Adnan Januzaj (18-19 and beyond)

Ekeke

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I only saw old threads about him from a few seasons ago when searching, so heres one for his progress this season.

He's had a slow start to the season due to a knee injury where he only returned at the end of October but he's finally started some matches.

He's had 5 league starts and each of them he's looked pretty good. Perhaps he's finally going to follow up on his season where he broke into the United team and was one of our best players that year.

At 23 years of age he's statistically been Sociedad's best player this season in his 5 starts and 3 sub appearances.

He leads his team for most dribbles (1.9), most key passes (2.9 with 2.1 of those being crosses), 2nd most shots (3.1), accurate crosses (3.5) - also takes corners and freekicks, 3rd most freekicks won (3.1) (per 90 mins). His 2 assists are also enough to be joint most of his team with Zaldua, which isnt bad considering he started the season so late.

Where he still has work to do is that he averages being tackled 4.2 times per 90 mins. He also averages 71.6% pass completion. So he gives the ball away a lot as well as making things happen in attack.

Last week he had his best game of the season statistically against Alaves.

Although his team lost, he supplied 6 key passes, 5 dribbles, 4 shots with 1 on target and 17 crosses with 9 finding a teammate who got a shot on goal.

Again he was tackled 4 times and had 72.7% pass accuracy. So lots of attacking actions but also lost the ball a fair bit


Goal against Celta on 5th December



If he can carry on his form until the end of the season he might get another chance at a fairly big club. But still lots of games to go to see if he can keep it up. I also doubt that club would be United unless he goes up another level over the course of the season.
 

Ekeke

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Is he on loan or did you sell him?
Sold for 8.5 million euros in 2017. Apparently we have a buyback or something but we never seem to use those anyway so I'm going to expect him to end up elsewhere until proven otherwise.
 
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Sold for 8.5 million euros in 2017. Apparently we have a buyback or something but we never seem to use those anyway so I'm going to expect him to end up elsewhere until proven otherwise.
The player also need's to want to come back. He's not good enough to be a first team player so why would he even entertain the idea. He's not become an outstanding player, and I can't see him ever coming back.
 

Ekeke

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The player also need's to want to come back. He's not good enough to be a first team player so why would he even entertain the idea. He's not become an outstanding player, and I can't see him ever coming back.
Agreed. I'd only see us signing him if he has good reason to think he'll be starting. Despite him doing well for half a dozen games this season he has to go another level and be scoring or setting up goals weekly if we were to sign him instead of one of the other young players out there doing that.

Thats why I can see him going to another fairly big club instead. Valencia sized maybe but probably not them because Soler plays on the right for them. Maybe an Italian team. If it was a premier league team, more like Everton...
 

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Good player for mid table club.

La Real had awful run recently and have stopped scoring again.
 

Gordon S

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Was he ever as good as my mind seems to recall?

I remember being blown away by him. I remember a league cup tie once where he was sensational.
Yeah, he took the piss at reserve level, shame he couldn't keep improving. That 18-22 age seems like some bermuda triangle for young players.
 

FootballHQ

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Was he ever as good as my mind seems to recall?

I remember being blown away by him. I remember a league cup tie once where he was sensational.
Sunderland away.
 

marktan

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I caught his highlights for quite a few games last season for Sociedad, he was very good overall, I remember he had an amazing game Atletico Madrid in particular.

Been keeping an eye out this season but he's been injured, and now that he's back they've seemed to have lost a bunch of games in a row. I think it's more likely than not though that he pushes on in the next 1-2 seasons given how well he can play.
 

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Was he ever as good as my mind seems to recall?

I remember being blown away by him. I remember a league cup tie once where he was sensational.
I didn’t watch him at all in the youth teams. Was fairly impressed when first watching him play in the pre season against some Thai team. But overall I would put it closer to someone like Welbeck rather than the popular comparison at the time of Ronaldo.

Strangely enough, I thought he was more team oriented and had better vision when he started out. Being played as a dribbling winger in Moyes system and fecked about as striker under LvG seemed to have made him a much more selfish, tunnel vision player. Hasn’t watched him at Sociedad.

Hope he goes on to have a good career. Personal assessment is that he is/was a very good talent but never truly the sort of young prodigy who was sure to be at the top echelon, even without the supposed immaturity/laziness (per Butt)
 

Ekeke

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Was he ever as good as my mind seems to recall?

I remember being blown away by him. I remember a league cup tie once where he was sensational.
In his first season in the first team he was an important player for us in his run on the left side under Moyes. He'd play his left back in behind or get a pretty good cross into the box.

No he hasnt achieved the level that the hype suggested. After that 1 season he wasnt up to much. This season he might finally have his 2nd good season
 

Tony Clifton

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Surprised to still see this thread hasn't been bumped, since Real Sociedad's win over Leganés yesterday. Fine then, I'll do it.

Januzaj played really well and was a joy to watch. His overall contribution over the full 90 was great.

He even whipped in a fine cross to assist on the first goal. Additionally, he was also key and perhaps more impressive in the build-up for the second goal. Should've actually had another assist there. Oyarzabal's brace or not, Januzaj was my man of the match.



There's an excellent player in there that can flourish and take another step in his development. He's just turned 24 and is still a few years from his prime. Technically good and a dribbler with pace, he can cut inside for the left-foot shot as well.

Activate his buy-back clause for our attack's right flank/forward. No fuss, saves both time and money. Assess during next season before the winter transfer window.

Meanwhile, invest and strengthen in other positions instead.
 
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kundalini

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Adnan has taken 26 shots in La Liga this season. He is yet to score. The expected goals value for those shots is 1.70 expected goals. 2.32 shots per 90 mins.

He has 3 assists in 1010 mins. Expected assists 2.25. Key passes per 90 mins 2.05

Last season he had 3 goals and 5 assists in 1584 mins. His expected goals numbers looked good but his woeful finishing meant he scored 3 goals rather than the expected 7.85. His expected assists are about in line with his actual assists.

I'm a big fan (perhaps that should read, was a big fan), but his development since the Moyes/Giggs season has been practically non-existent. He has the same strengths and the same weaknesses. What on earth has he been doing ?
 
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In Rainbows

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I like Adders but his goalscoring record is awful.
He's never really been a goal scorer.

Adnan has taken 26 shots in La Liga this season. He is yet to score. The expected goals value for those shots is 1.70 expected goals.

He has 3 assists in 1010 mins.

Last season he had 3 goals and 5 assists in 1584 mins. His expected goals numbers looked good but his woeful finishing meant he scored 3 goals rather than the expected 7.85. His expected assists are about in line with his actual assists.

I'm a big fan (perhaps that should read, was a big fan), but his development since the Moyes/Giggs season has been practically non-existent. He has the same strengths and the same weaknesses. What on earth has he been doing ?
You focus too much on stats. He's done really well for Real Sociedad which is why their fans love him.

The year all of us started hyping him up as a 17-18 year old youth player, he hardly had amazing end product. Yet he was still the best player on the pitch because he helps the team out by setting others up and just overall being a positive influence on the team.
 

nyanza

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How much is his buy-back clause? If two of Lukaku, Mata and Sanchez are not here next season (which is more than likely) and Chong / Greenwood don't make the step up in that time, he can be a great option to have for the right money as we won't be able to afford two Sancho-like signings with all the other positions that may need strengthening.
 

Ekeke

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Actually the stats say he's been Sociedad's best player, other than a guy who played 1 time and played well

 

AndyJ1985

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Elite teams need all their attacking players to contribute when it comes to scoring. He doesn't score goals.
 

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Adnan has taken 26 shots in La Liga this season. He is yet to score. The expected goals value for those shots is 1.70 expected goals. 2.32 shots per 90 mins.

He has 3 assists in 1010 mins. Expected assists 2.25. Key passes per 90 mins 2.05

Last season he had 3 goals and 5 assists in 1584 mins. His expected goals numbers looked good but his woeful finishing meant he scored 3 goals rather than the expected 7.85. His expected assists are about in line with his actual assists.

I'm a big fan (perhaps that should read, was a big fan), but his development since the Moyes/Giggs season has been practically non-existent. He has the same strengths and the same weaknesses. What on earth has he been doing ?
These sort of football fans make me want to scream, no offence. "expected" this "expected" that. It's such a dreadful way to look at football. Stats don't always tell the whole story.
 

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These sort of football fans make me want to scream, no offence. "expected" this "expected" that. It's such a dreadful way to look at football. Stats don't always tell the whole story.
Yeah, incredible really. Doesn't seem to have watched him play but hopped on to whoscored or wherever and vomited out an essay based on stats.
 

Ekeke

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These sort of football fans make me want to scream, no offence. "expected" this "expected" that. It's such a dreadful way to look at football. Stats don't always tell the whole story.
It depends what stats you're looking at. If you had them available for everything you would be able to tell most of the story. But I'm not aware of any site that has every stat you would want. For example one I'd want is individual errors/mistakes leading to shots for CBs.

What he has selected is just a couple of stats that ignore a lot of what makes a good attacking player. Goals and assists are important for a winger for sure, but so is having an impact in general play. Januzaj has a lot of dribbles for example causing threat down his side, so he needs teams to defend properly against him which will create space for other players. Especially if he's having a particularly good game and the opponents double up on him with 2 opponents to beat. Then his team have a man free.

Thats why with his 2 selected stats, he's decided Januzaj isnt very good. But Whoscored's rating has him as Sociedad's best player, because although not all stats are available, they do have a large list of stats and all of them are considered to decide that Januzaj has done well this season. Not just taking 2 stats and deciding if someone is good or not.

I'm not sure there's any position on the pitch where 2 stats alone will tell you if someone is a good or bad player. Maybe as your team's main goalscoring striker? You could look at goals and key passes or something. But still theres some teams that play in a way where a striker has to do more than just score goals, and even if they also played in teammates for shots they might not be what the team needs, because they don't have pace to get in behind the defense, dont press as a team or maybe they are offside a lot of the time when they have no reason to be.

So it really does seem like a stupid way to try and judge players. Its not the stats fault, its about how some posters use them without looking at the big picture. Because the reality is most "top players" will have some stats where they don't fare as well as a lot of other players in their position. It may still not be the end of the world though because there are 10 other players on the pitch that can cover those weaknesses. For example Lindelof (first half of the season at least), Bailly and Toby dont attempt a lot of headers. Thats not great for a CB especially in the premier league. But if their goalkeeper is amazing coming for crosses or they're playing next to someone like Vidic who seems to have a ball magnet in his brain and win most of the balls in the air in the box, then that 1 thing isnt as important.

We even saw it ourselves with Rio who was considered a bit weak in the air before Vidic came along. Teams arent about 1 individual player, they are about the collective sum of players and the local partnerships, the CBs, the CMs, the combination between wideplayers and forwards etc.

So back towards Januzaj, he isnt scoring many goals no. But if a team lack a player who will constantly take on defenders running at them with some pace then he'd be a good player for that team. If a team doesn't score a lot of goals, then Januzaj probably wont be a good fit for that team unless he goes up a level and either starts scoring the goals himself or finds some form where he's laying goals on a plate for teammates all the time. Just to put where he is at in context, Januzaj averages 1.5 key passes an appearance this season which would be joint 2nd highest for us after Pogba's 1.6. He'd be joint with Martial.

At 5.4 successful dribbles per 90 minutes he'd be over double any of our players this season as Pogba is our most with 2.1

I maintain that we wont buy him back but he's playing well for Sociedad and someone will get a pretty good player when they sign him. He does have his strengths and weaknesses but he's finally having his 2nd good season.
 

Hugh Jass

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Was saying to a friend it would be interesting to see Depay, Zaha and Adnan under Ole.

I dont have a crystal ball but i think they would all look better than they did under our previous three managers.
 

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I think it’s obvious there’s some player in there, that could just come into life in the next few years. I see the Mahrez comparison a little. Or a Suso. Hope for his sake it does.
 

kundalini

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It depends what stats you're looking at. If you had them available for everything you would be able to tell most of the story. But I'm not aware of any site that has every stat you would want. For example one I'd want is individual errors/mistakes leading to shots for CBs.

What he has selected is just a couple of stats that ignore a lot of what makes a good attacking player. Goals and assists are important for a winger for sure, but so is having an impact in general play. Januzaj has a lot of dribbles for example causing threat down his side, so he needs teams to defend properly against him which will create space for other players. Especially if he's having a particularly good game and the opponents double up on him with 2 opponents to beat. Then his team have a man free.

Thats why with his 2 selected stats, he's decided Januzaj isnt very good. But Whoscored's rating has him as Sociedad's best player, because although not all stats are available, they do have a large list of stats and all of them are considered to decide that Januzaj has done well this season. Not just taking 2 stats and deciding if someone is good or not.

I'm not sure there's any position on the pitch where 2 stats alone will tell you if someone is a good or bad player. Maybe as your team's main goalscoring striker? You could look at goals and key passes or something. But still theres some teams that play in a way where a striker has to do more than just score goals, and even if they also played in teammates for shots they might not be what the team needs, because they don't have pace to get in behind the defense, dont press as a team or maybe they are offside a lot of the time when they have no reason to be.

So it really does seem like a stupid way to try and judge players. Its not the stats fault, its about how some posters use them without looking at the big picture. Because the reality is most "top players" will have some stats where they don't fare as well as a lot of other players in their position. It may still not be the end of the world though because there are 10 other players on the pitch that can cover those weaknesses. For example Lindelof (first half of the season at least), Bailly and Toby dont attempt a lot of headers. Thats not great for a CB especially in the premier league. But if their goalkeeper is amazing coming for crosses or they're playing next to someone like Vidic who seems to have a ball magnet in his brain and win most of the balls in the air in the box, then that 1 thing isnt as important.

We even saw it ourselves with Rio who was considered a bit weak in the air before Vidic came along. Teams arent about 1 individual player, they are about the collective sum of players and the local partnerships, the CBs, the CMs, the combination between wideplayers and forwards etc.

So back towards Januzaj, he isnt scoring many goals no. But if a team lack a player who will constantly take on defenders running at them with some pace then he'd be a good player for that team. If a team doesn't score a lot of goals, then Januzaj probably wont be a good fit for that team unless he goes up a level and either starts scoring the goals himself or finds some form where he's laying goals on a plate for teammates all the time. Just to put where he is at in context, Januzaj averages 1.5 key passes an appearance this season which would be joint 2nd highest for us after Pogba's 1.6. He'd be joint with Martial.

At 5.4 successful dribbles per 90 minutes he'd be over double any of our players this season as Pogba is our most with 2.1

I maintain that we wont buy him back but he's playing well for Sociedad and someone will get a pretty good player when they sign him. He does have his strengths and weaknesses but he's finally having his 2nd good season.
For what it's worth, I think expected goals and expected assists are of more value than many of the metrics used by Whoscored. Is it a good thing to take a lot of shots, if they are low percentage attempts that are miles off-target ? Especially if the player's track-record for scoring in the past is poor. Is a key pass such a great thing if it is a short pass to someone near half-way who proceeds to shoot from long distance ? Last season Mata had 2.36 key passes per 90 mins, while Rashford managed 1.10. Both managed 5 assists in fairly similar amount of playing time (Mata slightly more). Rashford marginally ahead on expected assists per 90 mins.

I completely concede the point that anyone who has watched all 11 of Januzaj's starts in La Liga this season, will have a far greater appreciation of how he has been performing than is captured by any stats. But on redcafe, I'd be surprised if there are more than 3 contributors who get to see more than half his games in a season.

I regularly look at Whoscored after each United game I watch. Quite often their ratings seem extraordinary to me and I struggle to make sense of them. They clearly value some aspects of play far more than others. Some of the things they penalise players for are complete non-sense if you rewatch that passage of play. For instance, I was bewildered by one United sub's passing stats so rewatched his touches. Whoscored viewed him flicking on a clearance from the keeper as an incomplete pass; it couldn't possibly be a pass as there was no-one in the vicinity for him to head the ball to.

A similar criticism can be made of expected goals. For instance, they are terrible at judging the chances of scoring from a cross that the attacker only just manages to get his head on. Another flaw is the lack of recognition of good opportunities that are wasted before a shot is taken. Then there are issues with game state and players who destroy poor teams when the match is already effectively won.

May be Whoscored gets it right about Januzaj's overall performance this season. Or perhaps expected goals is closer to the truth. If someone has watched all his games this season, or even 3/4 of his matches, they could give us a decent idea.
 
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Thiagoal

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Was saying to a friend it would be interesting to see Depay, Zaha and Adnan under Ole.

I dont have a crystal ball but i think they would all look better than they did under our previous three managers.
They would all undoubtedly look better but still be below the level we require to get back to the top echelons of the game!
 

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Actually the stats say he's been Sociedad's best player, other than a guy who played 1 time and played well

Adnan Januzaj- Real Sociedad's best player

To be honest, that's a perfect description for him based on everything i've seen, heard and extrapolated.
 

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His balance is incredible. He switches so well onto his left foot in that second clip. Personally would love to see him come back if he’s up for it. Not as guaranteed starter and without too much pressure etc
 

shayanr

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that pace in the second video, I dont remember him being that quick? Looks like he's finally maturing game wise. I still have hope he'll make it at a big club regardless if it's here or not.
 

flappyjay

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Looks like he would be a better back up than Mata/Sanchez
 
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Negan

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Right, I’m saying it.

Bring him back.

If Barca can resign the likes of Deulofeu and Denis Suarez, I see no reason why we can’t do the same with Januzaj. He’ll be cheap(ish) and he’s an actual RW.
 

Ekeke

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that pace in the second video, I dont remember him being that quick? Looks like he's finally maturing game wise. I still have hope he'll make it at a big club regardless if it's here or not.
That was probably his best trick at United. He would often look like the defender was going to get to the ball before him and then he just about made it there with his speed and touch it away from them, getting past them or winning a foul.

People did say at the time that he didnt have much pace on here, but he was always decently fast and he would often make progress for us doing the above.