In a small series, we present players who are hoping for their big Bundesliga breakthrough in 2021/22. What are your strengths, where is there room for improvement? VfB professional Mateo Klimowicz is still missing one quality of his father.
Will he outbid his 1200 minutes of use in the new season? VfB youngster Mateo Klimowicz.
picture alliance / Eibner-Pressefoto
Mateo Klimowicz was one of the winners at VfB Stuttgart last season. Despite well-known competitors in his preferred position in the offensive midfield, the 21-year-old made 25 Bundesliga appearances (13 as joker) and almost 1200 minutes of play – in 2019/20 there were seven appearances in the second division with 131 minutes. Now the 21-year-old wants to become a VfB regular. What makes him strong, where does he have room for improvement? A data overview.
Strengthen
One of Klimowicz’s strengths is dribbling. With an average of 1.71 successful dribblings per game, he was well ahead of direct competitors Philipp Förster, Daniel Didavi and Philipp Klement in 2020/21, who each did not have one successful dribble per game. With this, the lively U-21 national player also surpassed the league average in his position (1.04).
Two categories in which Mateo Klimowicz did better in 2020/21 than his competitors in the attacking midfield.
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Klimowicz also uses his dribbles extremely effectively by repeatedly bringing himself into good final situations. He generated 2.35 shots per game in 2020/21, more than his VfB competitors. If he fails to dribble, it is not a shame to switch directly to counter-pressing in order to recapture the ball. With 0.5 ball conquests after counter-pressing, he was also ahead of Didavi & Co. and above the league average of 0.37 ball conquests.
weaknesses
His father Diego Klimowicz once scored 70 Bundesliga goals, Mateo still has to work on his callousness in front of the goal. He still rarely converts the shots he creates into goals. According to the xG model, Klimowicz junior should have scored around four goals in 2020/21. But he only hit once.
At the same time, his ball loss rate was still quite high at 3.42 ball losses per game. All of his competitors had lower values here, especially Didavi (1.39). However, Klimowicz’s quota also has to do with his courageous demeanor and active search for one-on-one situations. Some of them are simply lost.
Ball losses, created chances to score – Mateo Klimowicz still has room for improvement here.
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Klimowicz also still has potential when it comes to assists: Despite his three assists, he did not create enough chances to score with 0.93 shots prepared in the past Bundesliga season. Klement excelled among his competitors with 3.18 created chances per game as a goal scorer; Didavi was also ahead of Klimowicz in this category (2.17).
Conclusion
If Klimowicz succeeds in becoming even more efficient in the new season and better staging his teammates, he should become an even more important part of Stuttgart’s offensive. He already has qualities that his opponents in the attacking midfield do not have – especially his dribbling skills.
