Daryl Dike: Future USMNT Striker?

The US Men’s National Team are potentially in the early days of a bit of a - dare I say it - Golden Generation.

Haters aside, there’s a bunch of great young USA guys playing at top sides all around the world.

One thing they don’t really have though, is a lock for striker.

• Timothy Weah is starting to make strides in France, but he hasn’t panned out as well as I’d have liked - He’s only 21 though, so still has a lot of time

• Matthew Hoppe got himself a Topps Now card one time

• Josh Sargent…. plays soccer

Another guy who is putting his hand up as a striker prospect is Daryl Dike, on loan at Barnsley from Orlando City.

Dike has been absolutely smashing in the goals in the Championship.

I won’t give a full scouting report today - but we’ll take a quick look at his numbers.

Fun fact, which I’m putting down to coincidence - I actually spoke to Barnsley about a job in their scouting team in January and suggested a player very similar to Dike as a good striker option. Dike was signed February on loan.

Dike’s Premier League Numbers

One tool that I really like for quick snapshots like this is SmarterScout because it lets you adjust player stats and numbers from league to league.

So, we can use Dike’s impact using their out of 99 FIFA-style ratings in the Championship and see how he might go in the Premier League.

Looking at those numbers you can see that Dike’s attacking output would already be above average at the Premier League level - that’s pretty outstanding!

You can also see that he is a tenacious and active defender.

Dike’s ball retention is super low though - although, he’s a decent dribbler. I’d suggest a lot of it might have to do with Barnsley’s play style - they’re a heavy pressing side that take a lot of chances in possession and go direct to goal.

On a side note - if you ever get a chance, watch Barnsley play. They’re a bloody fun team.

Changing Play Style

We can also use SmarterScout to see a player’s style - basically how frequently a player does a certain action.

You can see now he’s in the Championship, Dike is doing a lot more defending with his ball recovery and disruption of opponent moves going up. That matches the numbers we looked at before.

Dike is dribbling less than he used to, but he is playing a lot more passes toward goal.

Ultimately, a lot of pressing and defending - hoping to start an attack. Then ideally, getting onto the end of the move an finishing with a goal.

Daryl Dike Shooting

Daryl Dike has been banging in the goals since joining Barnsley on loan. However, as we can see, a lot of that is performing above his expected goals.

In fact, his 0.33 goals per shot (with an xG of 0.16 per shot) is insane - and pretty bloody unsustainable long term, even if his numbers in the MLS were still high.

A lot of Daryl Dike’s low xG goals have been from headers, or absolute worldies at angles - like this belter.

While I absolutely love goals like that, you don’t want to rely on goals like that every week.

Dike For The USMNT?

Dike has a couple of caps for the national team already, and this season he’s put his hand up to be in contention for that number 9 shirt.

I’ve seen a lot of discussion on how the USMNT should line up - even down to playing Pulisic and Reyna as false nines (as a way to combat the fact there’s no real striker option).

I’m pretty straightforward when it comes to national teams. There isn’t a lot of time to train together, so put your best players in their best positions and work it out from there - don’t try to get too cute.

For me, with Reyna showing up as a 10, I’d be looking at a 4-2-3-1, with a front six looking something like this (assuming health). Note, Aaronson and Pulisic can swap wings - I don’t really care about that part.

I actually really like the player Dike has been this season in that role - he does a lot defensively. Granted, he’d definitely be the worst player in that front six. Then again, pretty much every option would be at this stage.

He’s only young, and has only got about 2000 minutes of soccer under his belt, but I’m interested to see if Dike can continue to impress this season and into next year (I think it’s a certainty that he gets a move this offseason - either to Barnsley or elsewhere). If he can, I think he’s as good a chance as any for the USMNT going forward.

Your Next Steps

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