What Type of Midfielder is Lewis Fiorini?

Example of a great all-rounder – Credit Graham Burrell

Attacking

My guess is that Lewis is here to play in an advanced role, not quite Morgan Rogers territory, but almost certainly the role Brennan played when he was moved into the middle. I took four attacking stats, all per game: Shots, Shot Assists, Dribble, Touches in Area. In two of those areas, Lewis had better stats than any of our midfielders. He had more Shots Per Game than anyone we had in the middle last season, he averaged 1.76 which was closest to Jorge Grant on 1.65. Only James Jones had more than one per game out of the rest, with 1.5. For comparison, I also included Brennan Johnson’s stats from when he played in the middle only, which came out at 2.24. Lewis also made more Dribbles Per Game than any of our midfield – he attempted 3.97 whilst the highest from our midfielders was 2.69 from Grant. The other three all had fewer than 2, whilst Brennan from midfield hit more than five per game. That points to Lewis being somewhere between Jorge and Brennan in terms of his attack-mindedness, which I think is what we need in the ten role.

In the Shot Assists Per Game stats, Lewis came out in the middle with 0.64. That closely aligned with James Jones on 0.68, and was more than Bridcutt (0.52) and McGrandles (0.32). Jorge Grant did hit 1.75, but Brennan was lower on 0.54. Lewis had 0.74 Touches in the Area for NAC, more than Liam Bridcutt (0.26) but fewer than Grant (1.61), Jones (2.02) and Grant (1.61). Rather predictably, Johnson had far more with 3.42.

	Defensive			Attacking				Passing
	Inter ceptions	Loose Ball Duels won	Fouls	Shots PG	Shot Assists PG	Dribbles PG	Touches in area	Passes PG	Forward Passes PG	Passes to Peno Area
LF	4.58	3.42	0.7	1.76	0.64	3.97	0.74	31.19	9.09	3.01
JG	4.54	3.91	1.18	1.65	1.75	2.69	1.61	46.28	15.26	2.73
CM	4.39	3.89	1.12	0.69	0.32	1.58	1.21	39.63	11.84	1.88
LB	5.82	4.81	2.01	0.37	0.52	1.16	0.26	47.2	19.24	1.34
JJ	2.62	3	1.2	1.5	0.68	1.61	2.02	36.11	11.18	1.96

xG

I’m only adding this in because there’s an expectancy with the site, isn’t there? in terms of xG per game, Lewis had 0.12, which means an expected goal every eight games, give or take. Considering he scored six, one every five games (give or take), he actually outperformed his xG. Some of his goals were long-range strikes that have very low xG ratings, which certainly helped. he’s not afraid to slam one on from range though, so watch out for that. In fact, of his six goals, five came from outside the box, and the one that occurred inside came from a lovely run and curling shot, which hit the crossbar before a teammate found him for a relatively simple tap in. The pick of those goals, in my mind, is in the video above (starts at around 52 seconds in).

How does his xG compare to our other midfielders? Jorge Grant had an xG of 0.36 per game, or a goal every three matches, but bear in mind he was on penalties. James Jones and Conor McGrandles had the same xG, 0.11, which was almost identical to that of Lewis Fiorini.

Lewis Fiorini will likely be looking to take the first-team spot vacated by Jorge Grant – Courtesy Graham Burrell

Conclusion

I think I’ve gone around the houses to prove that Lewis Fiorini will play in an advanced midfield role, and whilst not a direct replacement for Grant he will fill the space vacated by him. Grant could play four, eight or out wide and whilst Lewis’ stats point to him playing the eight role. He did sit deeper for NAC when required, but I can’t see it happening for us. We have more physical players, Bridcutt, McGrandles and I suspect Sanders too, so we’ll be looking to exploit the technique Lewis has, rather than any defensive capabilities. That’s not to say he won’t fill in there if he needs minutes in the EFL Trophy for instance, but it is unlikely.

However, he did appear as one of two holding midfielders in a 4-2-3-1 for NAC towards the end of the season, having played much of the campaign as one of two advanced midfielders in a 4-3-3, or something akin to the 4-1-2-3 that we often adopted.

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