#9 | Gabriel Jesus - 2020/21 Performances

[Metalartin]

I just don't see this confidence you have in terms of his goalscoring ability. He is not a clean striker of the ball, he's can't generate alot of power in his strikes meaning he has little variation in his shooting technique in general. Compare Jesus' technique to the best strikers in the world and you'll see the stark difference; prime Aguero being able to generate power with little back-lift was because he was an exceptional striker of the ball. Jesus has not 'lacked confidence' in 160 games since he was last confident; he was just a young player that had a great period of form when he arrived. He's not 19 anymore, he turns 24 in a couple of months it's far beyond a confidence thing. This is just the player he is (or has become) who has his strengths but being a natural goalscorer is certainly not one of them.

Sorry but you must be thinking of a different player. Jesus is fully capable of striking the ball cleanly(he does it often), he doesn't always need much backlift to get his shots off(that's not his problem) and he has shown variation to his strikes(long distance, chipped shots, curling efforts, smashing drives, we've seen it all at points). Has he shown Aguero levels of power and lack of backlift? No but Aguero beats most strikers on those merits, that doesn't mean Jesus' ball striking isn't good though.

I'm not saying we don't need another striker, we do and I hope we get Haaland infact(but I doubt we will) but I do think Jesus has another gear to find all the same.

Like I said, time will tell. 24 is still young for a striker by most peoples standards. You say it's just poor technique when he misses. I say what about the times when he finds the top corner or curls it around the keeper masterfully?... He shouldn't be able to do it at all by your logic. Or is it really you that's bringing luck into it, as in: "that was just lucky that time"?

The fact that he has shown all of the above, says it is a confidence thing to me but I do think to be considered among the best, the key is consistency. Maybe he never will be that consistent, or have that amount of confidence against the top opposition often enough to put it another way. To say confidence doesn't often play a vital part in it or that he simply doesn't have the ability in the first place though. I'd have to disagree with you.

 

[Metalartin]

I still think Jesus could be a 20+ goals a season player for us eventually. It's easy to look bad when you're already worried about missing, snatching at shots because you never feel like you have enough time or constantly overthinking your decisions in front of goal/second guessing yourself. Look at our penalties for example, are they all bad strikers of the ball or is it a mental block of some sort? Even the very top strikers go through spells like that, it's just a matter of how long those spells last.

 

[mccity]

I still think Jesus could be a 20+ goals a season player for us eventually. It's easy to look bad when you're already worried about missing, snatching at shots because you never feel like you have enough time or constantly overthinking your decisions in front of goal/second guessing yourself. Even the very top strikers go through spells like that, it's just a matter of how long those spells last.

His saving grace on this specific front is that he has very, very good movement off the ball. In previous seasons when he was used as more of a traditional forward he was generating a high xG due to his ability to get on the end of chances. For instance the chances he missed tonight as well as one near one from a Mahrez cross were off the back of his movement.

At a similar age Sterling had a similar issue, good at getting on the end of chances but struggled to be too much of a rounded finisher. From 18/19 onwards he started adding more tools to his belt and now we see him score a greater variety of goals.

Something not helping Jesus from the perspective of those who doubt him would be that this season he's being used less and less as a striker and more as a false 9. Which means he's getting fewer chances so his goal return is going to be lower than before. On top of that there are the injuries and the fact we barely scored for 15 games earlier this season (that lowered everybody's totals), so it's easy to knock him as a guy that doesn't get goals.

It should be noted last season he got 23 goals and 13 assists in all competitions. 36 goal contributions for a 23 year old striker in and out of the team (1 goal as a sub) should probably suggest he has something in him.

He does need to make a step up in terms of finishing, more for his benefit really than anyone else's. You can tell Pep likes him a lot, but he isn't anywhere near as clinical as he ought to be, which is doubly frustrating because he's got the ability to be a lot better on that front. Right now he may be the de facto 1st choice striker but I don't think Pep fully trusts him yet (hence not starting against Liverpool) and I think it's solely the finishing that's doing it. Because given what he has to offer, if he was a fine finisher on top of that you'd argue Pep would be mad not to start him in as many games as possible. If he could dial it up just a bit I think he'd easily be 1st choice. Hopefully he's working hard at it in training, in which case we may see a bamboo-esque sudden growth from him eventually, a bit like we've seen with Calvert-Lewin this season.

We've seen the likes of Gundogan, Stones, Zinchenko, Cancelo, Rodri, and Bernardo make big step ups of sorts in their City careers under Pep, so it wouldn't be out of this world for another player to do it too.

 

[itisrising]

Sorry but you must be thinking of a different player. Jesus is fully capable of striking the ball cleanly(he does it often), he doesn't always need much backlift to get his shots off(that's not his problem) and he has shown variation to his strikes(long distance, chipped shots, curling efforts, smashing drives, we've seen it all at points). Has he shown Aguero levels of power and lack of backlift? No but Aguero beats most strikers on those merits, that doesn't mean Jesus' ball striking isn't good though. So I don't know where most of what you say is coming from, it's like you're inventing problems to convince yourself you know the future. I'm not saying we don't need another striker, we do and I hope we get Haaland infact(but I doubt we will) but I do think Jesus has another gear to find all the same.

Like I said, time will tell. 24 is still young for a striker by most peoples standards. You say it's poor technique when he misses, I say what about the times when he finds the top corner or curls it around the keeper masterfully?... He shouldn't be able to do it at all by your logic. Or is it really you that's bringing luck into it, as in: "that was just lucky that time"?

I say the fact that he has shown all of the above, says it is a confidence thing but I do think to be considered among the best the key is consistency. Maybe he never will be that consistent, or have that amount of confidence against the top opposition often enough to put it another way. To say confidence doesn't often play a vital part in it or that he simply doesn't have the ability in the first place though. I'd have to disagree with you.

Can you provide many examples of Jesus striking the ball with venom? Outside of the Olympiakos goal, which caught by surprise, he's not shown an ability to strike the ball well. Just look at the array of clean strikes Haaland has produced already at 20 to Jesus at 24. I don't understand why you're married to this confidence narrative when the statistics, Pep and Jesus' own words say otherwise. He missed the most big chances in the PL last season while only scoring 14, has never managed a consecutive goalscoring run in the league of more than 3 and Guardiola has literally praised every facet of Jesus' game bar his finishing.

This isn't a qualitative debate here, the underlying stats provide almost definitive proof of his poor finishing. Consistently under performing his xG and his shots on target % compared to goals scored indicate he's able to regularly finish at the level expected. We all know confidence can play a part but it only works when there is credit in the bank. Aguero had a goal draught in 15-16 but there was significant credit in the bank for us to know he was a top finisher. The credit in the bank you're using is less than 800 minutes he played at the age of 19 when we've had 160 appearances since. That seems a totally lopsided scale you're using. Of course, in that many appearances in this side, we'll see some good finishes but the measurement of a quality finisher is the regularity and consistency to do so. Every statistical data we have indicates that he is not that.

 

[TonyM]

Tonight he struck the ball too early. A millisecond later and he'd have been on target. Is is just as simple as him relaxing and having confidence. Hope so.

 

[pudge]

If he and Torres ended up swapping positions as the seasons go by, I wouldn't be shocked

 

[Metalartin]

Can you provide many examples of Jesus striking the ball with venom?

I conceded there wont be examples up there with Aguero, so too with the back lift which he beats most strikers with but you said he's not a clean striker of the ball. You constantly bringing Haaland into it, is almost like you think everyone must agree Jesus is shit at finishing or we wont get Haaland. To that I'd say we might not get him anyway and we're going to get a striker regardless of how good Jesus is or isn't.

How many examples I can show of him "hitting the ball with venom" has more to do with the physical traits than it does the technique where top players are concerned. Obviously some players will have to put more effort into a shot to get the same result, Haaland is a big powerful unit, Aguero has famously large leg muscles for his size.

You also said:

he has little variation in his shooting technique in general

Which is just plain wrong.

Anyway I stand by what I said, although he doesn't have Aguero levels of shot power:

a) That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with Jesus shot power

b) It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with his technique and that's not the reason he's been missing chances.

c) He has plenty of variation to his shooting. More than that, he has variation with both feet.

 

[dhruvblue]

Whenever City score a goal with him on pitch, someone here will link that goal to his brilliance.
Had another two chances of scoring crisp goals, didn't happen

 

[FantasyIreland]

Much rather he plays for us than against us.

Another superb unselfish display.

 

[itisrising]

I conceded there wont be examples up there with Aguero, so too with the back lift which he beats most strikers with but you said he's not a clean striker of the ball. You constantly bringing Haaland into it, is almost like you think everyone must agree Jesus is shit at finishing or we wont get Haaland. To that I'd say we might not get him anyway and we're going to get a striker regardless of how good Jesus is or isn't.

How many examples I can show of him "hitting the ball with venom" has more to do with the physical traits than it does the technique where top players are concerned. Obviously some players will have to put more effort into a shot to get the same result, Haaland is a big powerful unit, Aguero has famously large leg muscles for his size.

You also said:


Which is just plain wrong.

Anyway I stand by what I said, although he doesn't have Aguero levels of shot power:

a) That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with Jesus shot power

b) It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with his technique and that's not the reason he's been missing chances.

c) He has plenty of variation to his shooting. More than that, he has variation with both feet.

The reason I mention Haaland or Aguero is because that's the quality of finisher that you typically associate with the very elite clubs in Europe. The argument you're using is totally sidestepping the statistical data we have. 67% of his goals have come within the 6 yards of the goal, he has underperformed his xG every single year he has played for us, he missed the most big chances in the PL last season and overall averages a goal every 1.37 big chances missed. In comparison to Kane, an elite striker, he averages a goal every 0.58 big chances missed while scoring a ridiculous amount of goals. In fact, even if we were to use a player of similar age in Rashford, he averages a goal every 0.55 big chances missed.

This is not a qualitative debate, like I stated earlier. The stats are so ridiculously lopsided that it instrincly means there is something wrong with Jesus' finishing technique. There is absolutely no other conclusion that can be drawn from the data and certainly not confidence when the sample size is so large.