This was meant to be “Scouting [Redacted]” because, well, I quite like [redacted]. I’m also in desperate need of a [redacted (used as noun)], considering I’m stuck in a snowstorm, but oh well.
And then I remembered Josh Acheampong exists. And I really, really like Acheampong. So this is now Scouting Josh Acheampong.
Wow, I really have to work on my intros.
📚 Contents
Note for email readers: This email is truncated. To read the full article, please click on this link or the link to the right of [Message clipped] note at the bottom of this email.
Managing Contact
Joshua Kofi Acheampong is 6 ft 3 in (1.90 m) tall, and he can win headers against a seasoned Premier League striker in Jean-Philippe Mateta:
And a lot of this comes down to how he uses his body to hold off contact. I think this (keeping the ball away from your opponent) is becoming especially relevant in football today, for a couple of reasons:
Tenacity and general pressing are prioritised among attackers and across the forward line.
You want your defenders to drive up the pitch, and once they do, it’s important they don’t lose the ball, because you, as the defender, have driven up the pitch.
Finds his man early:
Stiff arm to maintain distance and push his marker away
Drops his shoulder and ducks (🦆) under contact
Strong grounding + spring step help him create even more distance from his marker.
Drawing fouls is a neat skill for a fullback too, and it’s an easy way to relieve pressure and waste time.
Anticipate → initiate contact by stepping across his marker’s momentum; draw the foul:
And using brute strength smartly, because you’re one well-timed shoulder barge away from winning a corner without ever having won a tackle, which is incredibly useful when defending channels in and around the box:
Aaaand Acheampong is good at fending off contact in the air:
Holding his body weight over his marker → pushing his marker down → using that same momentum as a boost to get OVER him 👆
Running as the Crow (🐦⬛) Flies
Something I’ve noticed about Acheampong is just how efficient he is at cutting down angles. He reads the game so well that he minimises the steps he needs to take between man and ball, effectively halving his marker’s decision-making time.
Getting between your man and the ball is one of the cornerstones of defending, so it’s pretty encouraging to see how quickly he does this.
Quickly turns his body to get in front of the ball:
Makes first [intercepting] contact with the ball between Muñoz’s layoff and his crossing touch
Cucurella’s slightly too passive here (though I suppose the situation may warrant it), but good on Acheampong for winning the ball back as quickly as possible:
When looking at Jeremy Jacquet, I noticed that he falls over a LOT after making a block or tackle.
While this is good if you’ve cleanly won the ball or poked it out for a corner, it’s less than ideal when (a) the ball is still in play, (b) your team lacks central pressure, and (c) your opponents have numbers in the box.
Fundamentally, the above stems from the fact that rebounds → shot are great, and every team should take advantage of them.
So eliminating them entirely by staying on your feet is nice:
Wide Defending
And then we have Acheampong’s wide defending, which is, rather unsurprisingly, great. It’s pretty easy to mess up when defending channels, especially if the other CBs in your team aren’t reliable box defenders.
It’s also pretty easy to overcommit and lunge in, especially when you’re up against a fast winger. And there are a couple of ways to avoid doing so:
Close feet, shoulders over the ball, momentum stable enough to jump in any direction:
Outstretched arm and nimble on the resting leg, meaning he can easily go backward or push off that foot to his right (good). Legs wide (bad, but situational)
Toes tapping faster than a ballerina on a caffeine high:
Which lends itself well to quick changes of direction. Which now brings me to, well, quick changes of direction:
Being able to defend inside and outside at speed bodes well for defending… anywhere, really.
It also gives coaches more leeway to let him (or another FB) jump the defensive line, because even if Acheampong doesn’t have the recovery pace to get to the ball, his mobility and reach mean he’s still likely to get there anyway.
As a consequence, I think his initial acceleration is a bit… meh, but Acheampong can cover ground pretty quickly once he gets moving.
Given that average acceleration, I think Acheampong can sometimes decelerate too much (not slowly, just too much), but he’s ultimately mobile enough for it not to matter. Plus, given this stems from anticipation, the issues should iron themselves out with time and match experience.
Acceleration → deceleration to intercept + lunge → acceleration:
Retention and Headers
I really, really like how retentive Acheampong’s headers are:
It feels like most of his headers end up back with a teammate (bobble aside), and that makes it pretty easy for Chelsea to sustain pressure, especially off the back of a second ball.
Generally aligns himself and times his leap well:
He’s pretty decent in the air on the whole, though I’d rather not have him as the last man when trying to mop up an aerial ball just yet.
I also did spy some neat near-post flick-ons from attacking corners, so, you know, bonus points for being foundationally excellent.
Passing and Dribbling
Leans back; top-spin without bobble:
I generally think Acheampong’s weight of pass is good:
And the basics of passing are all there. He receives smartly, and gets it off his boot neatly and quickly.
I’ve seen people flag his low passing volume, but I reckon that can mostly be attributed to sample size and system deflation, so there’s nothing to worry about there.
Acheampong’s generally smart with the ball on the whole:
Aware of his man, he turns his shoulder to get his body ahead of him:
Arm out, blocking from the base of the socket (more surface area)
Wraps his foot around the ball and curls inward
Skillset → Profiling
I think Acheampong is, honestly, great. Great to the extent of being one of the best defensive prospects in the world, and better than Jeremy Jacquet.
One of my biggest criteria when evaluating defenders is whether they’re proactive or reactive. And as some of my microanalysis above has alluded to, Acheampong’s proactive, which I absolutely love.
Being proactive means shutting down space before your attacker moves, or getting between ball and goal before your attacker lays the ball off. You become that much harder to play against simply because you know what your attacker’s going to do, and you stop him from doing it before he even starts.
Even still, Acheampong’s limbs are long enough and his reactions quick enough that, even if he misjudges a situation, he’s likely to recover from it.
So what this basically boils down to is:
— A lot of defenders are slow to read the game, and hence, reactive.
— Acheampong, on the other hand, is proactive.
— Buuuut he’s also nimble enough to react quickly (safety net).
What this means is that his defensive fundamentals are good enough for him to be a darn good CB, while his wide defending and carrying mean he can more than comfortably fill in as a RB.
I don’t think he should really be used as an up-and-down FB, he could do okay there, while fitting best as someone who stays wide in the first phase before tucking slightly narrow with room to maraud.
Even if he loses the ball, he’s, once again, smart enough to get between man and goal quickly, so turnovers are proportionately less risky. At its core, this also gives his teammates more leeway to take chances and actually try to score goals.
I think the numbers (below) can be slightly misleading given sample size, but here they are anyway:
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed. Take care, and have a great week ahead!
P.S. here’s some more of my work:
