Three Under-The-Radar Striker Options

BEFORE YOU START READING: I got halfway through writing this and I saw an article linking one of these three strikers to Brighton! I’ve chuched in a few edits where needed.

I wasn’t going to write much regarding potential transfers and whatnot. Personally, I think there’s way better info about that out there with things like TIFO and The Athletic.

However, I have been looking at a few under the radar guys that I think could do a job in the Premier League if they signed today.

It’s important to know that when I consider ‘under the radar’ thats a little in the eye of the beholder - so I’ve looked at players that might not be in the mainstream Premier League soccer fan.

If you’re into the weeds, you’ll probably know who they are. But I hope evn if you do, you pick up a few little things about them.

Along with that, I’ve done the following.

• I’ve only included players that are hobby relevant and already have product out - there’s a bunch that will have rookie stuff this season - but we’ve got a lot of time to talk about those guys.

• I used SmarterScout to adjust all numbers to Premier League standard

Youssef En-Nesyri

First cab off the rank is Sevilla’s En-Nesyi. I know labelling a player form La Liga isn’t exactly ‘under the radar’ but there’s a lot of fans that wouldn’t know too much about him.

Espescailly if you’re not an avid watcher of the Spanish game.

En-Nesyiri is my type of striker.

Tall, strong in the air, holds up the ball well, good finisher, and presses well.

Smarterscout does a cool thing where it looks at how often a player does a certain action on the field compared to other players in their position and gives them a 0-99 style rating.

Here’s En-Nesyiri’s style.

To be fair, that kinda matches up with my eye test.

Looking at his numbers compared to other forwards in top five Euro leagues, you can see just how effective En-Nesyiri is in what he’s good at.

Great aerial numbers, very solid defensive metrics, and bloody incredible goal scoring numbers. Going at basically 0.2 non-penalty goals per 90 over his already impressive npxg is crazy-impressive.

It’s either he’s a very average finisher - and this is just a purple patch that’ll slowly revert back to the mean, or he’s a Messi-level finisher.

Odds are it’s likely to be somewhere between.

Using Smarterscout, we can try to project a player's numbers to another league - here’s En-Nesyiri impact numbers adjusted to Premier League standard.

You can see an above-average striker that offers quite a bit defensively.

Ball retention isn’t a strong point (as we saw with his lack of passing numbers) but for someone that’s usually on the end of moves, that’s to be expected.

That RC is very generous

Valentin Castellanos

Another name that’ll be familiar to some names and not others.

If you’re an MLS fan - you’ll know about this guy.

If you’re only a part-time MLS guy, or one that only looks at the American prospects, this guy may have slipped your radar.

Castellanos is a bit of a stud at MLS level. Here’s how his numbers compare agianst other strikers in the league over the last calendar year.

His finishing and pass completion are the two main numbers that stand out as potential red flags to me. However, if we assume that over time his scoring will eventually look more like his xg, that looks a lot healthier.

Style-wise we see an interesting player too.

Shot-heavy player that’s an absolute pest defending from the front.

High receiving the ball in the box is always a good sign and shows an ability to get in good goal scoring/creating positions.

Smarterscout really likes Castellanos as a Premier League player too. Here’s how the site projects his numbers to Premier League standard.

An 83 for attacking output is elite.

However, I don’t really think that the ‘this prospect from the MLS can instanty be an elite Premier League striker’ wagon is a good one to be hitched to.

Darwin Nunez

Now, I personally would call Darwin Nunez a well known soccer prospect - however, he definitely lost a bit of hype as the season went on.

Now, we’ll see if the Benfica man moves this offseason or not.

Edit: Before publishing this, I read a few articles linking him to Brighton in the Premier League which would be AWESOME.

Unlike the other players we’ve looked at before, Nunez is a much more active dribbler and gets more involved in the buildup. However, he still gets the ball a lot in the box.

Nunez is another player that SmarterScout loves when you project numbers to Premier League standard.

The 86 attacking output is huge and the defending numbers are solid.

However, again - I’m not going to sit here and say that he’d come to the Premier League and be elite. However, he’s a youngster with a lot of promise. If he gets a move to a Premier League club that’ll use him well, it could be a great buy.

Nunez is in that place though where he might have too big of a rep as a prospect. You don’t want him going somewere and just warming a bench.

Looking to Support the Newsletter?

I don’t want to charge you for listening to podcasts or reading newsletters (not that I'm against anyone that does - it just isn’t my thing).

However, having said that, there’s a few ways you can help out.

For starters, you can share this with someone in the hobby.

Also, if you’re looking at eBay to make any purchases, please click here to do so (or copy https://ebay.us/3ZeaOV into your browser). I’ll earn a small percentage of any purchase made at no extra cost to you.

Consigning With Goldin Auctions

If you’re looking at consigning high-end cards, click here to fill out a form and I can help you get your cards consigned at Goldin. It’s a great way to help out the pod.

Or, if that link didn’t work, copy and paste this into your browser: https://forms.gle/Sm95Jk95L9PMbvRG8