics are often centred around dominating the ball, Baturina and Dinamo Zagreb often face deep and compact blocks, so shots from distance can effectively break them down.

But one other thing in Baturina’s offensive arsenal is off-the-ball movement.

Of course, this ability is best utilised in combination with some of his other traits.

The following sequence will show us one of his staple movements, which involves changing positions depending on the team’s current needs.

As usual, Baturina starts relatively deep, often receiving directly from the backline and then carrying the ball for a certain distance before linking up with a teammate out wide.

But he doesn’t stop there, either.

The young midfielder continues his run and opens up a passing lane in a more advanced zone, penetrating that half-space in an off-ball movement.

Apart from offering himself as a passing option, he also creates space by dragging the markers away, making a gap in the opposition’s defensive structure.

All of that combined makes him a potent weapon in the final third, but one that still needs to find consistency in his output to reach the next level.

Conclusion

Martin Baturina is an exhilarating prospect who, if his development continues on the current trajectory, will eventually leave Croatia to join one of the European powerhouses.

That said, he is still young, so we’re yet to witness his full mental and physical capacity.

Either way, his immediate future, both with Dinamo Zagreb and a potential move abroad, should be exciting.