This is post three of a wider series. A series for FM23.
“The ideal final piece of the Blucerchiati jigsaw.”
In-game date: 5 August 2023
Less than six months ago, Enzo Scutari’s Sampdoria were in freefall. On the 4th of January 2023, Sampdoria had smashed Empoli 4-1 to open the new year with a bang, though unfortunately they were to fail to capture another three points until the 12th of March. Over two months and 11 matches later. I went over Samp’s updated narrow 4-4-2 diamond system in the last post, and it was this shift which improved results and saved I Blucerchiati’s season.
Eight wins and three draws from the final 14 games meant that Scutari’s side ended his first season in charge just inside the top half of Serie A in 10th place, but a nice five points clear of Sassuolo who finished 11th. 14 wins, 14 losses and finishing 10th is the definition of mid-table in a 20 team league of course, but rather than being consistently mediocre, Sampdoria were instead either complete garbage or an absolute delight. Luckily they started one way and then ended the campaign the other, so there is real optimism for the fans heading into the 23-24 campaign.
New and improved performance analysis
Without further ado (I hate that phrase), let’s jump into an analysis of Sampdoria player performances in the 22-23 campaign.
For FM23, I have created five new performance calculations which differ slightly from what I introduced and wrote about last year.
The calculations are adjusted combinations of the following.
- Goalkeeping Prowess – xGoals Prevented and Clean Sheets, both per 90, plus Save Ratio %, minus Goals Conceded per 90. Self-explanatory for analysing goalkeepers.
- Defensive Aptitude inc Aerial – Headers Won %, Blocks, Clearances, Interceptions and Pressures all per 90. This is best suited to analyse central defenders. Tackles aren’t included due to the old Paolo Maldini quote about if defenders need to make a tackle, they have already made a mistake. This was also mentioned by real-life scout and analyst Lee Scott on a recent The Athletic Football Manager Show episode.
- Defensive Aptitude – Ground-only – Blocks, Clearances, Interceptions and Pressures all per 90. The same as above, but minus the heading, believe it or not. I would suggest this is best for evaluating full-backs and defensive midfielders, depending on your strategic preferences.
- Creative Contribution – Passer – Open-Play Key Passes, Chances Created and Progressive Passes all per 90. Key Passes are any passes which lead to the receiver taking a shot at goal. Chances Created are the same, but only counted when the receiver is in a high quality shooting position of 0.15 xG or above (i.e. has a 15%+ chance of scoring based on thousands of hours of goal analysis). Progressive Passes are passes where the ball moves significantly towards the opposition goal, thought to be over 10 yards if played while inside the opposition half, or 30 yards or more if played from deep within your own half. A great lens to look at playmakers through.
- Creative Contribution – Dribbler – Dribbles, Completed Sprints, Successful Crosses and Fouls Against all per 90. Think a winger, attacking midfielder or forward pushing ahead with the ball at their feet. This measures how effectively the player can take people on, drive into space, cross the ball and draw fouls from defenders who perceive him as a threat.
- Striking Threat – Non-Penalty xG, Shots on Target and Goals all per 90, plus Shot to Goal Conversion Rate % and Non-Penalty xG per Shot. Literally how effective the player is at getting into high-opportunity shooting positions with regularity, how effectively they strike the ball and ultimately how often that results in accurate shots and goals.
Next up was to evaluate Sampdoria players using these metrics to consider only those with 500+ minutes under their belt this season. I created visuals to judge this at a glance. I’ll go through these below.
Evaluating Sampdoria
Goalkeepers
Scutari only fielded Emil Audero this season in all competitions, so there is no value in rating his performances against his peers this year. Audero conceded 65 goals in 41 games and only kept five clean sheets, but the first half of the season was especially difficult for the 26-year old stopper, as it was the rest of the Sampdoria defence.
Central defence
It’s difficult to pin Sampdoria’s change in fortunes on Dimitris Nikolaou’s January 2023 arrival from Spezia for £7million. It was seemingly a Scutari masterstroke however. Identifying a problem in central defence, Sampdoria splashed almost their entire budget on the Greek international defender on transfer deadline day, and Nikolaou went on to become Sampdoria’s best defensive performer in the second half of the season. Credit to Alex Ferrrari for his offensive contribution, but there are many other roles in Scutari’s narrow 4-4-2 diamond which should be carrying the responsibility for progressive attacking actions.
Full-back
Frédéric Guilbert proved to be an excellent free signing at right-back. He played a lot fewer minutes than Bartosz Bereszynski but when you drill down on his statistical contributions, he has earned the right to fight for that spot in the system heading into season two.
Similarly at left-back, Nicola Murru outperformed regular first-choice Tomas Augello in four of the five key metrics, matching each other only as creative dribblers. Could there be a changing of the guard at full-back during the 2023-24 campaign?
Central midfield, including defensive midfielders
As expected, first choice midfield destroyer Tomas Rincón sits comfortably as our strongest defensive performer in the midfield, though his able backup Pedro Obiang seemingly offered something entirely different, despite being identically deployed in the Half Back role. It just illustrates how different players can perform completely in the same system in the same role. Obiang clearly not as effective at screening in front of the back four, but streets ahead in terms of creative and progressive passing. This may factor into Scutari’s selection for the Half Back role next season. In games against tougher opposition, screen and protect via Rincón, when looking to push forward and complement our attacking talent, Obiang should be our man.
Djuricic sometimes played as a 10 behind the strikers when not deployed as a CM – Mezzala, so seeing the 39 times-capped Serbian as our biggest goal threat and creative dribbler from midfield is no surprise. Gonzalo Villar played many cute timed passes and was offensively-minded by default. Harry Winks was an incredible all rounder. Both will be seriously missed when their loan deals expire in the summer.
Forwards, including central attacking midfielders
Francesco “Ciccio” Caputo and Manolo Gabbiadini were the first-choice strike pairing this year, and it’s easy to see why. Caputo was an absolute poacher extraordinaire though deployed as an Advanced Forward, notching an incredible 34 goals in 40 appearances. He may be 35, but Caputo is one of Serie A’s deadliest strikers. Napoli superstar Victor Osimhen matched his 29 league goals and this was only bettered by Ciro Immobile, who scored 31. The teams those two play for finished third and second in the table, respectively.
While Gabbiadini was the second-most potent goal threat in the Sampdoria attack, bagging 10 goals to reach double figures in a league campaign for only the second time in his career, his 16 assists put him second in the Serie A assist table, behind only Lazio’s Luis Alberto and just ahead of fellow Sampdoria attacker Abdelhamid Sabiri, who shifted from out wide on the left to central midfielder and then finally into the 10 role as Scutari’s system developed over time.
Interestingly, when you look at elite strikers globally and narrow the list down to forwards who have 15+ for Anticipation, Composure, Decisions, Off the Ball and Finishing, there are only 16 players on the planet who fit the bill. Incredibly, Sampdoria employ two of them. See below.
End of season (one) review
Heading into season two
With a settled tactical system, a solid mid-table finish and improvements to junior coaching, youth facilities and recruitment all under way, the 22-23 campaign chapter can be closed and considered a relative success.
With Harry Winks and Gonzalo Villar’s loan spells ending, Mehdi Léris and Valerio Verre on the verge of leaving the club and the loan trio of 36-year old cult hero Antonio Candreva, promising Norwegian midfielder Kristoffer Askildsen and giant German defender Julian Chabot returning, the Sampdoria squad will look significantly different next year.
Enzo Scutari has also strengthened the squad with three key signings this summer. Here are two of them.
It was one Englishman out and one Englishman in, with Todd Cantwell replacing Harry Winks on a free transfer in midfield. That said, Cantwell is more likely to be initially an understudy to Abdelhamid Sabiri at number 10 than a cog in the central midfield machine. Francesco Forte, 30, joins from Benevento in Serie B for £1.2million. Forte has never been prolific, but even at 30 he lowers the average age of our attacking force (yes, Quagliarella will play again next season at 40) and has the strength and aerial presence to represent a different kind of threat than our other forwards give us.
The title of this blog post refers to the classic 1969 Rolling Stones song, and also to our final bit of business.
Scutari wanted a quality central midfielder brought in when the season ended and set his eyes on the soon-to-be free agent José Campaña. The Sampdoria manager praised him publicly, offering him incredible terms to be a key player for Sampdoria in the 23-24 season. At the very last minute, Serie A champions Inter Milan swooped in and signed him, right from under Sampdoria’s noses. It was a tough blow to take, when Campaña looked like the ideal final piece of the Blucerchiati jigsaw.
It was then that chief scout Mattia Baldini flagged Michael Folorunsho’s availability to the manager. More physically imposing, robust, offensively-minded and five years younger than Campaña, Folorunsho’s paperwork was all but done on a £300k move for the midfielder…when Valencia crashed the party just like Inter did and snapped him up first.
Just when it seemed like Mick Jagger might have a point with “You can’t always get what you want,” Maccabi Haifa’s 27-year old central midfielder and 38-times capped Niger international Ali Mohamed appeared on the Sampdoria radar. Mohamed is harder working and a better tackler than either Campaña or Folorunsho and more capable of the unexpected and better with the ball at his feet too. Scutari happily paid his Israeli club the £1.7million fee required to release him and finally Sampdoria had their new number eight.
Turns out Mick was right in the end. “If you try sometime, you’ll find you get what you need.”
The squad
The Sampdoria squad ahead of Enzo Scutari’s second year in charge, the 2023-24 campaign, is complete and ready for action.
EDIT: Minutes after I posted this, we made one more signing so I had to make a change. So you may have noticed our new 41-year old number 11 in the team sheet above. He joined us on a short-term deal on a free. You may have heard of him.
Welcome Zlatan!
Thanks for reading.
FM Stag