Reds’ Forwards: Performance Analysis of the Summer Tournaments

ft. Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo and Darwin Núñez

Written on 18/07/2024

With the Copa America and European Championship over, the focus turns towards the pre-season with the new season upon us in four weeks. Arne Slot has started work on the training pitch with a curtailed squad because of the involvement of many international players in the aforementioned tournaments.

In this article, the focus is on the analysis of three forwards who were at the centre of their respective team’s deep run in the tournament. Darwin Núñez led the line for Uruguay who finished third in the Copa America. Luis Diaz was a key figure in Colombia’s runner-up campaign in that competition. At the same time, Cody Gakpo scored the joint-most goals in the Euros as the Netherlands made it to the semi-final before losing late to England.

Diogo Jota was there for Portugal but because of weak management from Roberto Martinez, the Liverpool man could only play 97 minutes in the competition. As a result, not much is there to analyse about him.

Going back to Núñez, Gakpo and Diaz, we take a look at how they performed in key metrics for a forward and what their standing was among the respective tournament forwards this year.

Copa America 2024 Forwards Analysis - ft. D. Núñez and L. Diaz

This section contains three data visuals covering basic to advanced metrics to analyse a forward’s performance.

Similar goal returns for Núñez and Diaz in terms of goal (both got two in six games). However, the latter came out better when converting the non-penalty chances better than the former. To be fair, this is nothing new as we have seen Núñez struggle with his finishing for the last 24 months now. Perhaps, this is something that won’t go away from his game. He will be a player who will make the right runs and somehow finish less than half the chances. Doing the former is still an art though which cannot be underappreciated.

Linking up with the previous visual, as expected, Núñez had more shots per game with less conversion rate while Diaz was better in that aspect with far fewer goal attempts. In the semi-final against Colombia, the former Benfica forward missed three good chances (two of which were his creations).