#9 | Gabriel Jesus - 2020/21 Performances

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Think he's been fucking excellent again, not even sure about the comments on his finishing. He took that chance with his left brilliantly and missed by a margin. It was a chance that even Aguero would only score 5 out of 10 or so. But his constant dropping back caused absolute havoc and he barely failed to make something good with the ball whenever he did it.
 
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.

You can also tell lately he's been visibly frustrated with himself for not getting on the scoresheet. Certainly, he needs to get better at his finishing. But I think he's getting better and better playing as a false 9. His passing when he drops deep has been improving and his off-the-ball movements are getting better.

It's also harder to get as many chances to score when you're constantly dropping deep and moving out wide as a false 9 does. Goal-scoring aside, Jesus' contributions have been great.
 
You can also tell lately he's been visibly frustrated with himself for not getting on the scoresheet. Certainly, he needs to get better at his finishing. But I think he's getting better and better playing as a false 9. His passing when he drops deep has been improving and his off-the-ball movements are getting better.

It's also harder to get as many chances to score when you're constantly dropping deep and moving out wide as a false 9 does. Goal-scoring aside, Jesus' contributions have been great.
I have said before, that if we swapped Jesus out for any of our false 9s, and they put in his level of performance, people would be eulogising about how good they were. He might be viewed as a striker, but Pep has him going out wide and dropping deep like anyone else he sticks up there in the false 9 role.

Do I want more goals from him - Yes.
Am I happy with his level of performance - Hell yes.
 
You can tell from Pep's reaction after his miss that Guardiola's frustrated with his finishing as well.
 
Think he's been fucking excellent again, not even sure about the comments on his finishing. He took that chance with his left brilliantly and missed by a margin. It was a chance that even Aguero would only score 5 out of 10 or so. But his constant dropping back caused absolute havoc and he barely failed to make something good with the ball whenever he did it.

The chance on his left has an xG of 0.11. Which means for an average player it would go in one time in every 9, not accounting for the fact it's on his weak foot. Even for one of the world's best strikers who outperforms xG by a mile, it's a 1 in 5 or 6 type of chance.

You can tell people have a ridiculously distorted view of Jesus when after the match people seriously refer to it as "a sitter".

He had 1 genuinely good chance in the game and I thought Keane did absolutely brilliantly to block it, and there's not really anything Jesus could have done to stop that, because he couldn't feasibly have pulled the trigger earlier.
 
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.

This season is really noticeable that Jesus is performing pretty much according to xG, while in previous seasons despite scoring more, he's been 5-7 goals below xG.

He's not getting the chances he used to. Part of that is the way we're playing, part is him moving out wide, part is I think his low confidence and playing on the wing making him shoot less (Shots per 90 has dropped from 4 to 2.2 this season).


I don't think Pep is managing him very well, he needs to get Gabby some goals because realistically if we're going to win the CL we will need performances like he put in vs. Madrid. 3-1 up vs. Everton, why move him to the LW as the game opens up? Mahrez, who moved into the middle, suddenly starts getting some chances at the end that Jesus would have killed for.
 
This season is really noticeable that Jesus is performing pretty much according to xG, while in previous seasons despite scoring more, he's been 5-7 goals below xG.

He's not getting the chances he used to. Part of that is the way we're playing, part is him moving out wide, part is I think his low confidence and playing on the wing making him shoot less (Shots per 90 has dropped from 4 to 2.2 this season).
Well a lot of it is on him, you can't just blame "the team".

You can't spin 4 goals in 20 matches as anything other than a poor return.
 
Class yesterday. Works harder than any other forward we have had in recent memory and his close control and link up play is ridiculous. He's David Silva'esq in tight spaces. I cant remember the defender that he sat on his arse, but the skill was glorious. He probably should have buried one of his chances but he offers so much more to this team that just goals.
 
I know at the start of his City career he went 30 odd games without losing and I saw a stat last week that when he has scored we have won all but two games which we drew.

Regardless of whether Aguero or Haaland or whoever is a better striker I don't think we are a better team necessarily with them instead of Jesus.

Would be great to see the team winning % when he plays.
 
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