Athletic Club have one of the most interesting transfer policies in world football. The club can only sign players who were born in the Basque Country, who developed in the team’s academy system or who came through at another Basque football club.
Ultimately, this leaves the historic side very dependent on bringing fantastic young players into the first-team that are capable of competing in La Liga.
Aymeric Laporte, Iñaki Williams, Unai Simon, Ander Herrera and Kepa Arrizabalaga are just a few of the names who have come through Athletic Club’s academy system over the past decade or so.
Another youngling has recently been making headlines at the Basque club and is highly regarded in Spain as having a massive future in football. This is the attacking midfielder, Oihan Sancet.
Sancet made his debut under Gaizka Garitano in a 1-0 victory over FC Barcelona back in April 2019. Fast forward almost three years and the 21-year-old is a vital player under Marcelino Toral, playing in almost every league game this season.
The young star has made such waves at the San Mamés that Real Madrid have even been linked with the player.
This tactical analysis article will be a scout report of Sancet at Athletic Club. It will be an analysis of the player’s strengths and weaknesses as well as how he fits into his side’s tactics.
Player profile
Sancet is quite a robust player. Very tall and with a rather refined physique, the academy graduate is certainly a presence on the pitch and a handful for opposition defenders.
The player stands at 6ft 2, or 188cm for those who use centimetres as opposed to feet and inches. His weight stands at around 72 kilograms or 158 lbs, which roughly equates to around 11 stone and four pounds.
Upon scouting Sancet, one of the most striking resemblances that came to mind was Tottenham Hotspur’s Dele Alli. While their styles of play may differ slightly as Sancet is far more proactive in creating angles to receive, the pair are almost identical in terms of their physical attributes.
Both are right-footed, good in the air, play between the lines, are 188cm tall and are almost exactly the same weight with Alli currently weighing at 73kg, one kilogram heavier than the Athletic Club star.
Sancet can play a number of different positions which makes him rather versatile for managers. Under Marcelino, he has primarily been used as a second-striker, in place of the ageing Raúl García, and plays alongside the speedster Williams which has made for a formidable pairing.
The youngster’s heat map this season shows that he has only really played up front for Athletic Club but it’s impressive just how much ground he has covered.
His off the ball movement will be analysed in further detail in this scout report, but the player is the definition of a false striker, constantly dropping deep to receive but possessing the ability to switch on the predatory instincts needed by a centre-forward to become a fox in the box.
There is a clear tendency from the player to drop into the right halfspace, which stands out in his heat map. However, this is because he generally plays as the right centre-forward in the pairing, but he is still given license to drift wide as well as drop into really deep areas of the pitch.
In previous campaigns, though, Sancet has even been used by previous coaches as a number ‘10’ and on the wing as he is a great dribbler with the ball too.
Receiving between the lines
Calling Sancet a ‘false 9’ or a creative striker is certainly a fair assessment of the player. An extremely important tendency that false centre-forwards must possess is the ability to drop deep and receive the ball between the lines, gaining positional superiority on the opponent’s defenders.
This prong of superiority refers to when a player gets themselves into a great position to receive the ball with plenty of time and space which allows them to turn and drive forward. Having a player in a team that can perform this role is a wonderful asset.
Manchester City have multiple versions of these players, which is why they dominate teams and create an ungodly amount of chances per match from the central areas.
Here, Sancet takes up a wonderful position between Sevilla’s midfield and backline to receive the ball from the ball-carrier.
The 21-year-old has scanned numerous times before calling for the ball and in doing so, Sancet understands where his teammates are as well as where the nearest defenders are.
Legendary Italian coach Arrigo Sacchi was once quoted as saying that the four reference points for a player to understand where to move when defending are: “the ball, the space, the opponent and his own teammates.” This can be applied to players that are deciding where to move whilst their team is in possession too.
In the previous example, Sancet has mastered all four. He has posited in the perfect position to receive the ball in plenty of space, giving himself enough distance from the opposition’s defenders to receive the ball from the ball-carrier while being close enough to his own teammates that can find his next pass with ease.
Sancet’s technique is interesting too, particularly under pressure. The attacker likes to take his first touch on his left foot and shift the ball onto his right. His right foot is stronger, but it still shows that he is very adept on his left which is a great trait for any football player to have.
Once again, in this image, Sancet has positioned perfectly with regard to the altered version of Sacchi’s four main reference points and has found himself with time and space when receiving. He is able to take a touch with his back foot before quickly playing it through to the runner on his stronger right foot. The defender cuts the pass out but it’s still a great move.
This ability to be somewhat two-footed makes Sancet really tough to defend against when he has his back to goal. If a player is touch-tight to him as he is receiving a pass, he can quickly shimmy to one side and get away from the defender by taking a touch on either foot and pushing the ball away from his marker.
In this scenario, Sancet received a nicely weighted pass, paused for the centre-back from Real Madrid to close him down from behind, shifted the ball with his left foot to his right as his first touch and broke free from his marker – a wonderful showcase of his talent against top-class players.
While being quite tall, he is very deft on his feet and glides around the pitch with the ball at his feet reminiscent of Zinedine Zidane during his playing career.
While he loves receiving the ball to feet in the area between the opposition’s midfield and backline, Sancet also likes to provide depth by making runs in behind the backline. This allows him to latch onto passes in the space behind the defenders but also create room for others to receive by dragging defenders with him.
Instincts of a natural goalscorer
There are a million and one top young attackers in European football that are very adept between the lines. What separates Sancet from the rest and makes him a very niche player is his predatory instincts in the box.
Sometimes, from watching the academy graduate in action, one would mistake him for a centre-forward. While being capable of playing as a striker, he is not a natural frontman. However, this hasn’t stopped him from developing wonderful movement habits in front of goal.
One of these great habits is positioning himself on the blindside of defenders.
In this situation, Sancet scored a wonderful first-time side-footed volley past the Osasuna goalkeeper.
The young forward positioned himself behind the opposition’s centre-back for the entire attack, giving the defender the impression that he wasn’t going to cause any trouble.
At the last second, while the ball hurdled towards him from a floated cross, Sancet peeled off from the centre-back, giving himself some room to place the ball into the bottom corner in what was a beautiful piece of attacking instinct from a so-called ‘advanced midfielder’.
The elegant finish was the icing on the cake of a lovely piece of play from Sancet and Athletic Club.
In the final third, when finding room in the box, Sancet stays between either the fullback and central defender at the far post, or else behind the fullback, giving himself space to latch onto a ball at the back stick.
Due to his physique and height, he can get on the end of crosses by making darting runs in front, coming from the blindside of defenders at the far post. The defenders don’t see him coming and ultimately he can tuck his chance away.
Here, Sancet is positioned behind the furthest defender from the start of the move. The player has every intention of making a dart across them at the right moment and so stays back until the ball is floated in, latches on the end of the cross and heads home for the equaliser.
Sancet’s record in front of goal this season, in this second-striker role, has been profoundly wonderful. Looking at all of his shots from the current league campaign, Sancet is hitting almost half of his shots on target – exactly 45.45% – which is utterly phenomenal for a player who is not a natural centre-forward.
Most of his shots at goal are inside the 18-yard box, but Sancet still likes to take a number of strikes outside the area too, even scoring from one which was a breathtaking finish against Real Madrid back in December.
Sancet’s xG is currently at around 0.25 per 90 while his actual goal tally stands at 0.36 per 90, showing that the player is actually outperforming his xG statistics by a margin of 0.11, an impressive record.
Areas to improve
While Sancet does take up great positions on the field that progress Athletic Club forward, there is still a lot of rawness about his tactical intelligence. At times, the player can be rather naïve with his positioning, demanding the ball far too much from his teammates.
In the game of chess, sometimes pawns can be just as important as the queen depending on the situation. Sancet always wants to be the queen but, at times, the team needs him to be a pawn.
In this example, the attacker is screaming at Unai Vencedor to pass him the ball. The 21-year-old is in a great position. Nevertheless, Vencedor is right-footed and not very comfortable playing on his left.
The ball-carrying midfielder switches the play to the left-back instead. Subsequently, and staying true to his character, Sancet tells Vencedor off. However, Sancet should have known this detail about his teammate and moved into a better area of the pitch which Vencedor would have been comfortable playing to or else don’t call to receive and instead occupy a defender to pin them back, creating room for someone else to get the ball.
Another weakness of the player is that sometimes he plays too safe for an attacker. A confident player on the ball at receiving between the lines but instead of taking advantage of being able to receive in dangerous areas, he tends to play safely at times.
Here, after receiving the ball on the half-turn between the lines, instead of slipping Williams in on goal who was making an excellent run behind Sevilla’s backline, Sancet squares it to the right-back, playing safe.
Securing your passes is never a bad habit but there are times when players need to add some risk to their game. Weeding out his risk averseness will be important for Sancet while he is developing as a player.
This season, he has averaged 0.87 key passes per 90, 1.19 smart passes per 90, 1.19 through passes per 90 and 2.81 passes to the final third. However, these statistics could still be a lot higher considering how many times he is passed the ball between the lines. The young attacker’s expected assists per 90 stand at merely 0.15 too.
Conclusion
Sancet is very much still a raw player and has a lot to learn in the sport. The defensive side to his game has been highly-impressive under Marcelino as the 21-year-old shows a real willingness to help out the side and a clear tactical understanding of football.
However, watching him on the pitch is a joy. The way he is constantly scanning for space, persistently demanding the ball, dribbling past players, making one-touch passes, and providing end product to the team is a thing of beauty for any football fan.
Sancet has already been linked with a move away from the club to some of Europe’s elite which isn’t a surprise after watching him for even just five minutes.
The young attacker is one to keep an eye on and could have a massive future in football in the future if he can follow his development pathway.
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