The negotiations with Ivan Perisic for the renewal of his contract are still ongoing, but Inter management are already taking care of Inter’s future. That is why this January we had the pleasure to welcome to the club the Germany International Robin Gosens. Let’s look at some of his key statistics from last season thanks to which he is among the most valued players in his position.
Offensive and positional analysis
The first benefit that we should mention is that in his former club Gosens has been used in the same position, that he should have in Inter – LWB (Left Wing-Back). Similarities between the style of Gian Piero Gasperini and Simone Inzaghi can be found beyond the 3-man defensive back line. Both managers prefer to control the ball a lot and attack through the wings. That is why Robin Gosens has spent more than 50% of the time in his previous season in the opponent’s half. If we take a look at Ivan Perisic and his heat map this season, we find out that he is playing even further than Gosens was at Atalanta. That means that under Inzaghi we can expect even more from the attack-minded defender in the last third of the pitch.
This will eventually lead to a lot of goal scoring opportunities for Robin and last season he has proven he is more than capable of converting them. In Serie A 2020/2021 season Gosens had 51 shots, 24 from them were on target and he managed to score 11 goals. No defender in Italy has come even close to this numbers during last season. When we look at the last 3 seasons, Robin has 21 goals. That ranks him first among the defenders in Europe’s top 5 leagues. Gosens has also assisted for 6 goals in the league, providing 79 crosses (24 successful) and 86 long passes (43 accurate). He is also no stranger to dribbling. The German attempted 54 dribbles last season with a success rate of 57%, which are magnificent numbers for a player in his position.
Defensive analysis
But having Robin Gosens in your team doesn’t only give you attacking potential. He averaged 4.05 interceptions per game and the impressive 6.06 recoveries in the opponent’s half per game. Let’s compare these numbers with what we have seen from Ivan Perisic so far this season.The Croatian International has averaged 3.79 interceptions per game and 4.38 recoveries in the opponent’s half per game in the 2021/2022 campaign. Simone Inzaghi loves to take control of the ball immediately after the team has lost it and these qualities of Gosens will be extremely important to the team, once he settles in. Gosens has also averaged 6.23 (58% successful rate) defensive and 2.21(58% successful rate) aerials duels won per game. This combined with his 48 clearances (1.68 per fixture) shows that he can be a very solid defender and can cover equally good all parts of the pitch.
Robin Gosens is currently unavailable due to a hamstring Injury. He is expected to return in a month and the target is to have him fully recovered for the return leg in Champions League versus Liverpool. We wish him all the best and hope he can become an essential part of our squad for years to come.
