For those that may have missed it, Robin Gosens scored his first goal for Inter Milan this week in a 3-0 Coppa Italia victory over city rivals AC Milan. I can’t say it was an easy goal to stomach, as it was a vintage Robin Gosens goal. Like an expert striker, the German trolled around the box after Marcelo Brozovic won the ball back deep in Milan’s territory. Unbeknownst to Pierre Kalulu, Gosens only had goals on his mind, and he already had the Frenchman beat as he slid into the six yard box and slotted an easy goal past Mike Maignan.
As Inter will eventually witness in due time, Robin Gosens has a rare offensive skillset for a wide position player that can be a terror for opposition to prepare against. His ability to get inside the opponents area and simply to be available for receiving balls in is unparalleled; but it is only outdone by his striker like finishing ability – out-earning his expected goals by a 7 point cushion (24 goals vs 17.3 xG since the start of the xG era).
At the time it felt like Atalanta had the weapons to live without Gosens, first through his injury and then with his ultimate transfer to Inter. But since 2022 Atalanta’s offense has stalled in a big way. The primary reason was likely Duvan Zapata’s absence, but we also cannot overlook Gosens’s departure as a significant reason for Atalanta’s decline. His replacements, mainly Davide Zappacosta, have been fine (BIG QUATATIONS HERE) – but none of Atalanta’s wingbacks have set the world on fire. With only two goals shared among the four rotation options at Gian Piero Gasperini’s disposal, not only are the wings an afterthought when it comes to goal scoring contribution, but it also makes game management for opponents easier – as Atalanta looks a bit more ‘normal’ with a standard wingback setup.
Finding an Offensive Replacement
Now its easy enough to say what has happened since Gosens left; the harder question is how to fix it, and is what I hope and intend to do with this piece. Fortunately a lot of the leg work has been done. On my Serie Analyst Podcast I delved deep into some potential replacements for Robin Gosens – with a great assist from my co-host on the AtalantaPOD – Dan from Atalanta Vegas. Perhaps there is a solution with these names I came up with, but it is also important to keep in mind – expecting someone to put up the same output as Robin Gosens would be foolish. But by finding someone who comes from a similar system with similar offensive traits, we may be able to create a bit of the wingback spark that has been lost ever since Robin’s departure.
The Nearest Neighbors Methodology
Through my analysis, I was only concerned about attacking numbers. Robin Gosens was average defensively, and wasn’t the greatest at distribution, so I wanted to focus my search only on players that possessed similar offensive chops. To do this I took Robin Gosens’s season from 2020-2021 in which he put away ten goals, and compared his offensive output against all the defensive players in the Big 5 leagues. Statistics I looked at include (all per 90 minutes): goals, expected goals, shots, touches in the attacking third, touches in the opponent’s penalty area. I normalized the statistics so goals, shots, and touches could be compared on the same scale, and then ultimately summed to create a raw score. Unsurprisingly Robin Gosens’s season from last year tops the rating, but rather than bowing down to his greatness I’m more interested in seeing who could replace him.
A few thing to note that are interesting. First, Atalanta’s trio of wingbacks in light blue are not egregiously different than Gosens. Hans Hateboer and Davide Zappacosta excel at getting into the final third and penalty area, there is just no finishing product – hence their lower scores. Second, Gosens is absolutely perfect for Inter’s system considering how well he rates compared to Inter’s current wingback crop.
But the names in orange are the ones Atalanta should be targeting. Obviously it would be great (and lazy) to say Atalanta should go out and try to sign Trent Alexander-Arnold or Alphonso Davies, but let’s be realistic here. There are still a bunch of interesting names who already are a somewhat-nearest neighbor to Gosens, and a new change in environment or philosophy may be the push needed.
The Serie A Options
Out of Darko Lazovic, Wilfried Singo, and Nahuel Molina, the Argentine from Udinese is my favorite choice. Molina already is a very good finisher, and he rates poorly in his touches more due to the current Udinese lower-block setup rather than any fault of his own as a possession monster. Thrust into a more offensive system, Molina could exploder. Lazovic and Singo are also very intriguing names, and would be great shouts for the system, I just think the ceiling on Molina is the highest.
The International Options
There are certainly more unknowns, but nonetheless some interesting (and to me preferred options). First is Atalanta’s new friend from the recent Europa League tie against RB Leipzig: Benjamin Henrichs. Henrichs has a few things going for him. He’s still only 25, he would come from an RB Leipzig system that is already keen on the wingback system, defensively he’s strong, and most importantly he may not even be the preferred right wing option at Leipzig. He may have started against Atalanta in both Europa League matches, but he has also shared a lot of time this year with Nordi Mukiele. With only a $13.2M valuation on Transfermarkt.com, Henrichs could be a good value option coming from an already similar system that Atalanta employs.
Second on this list of interesting internationals is the Frenchman, Adrien Truffert. The Rennes youngster, who’s barely 20, is already averaging a goal every four full matches of minutes in Ligue 1. Beyond his goal scoring prowess, he’s a good and technical dribbler and likely puts a better cross in than Robin Gosens. While he’s only listed at 173 cm, he feels bigger than that in match footage and he possesses a similar hunched shoulder sauntering run that is a definitive Gosens trademark. With a value of only $12M on Transfermarkt – Truffert may be the biggest bang for the buck as an all around replacement. He may put up a portion of the goal scoring value Gosens did, but at the same time he could add value in other places, mainly from his dribbling and crossing.
There’s No Right Answer, but A Lot of Interesting Options
Its difficult to go out with a mindset of ‘trying to find the next Robin Gosens.’ You’ll only be setting yourself up for failure by trying to meet such lofty expectations. Rather creating a good process to find players who possess similar skills can help bridge to what is now missing sans Gosens and at least get close to filling the void. And if the player doesn’t get possess all the same qualities as Gosens, perhaps he has other unique and valuable skills that can still add positive value: like Truffert’s dribbling or Molina’s direct line speed. Regardless, framing the search in such a way that you look for similar players to Robin Gosens opens up the search to good and interesting players that all have their own corresponding unique abilities. And while Nahuel Molina may not become the next Robin Gosens, perhaps we’ll be writing this same article in five years because he moved into a system that let his offensive chops fly into overdrive. Instead the article will then be around finding the next Nahuel Molina.
