Scouting and Profiling the impressive Chema Andrés with Data

The Spain U21 international had an eye-catching first season at Stuttgart in the Bundesliga.

Written on 12/07/2026

It is fairly rare to identify a young player’s natural position after only a season of first-team football under his belt. Chema Andrés (full name: José María Andrés Baixauli) has managed to do that (to an extent) during his first season at Stuttgart following a move from Real Madrid Castilla. The 21-year-old made 39 appearances in all competitions for the German side (25 in the league, 14 of those starts) and was predominantly used as the deeper of the two midfielders in a two-man midfield system, whether in a 3-4-2-1 or a 4-2-3-1.

Although he played just over 1,300 minutes in the Bundesliga, the promise and potential are there for him to grow in the coming 12 months and become a major talking point in the transfer market next summer, because top clubs are on the lookout for a defensive midfielder who can contribute both on and off the ball.

We can safely add Liverpool to that list of clubs. Even though they won the 24/25 Premier League title without an orthodox number six, the 25/26 season showed (among many other things) that they need a Fabinho replacement soon, and the Brazilian left Anfield in 2023. Ryan Gravenberch was used there by Arne Slot, but we know what the Dutchman’s preferred position is (number eight).

We have had recent examples of teams trying to fill the void in defensive midfield by signing destroyers-only like Manuel Ugarte (Manchester United) and João Palhinha (Tottenham Hotspur). Both are comfortable when their team are defending deep, making key blocks, tackles and interceptions, but neither is particularly good on the ball. Not many teams have a Rodri, a Moisés Caicedo, a Frenkie de Jong or a Martín Zubimendi in their setup.

Andrés (although, as noted above, from a reasonably small sample size) has shown that he could be the next big thing in terms of what he can offer both on and off the ball while playing in the deeper-lying midfield role.

Between 2013 and 2018, he was part of the Levante academy before joining the Real Madrid youth setup. He made only three senior appearances for the 15-time Champions League winners before signing for Stuttgart last summer.

Let’s take a look at how the 21-year-old performed in his first season in Germany with the help of percentile ranks, comparing him to U23 central and defensive midfielders across Europe’s top four leagues (England, Spain, France and Germany).

Since he played just shy of 1,350 league minutes last season, the percentile ranks are against, rather than among, midfielders who crossed that playing time threshold.

The bar chart gives us a clear idea of the type of player Andrés is. He is pretty decent (with room to grow) in terms of overall passing and passes into the final third (while playing for a side that averaged 58% possession). In raw numbers, an 85% pass accuracy is a decent starting point.

The challenge for him will be to increase that to around 90% because, as a defensive midfielder, he will not be expected to attempt a high volume of risky passes. Instead, the idea is for him to connect play with the defenders through his passing before moving the ball on to the more creative players with a very high level of accuracy.

His open play chance creation is above average, although he offers less when it comes to proper chance creation (in terms of big chances created or box-ending passes) or progressive carrying (this could be role-dependent too because he was the deeper of the two midfielders).

When it comes to defending and duels, he is very, very good. The tackles, interceptions, key blocks and clearances stand out, while he is a beast in aerial duels (being 6ft 3in really helps) and is also very good in terms of ground duel win rate, even though he does not contest many of them.

Here’s a conundrum: why does a player with exceptional defensive numbers across other key metrics contest relatively few ground duels? It is because, especially for defensive midfielders and centre-backs, it is not all about how many 50-50 duels they contest in a game. It is about how effective their defending is, and the other metrics help to demonstrate that.

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Well, we have a fair idea of the type of player Andrés is from those numbers, don’t we? Let’s add a few more layers to that by looking at the event data visuals. We will look at his touch map, pass maps for different pass types, and defensive action maps while discussing the underlying numbers alongside them.

It is the touch map of a midfielder who prefers to stay in his working zone rather than vacating his position, even when his team has a high share of possession. There are specific hotspots around five yards inside the opposition half and another distinct hotspot on the right side of his own half. The former represents his average position when his team are in possession, while the latter highlights the area he drifts into when defending or attempting to stop opposition counter-attacks.

He is not really someone (at least so far in his young career) who looks to regularly spray the ball with switches of play or long balls through the channels. Out of the 176 passes intended for the final third or beyond, probably only five originated around the halfway line and were either long diagonals or balls played into the channels.

There are plenty of short-to-medium passes starting from just inside the opposition half and ending up in wide areas on both sides. There are only a few box-crashing through balls, which is fine for a defensive midfielder. He could, however, improve his overall pass success rate heading into the coming season.

Next up, we examine the fast passes he makes (passes made on the first touch or within two seconds of receiving) and his defensive action map, followed by his threat prevention zones and his choice of passing post-recovery.

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