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SkillCorner has partnered with Scouted Football, providing data and insights to support their writing on the best emerging talent in football.
In this article, the Scouted team uses SkillCorner Physical Data and Game Intelligence to profile Power Forwards; the modern centre forward with speed, strength, verticality and power
Football is changing. Andoni Iraola summed it up best when reflecting on his playing career that finished in 2016: “Probably, technically and tactically we were as good as the players we see nowadays but there is a physical side we would struggle with.”
And no wonder. Just look at this:
The English top-flight is getting faster and players are performing more actions at High Intensity each game. As Iraola alludes to, it is no longer enough to be an elite footballer. You have to be an elite athlete as well.
Manchester City’s signing of Omar Marmoush - the best-performing player from a club that has successfully adopted this modern style - was a clear signal the club are embracing this shift rather than fighting it. In 2023/24, the Egyptian recorded the top PSV-99 among Bundesliga centre-forwards.
Benjamin Šeško is third on that list. Arsenal’s long-standing interest in the Slovenian - and the last-minute winter-window bids for Ollie Watkins - indicate Mikel Arteta’s awareness of this shift and eagerness to lean into it.
The biggest clubs and best coaches are looking for strikers, and they’re looking for speed, strength, verticality and power.
From this concoction has been born the new meta and the first SCOUTED Archetype: the Power Forward.
Strikers are already hot, hot property, and with demand for this new Archetype only getting hotter, competition to find and secure them early will be incredibly fierce. Clubs wanting to win will need to know exactly what they’re looking for - and where to find it.
That’s where we come in.
Introducing the first SCOUTED Archetype
What is a Power Forward?
How do we spot a Power Forward?
Where to discover the next generation of Power Forward?
What is a Power Forward?
Using SkillCorner Game Intelligence to build a data profile for this centre-forward archetype.
In its truest form, the Power Forward combines the stature of a traditional Target Forward with lightning-quick speed, intense off-ball movement and thunderous ball-striking. Physical power is the core theme.
To identify the profile’s key metrics for Physical and Off-Ball Running, I interrogated a group of 222 Centre-Forwards across Europe’s Big Five Leagues and the Primeira Liga with SkillCorner’s suite of Game Intelligence data.
Given what we have discussed, it should be no surprise to see sprinting and speed at the heart of our Power Forward physical profile. The below table shows that Centre-Forwards in the Premier League are faster, sprint more and cover greater distance at high intensity when compared to previous seasons; a microcosm of the changes highlighted in the introduction.
But what is the purpose of all of this power?
Previous research by SkillCorner revealed the three most common run types for a Centre Forward are Runs In Behind, Cross Receiver Runs and Runs Ahead of the Ball. From now on, I will refer to that collective trio as Striker Runs.
In order to find which branch of Striker Runs was best augmented by the Power Forward physical profile, I looked at the correlation between our key physical metrics with all derivatives for each type run. Take a look at this matrix below.
Interestingly, the strongest correlation from the entire set (0.58 positive moderate) was between PSV-99 and Targeted Runs In Behind. This suggests the faster a striker is, the more their teammates try to pass to them when making Runs In Behind. I’ll use that word again: speed augments Runs in Behind.
It is perhaps not ground-breaking to suggest the faster players make more targetable Runs In Behind, but it is interesting to see that this is the only Striker Run type with a noteworthy tie to physical output. To illustrate this relationship, take a look at the graph below, it plots PSV-99 alongside the Percentage of Striker Runs that are Runs In Behind. I have highlighted the top 10% for PSV-99.
Looking across the entire dataset, 13 players ranked in the 85th percentile or above for PSV-99, Sprints and Explosive Accelerations to Sprint. Only Son Heung-min, Vinícius Júnior and Loum Tchaouna made fewer than 40% of their Striker Runs as Runs In Behind. This may be a reflection of their natural winger tendencies, which is further reflected by the fact that only Vini Jr and Tchaouna had a percentage of Total Runs made as Striker Runs lower than 75%.
So, let's answer the question: what is a Power Forward?
ℹ️ A Power Forward is much faster than the average centre-forward (PSV-99)
ℹ️ A Power Forward makes more Sprints and covers greater Sprinting Distance than the average centre-forward
ℹ️ The vast majority of a Power Forward’s Off-Ball Runs will be Striker Runs (≥ 75%)
ℹ️ Runs In Behind will make up the largest proportion of a Power Forward's Striker Runs (≥ 45%)
ℹ️ A Power Forward may make a lot of Cross Receiver Runs but a prolific Cross Receiver Runner is not necessarily a Power Forward
In summary: a Power Forward’s above average physical attributes augment their Off-Ball Running profile based on the capacity to make more runs combined with the theory that a faster centre-forward is more likely to be targeted by teammates.
Now that we have worked out how to discover Power Forwards, let’s take a closer look at one of the best to learn how to evaluate a player’s proficiency in the role.
What is a Power Forward?
Analysing a peak Power Forward to better understand how to discover the profile and then evaluate archetype proficiency.
Viktor Gyökeres made his top-flight league debut at the start of 2023/24 season at 25 years old. That season, he scored 43 goals and provided 15 assists in 50 games for Sporting.
This explosion of talent and output is an emphatic reminder that player development is non-linear. It also highlights how the football meta can stunt, delay or accelerate this development. In other words, perhaps Gyökeres’ skillset five years ago - when he was jumping between the Championship and 2.Bundesliga - was not perceived to be as valuable as it is now. At the very least, only a select few clubs prioritised it. But not much has changed.
In our 2023/24 dataset, only five centre-forwards recorded a faster PSV-99, only four made more Sprints, only two centre-forwards covered more Sprinting Distance and only one centre-forward recorded a quicker Top 3 Time To Sprint than Gyökeres. In terms of Off-Ball Running data, he ranked first for Runs In Behind.
The Swede is a game-breaking Power Forward and the perfect example of this profile scaling well into a top-flight league at a dominant side. Distil his superpower into two easy-to-spot metrics and we get:
- the sheer number of Runs he makes
- the sheer Speed at which he makes them
Our eyes, these numbers and even former coaches confirm it. On a podcast with The Athletic following Gyökeres’ hat-trick against Manchester City, former Coventry City assistant manager Adi Viveash described this first-hand:
“If you defend on the halfway line against someone like Vik, he is going to keep running in behind. He may miss one or two chances but he’ll make the run 13, 14, 15 times. And for defenders, that’s very difficult to deal with. So the power, explosive pace came to the fore. The fact that he liked to drift into wide areas bought him time, bought him space.”
Watching Gyökeres, it’s almost as if he is running routes like an NFL receiver. Even if that particular facet is born out of a tactical instruction, the ferocity with which he personally makes each run is evident from the data and Viveash’s testimony.
So, if the physical capacity is central to the discovery phase, how do we evaluate the effectiveness of a Power Forward? The key question becomes: what happens as a result of those Runs?
By plotting Runs in Behind Received against the Percentage of Runs In Behind Received Leading to a Shot, we get... well:.
This introduces the age-old debate between quality and quantity: through volume, Gyökeres can reach a top 2% figure for Runs In Behind Leading to Shots. The killer question for the recruitment team to answer is whether that volume can be maintained in an alternative environment. My answer would be yes.
If the Power Forward profile thrives in the organised chaos induced by teams like Bournemouth, Newcastle and Liverpool because of their immense athleticism, then Gyökeres has the physical capacity to not just compete, but to flourish.
Furthermore, while previously a move to an ‘elite’ Premier League team may have resulted in less space and a slower tempo, it now appears as if the tactical landscape is changing to accommodate the Swede’s natural style.
The question remains: where can we find others like him?
What is a Power Forward?
By looking at second tier football through the lens of these superpowers, can we find similarly undervalued Power Forwards operating today?
Although Gyökeres mastered his Power Forward craft in Portugal, the foundations were laid in the Championship. But he is not the first second-tier forward to explode - there was a reason I highlighted both Ollie Watkins and Darwin Núñez on the previous visualisations.
Fast forward to the most recent winter window and this style of striker recruitment has developed. After half a season in the 2. Bundesliga, Stefanos Tzimas secured a move to Brighton & Hove Albion for €20m. Como 1907 signed Ivan Azón from Segunda División side Real Zaragoza. Bournemouth picked up Eli Junior Kroupi from sister club Lorient in Ligue 2. For clubs that cannot afford the premium Gyökeres will command, scouring the second tier is emerging as the viable alternative.
Applying the methodology detailed in the discovery and evaluation stages to the second tiers of Europe’s Big Five Divisions this season, I have tried to unearth the next generation of Power Forwards. The first pair is a product of the Anatomy of Power Forward breakdown, this time using P30 TIP metrics:
>75% Runs as Striker Runs
>45% Striker Runs as Runs In Behind
Applying the methodology detailed in the discovery and evaluation stages to the second tiers of Europe’s Big Five Divisions this season, I have tried to unearth the next generation of Power Forwards. The first pair is a product of the Anatomy of Power Forward breakdown, this time using P30 TIP metrics:
>85th percentile for PSV-99
>85th percentile for Sprints
>85th percentile for Sprinting Distance
The complete search returned a list of 12 players. Of these players, only Sinclair Armstrong (2003) and Norman Bassette (2004) were born in the year 2001 or later. I have highlighted them below in an updated version of the PSV-99 x Percentage of Striker Runs as Runs In Behind scatter plot from earlier, which now includes our 229 second tier Centre-Forwards from 2024/25 alongside the 222 top-flight Centre-Forwards from 2023/24.
Bassette, who has the highest percentage of Striker Runs as Runs In Behind in this group, was signed by Coventry City at the start of the season - I wonder if the Sky Blues used Gyökeres’ profile to identify him.
Next, here is the Striker Runs Quality x Quantity Scatter Graph for our centre-forwards in the second tier, this time using the Per 30 Minutes Team in Possession filter. I have highlighted prospects on my personal radar as well as the recent signings mentioned at the start of this section - and a huge outlier.
I imagine your eyes were immediately drawn to Sinclair Armstrong. Looking exclusively at Runs In Behind does nothing to deter that intrigue.
He is definitely worth further scouting. Mainly because there are plenty of other factors to consider. Technical ability, particularly ball-striking, would be the next step in refining the profile even further, while measuring against a list of priority event data metrics would be useful. But this exercise helps focus and accelerate the discovery process for an increasingly popular and effective style with physical data at its core.
The likes of Brighton & Hove Albion and Bournemouth have already fished out their next gen forward from this talent pool. Clubs that understand the relationship between athleticism and stylistic traits will be best placed to reel in the next one.
You could always pay Sturm Graz a visit.
Written by Jake Entwhistle.
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