Piero Hincapié: The Debrief

Is it even a real transfer window if Arsenal don't a add versatile hybrid defender?

Arsenal before this move had signed seven players and blown past their biggest ever spending summer ever. I thought after the surprise Eberechi Eze move that would be it for Arsenal and it would be only outgoings from there on out.

Well, I thought wrong and here we are again doing another new player Debrief.

Arsenal have signed Piero Hincapié from Bayer Leverkusen on a loan plus buy option/obligation. It looks like it is structured this way to give Arsenal a bit more flexibility under the UEFA FFP rules and if it is picked up (which is really does seem like it is all but certain to be), this will be a €52million (£45m) plus a 10% sell-on clause transfer and then a five year contract from when the purchase happens (through 2031).

The player today is the type of player that Mikel Arteta has always had a soft spot for and it is the hybrid defender that can play center back but also play wider. We have seen this Ben White, Jurrien Timber, Jakub Kiwior, Riccardo Calafiori, and Cristhian Mosquera. You can’t say that Arteta doesn’t have a type because he clearly does and to be fair to him, it has paid dividends with Arsenal building one of the strongest defenses in the world.

This is going to be more of a rapid-fire stats look and because this is a defensive player, actually watching and not just looking at the spreadsheets will be important here. Adam has done a nice film session here to help get you up to speed on the player:

Piero Hincapié: The Debrief

Radars and distribution graphics are not always perfect for defensive players and it is important to watch the player to understand better what the metrics mean and how the tactics of the team influence these. This is also what we do here so we go forward taking a look at Arsenal’s newest players and how they compare to their positional peers.

This will be looking at Hincapié’s stats by area/category from last season.

All data will be per 90 minutes unless otherwise noted. He played most minutes as a center back, but I will also include his numbers against full backs from the top five European Leagues going back to 2017/18 for percentile comparisons.

Ball Progression, Passing, and Carrying Metrics

106.7% - Pass Efficiency (actual passing completion divided by the expected completion percentage), percentile: 87.1 compared to center backs and 91.7 compared to full backs

0.12 - Goal Probability Added through Passing (Measure of changes in the team's chances of scoring/conceding following pass attempts), percentile: 95.6 compared to center backs and 93.7 compared to full backs

11.8% - Passing Usage (the percentage of total passes while playing that the player attempted), percentile: 61.3 compared to center backs and 83.1 compared to full backs

67.57 - Passing Volume (total attempts), percentile: 88.0 compared to center backs and 93.1 compared to full backs

88.2% - Pass Completion Percentage, percentile: 82.6 compared to center backs and 94.6 compared to full backs

17.2% - Defensive 3rd Passing Usage, percentile: 54.6 compared to center backs and 92.6 compared to full backs

12.7% - Middle 3rd Passing Usage, percentile: 64.0 compared to center backs and 87.1 compared to full backs

6.1% - Attacking 3rd Passing Usage, percentile: 70.2 compared to center backs and 15.4 compared to full backs

5.45 - Completed Final Third Entries, percentile: 92.4 compared to center backs and 93.6 compared to full backs

33.23 - Attacking 3rd Pass Attempts, percentile: 78.2 compared to center backs and 91.6 compared to full backs

89.9% - Attacking 3rd Pass Completion Percentage, percentile: 82.8 compared to center backs and 90.1 compared to full backs

0.42 - xG Chain (total xG involved in), percentile: 80.3 compared to center backs and 72.5 compared to full backs

0.28 - xG Buildup (total xG involved in, excluding the shot and key pass), percentile: 70.7 compared to center backs and 68.2 compared to full backs

21.7% - xG Buildup Usage (the percentage of total xG while on the field that he participated in the buildup to), percentile: 50.9 compared to center backs and 36.9 compared to full backs

4.88 - Long Pass Attempts, percentile: 25.9 compared to center backs and 46.8 compared to full backs

52.7% - Long Pass Completion Percentage, percentile: 41.8 compared to center backs and 69.1 compared to full backs

2.71 - Progressive Passes Completed, percentile: 59.8 compared to center backs and 32.7 compared to full backs

4.35 - Fields Gained (progressive yards through passing and carrying dived by the length of the field), percentile: 86.8 compared to center backs and 95.6 compared to full backs

The passing numbers are an area where we can get good information about a defender and good/bad is a bit easier to see. This will still always have team effects but there are things that we can pull out from this and Hincapie really pops here.

His technical level is very high and he completes more passes all over the field and does so for more value added than average. He is overall a good ball progressor and plays with a nice verticality to his game.

4.61 - Progressive Carries, percentile: 90.4 compared to center backs and 70.8 compared to full backs

0.05 - Goal Probability Added through Carrying/Dribbles (Measure of changes in the team's chances of scoring/conceding following carries and attacking duel attempts), percentile: 96.5 compared to center backs and 88.3 compared to full backs

1.5 - Carries into the Final Third, percentile: 89.0 compared to center backs and 56.5 compared to full backs

0.57 - Dribble, Attempted, percentile: 57.2 compared to center backs and 14.1 compared to full backs

0.17 - Dribble, Completed, percentile: 30.2 compared to center backs and 7.4 compared to full backs

0.17 - Dispossessed, percentile: 35.7 compared to center backs and 7.6 compared to full backs

1.44 - Foul Suffered, percentile: 91.7 compared to center backs and 82.5 compared to full backs

29.4% - Dribble Success %, percentile: 8.5 compared to center backs and 7.1 compared to full backs

This is one where it starts getting a little messy with the position stuff. He carries well for a center back but is below average for a full back. The mix of doing both makes it tough to get a great read here from just the stats.

1.64 - Touches in the box, percentile: 88.6 compared to center backs and 70.6 compared to full backs

1.91 - Deep Touches (within 25 yards of goal), percentile: 84.5 compared to center backs and 57 compared to full backs

55.46 - Passes Received, percentile: 90.5 compared to center backs and 92.7 compared to full backs

1.27 - Progressive Passes Received, percentile: 80.4 compared to center backs and 42.5 compared to full backs

1.74 - Final Third Entry Received, percentile: 78.0 compared to center backs and 27.1 compared to full backs

0.94 - Penalty Area Passes Received, percentile: 84.3 compared to center backs and 78.9 compared to full backs

0.64 - Unsuccessful Touches (miscontrolling a pass or a bad touch), percentile: 39.3 compared to center backs and 82.8 compared to full backs

Another one where being between the two positions makes it hard to compare with a lot of confidence to either of them.

Defensive metrics

3.97 - Possession Adjusted (padj) Defensive Duels Contested, percentile: 64.9 compared to center backs and 45.4 compared to full backs

2.86 - Padj Tackles Attempted, percentile: 71.1 compared to center backs and 49.4 compared to full backs

2.18 - Padj Successful Tackles, percentile: 75.7 compared to center backs and 60.4 compared to full backs

54.8% - Tackle % (Successful Tackles/ Tackles + Fouls Committed), percentile: 75.7 compared to center backs and 75.1 compared to full backs

23.9% - Dribbled Past % (Dribbled Past/ Tackles Attempted), percentile: 63.1 compared to center backs and 76.7 compared to full backs

4.91 - Padj Clearances, percentile: 79.2 compared to center backs and 96.4 compared to full backs

1.11 - Padj Fouls Committed, percentile: 50.2 compared to center backs and 46 compared to full backs

2.26 - Padj Interceptions, percentile: 62.7 compared to center backs and 57.3 compared to full backs

4.48 - Padj Ball Recoveries, percentile: 21.3 compared to center backs and 18.2 compared to full backs

78.9% - Shots Allowed while on the field compared with Opponents AVG production, percentile: 83.9 compared to center backs and 82.9 compared to full backs

67.6% - xG Allowed while on the field compared with Opponents AVG production, percentile: 80.5 compared to center backs and 80.4 compared to full backs

Hincapie is an active defender, and he can be accurately described as front footed and aggressive. He wins more tackles and intercepts more balls than average and will cover a good amount of space while defending. Overall, as part of the defensive unit, he showed up well at limiting Bundesliga teams from generating much attack.

This is still an area where looking at the film comes out on top for rating the player but still good to get an idea of how the measurable metrics look as well.

Attacking metrics

0.3 - Open Play Shots, percentile: 75.9 compared to center backs and 42.4 compared to full backs

0.01 - Open Play xG, percentile: 66.2 compared to center backs and 33.5 compared to full backs

0.14 - xG Per Shot, percentile: 81.7 compared to center backs and 90.6 compared to full backs

0.47 - Set Play Shots, percentile: 72.1 compared to center backs and 89 compared to full backs

Hincapie wasn’t a massive open play threat and that is no surprise from where he played most of his matches. What he does offer is solid set play production where he was getting a shot every other 90 and was able to average solid shot quality on those shots (a few real big chances help in that regard though).

0.07 - Assists, percentile: 76.5 compared to center backs and 48.8 compared to full backs

0.08 - Open Play xA, percentile: 87.7 compared to center backs and 60 compared to full backs

0.5 - Open Play Key Passes, percentile: 77.8 compared to center backs and 31.5 compared to full backs

1.3 - Passes Completed with 25 yards of goal, percentile: 81.1 compared to center backs and 34.7 compared to full backs

0.57 - Passes Completed into the box (includes passes starting in the box), percentile: 72.4 compared to center backs and 21.2 compared to full backs

0.77 - Passes Completed Pass inside the box (includes passes starting in the box), percentile: 75.7 compared to center backs and 25.3 compared to full backs

0.27 - Crosses Completed within 25 yards of Goal, percentile: 81.1 compared to center backs and 31.1 compared to full backs

1.24 - Crosses Attempted (Including set plays), percentile: 79.8 compared to center backs and 24.4 compared to full backs

24.3% - Cross Completion Percentage, percentile: 63.7 compared to center backs and 60.6 compared to full backs

Creatively there are some nice green shoots here for if he were to play a longer term left back role. He has a nice delivery and high technical level passing and that would make me believe that he can contribute more in the final third with more opportunities. The lack of opportunities is what limits him on the comparison to fullbacks but for the time in the final third he has done quite well generating quality balls into dangerous areas.

Final Thoughts

I did not have this move on my bingo card at the beginning of the summer, but it is one that adds an additional and exciting profile to the Arsenal team that they didn’t quite have.

To a certain extent it makes sense that if Jakub Kiwior and Oleksandr Zinchenko leave this summer the options at left back are Riccardo Calafiori (injury questions) and Myles Lewis-Skelly (perhaps not a long-term left back) and at left center back are Gabriel Magalhães, Calafiori moving over and having to play a right footed player in that spot which is not the ideal for Mikel Arteta.

Adding in Hincapie to the team with coverage at LB and LCB really fills out the depth chart.

Some of the order here is still unclear and it will adjust as the season moves along

This level of depth feels foreign for an Arsenal team. We are so used to being a team that has talent in the first in the first 11 for sure, even into the 13-14 spots but this season it seems like the lesson of how injuries can derail a promising season were headed and the team is going potentially 22-23 players deep.

This is a lineup that the team can field even if every single player who was first choice was out.

There are even different permutations that you can figure out if you really wanted to as well given that the team has continued to prioritize versatility in the squad.

Hincapie is that extra luxury signing that Arsenal have just basically never made and that really makes it extra exciting.

Welcome Piero!