Sassuolo’s Gianluca Scamacca has become a forward watering the mouths of every football fan in Italy over the past year, and very soon he’d certainly be tantalizing the taste-buds of every football fan across the continent and on the world stage.
Nicknamed “Il Bomber”, the 23-year-old has previously been described as “deadly” by talent scout Jacek Kulig and dubbed “a bit Zlatan-ish” by sports journalist Maxi Angelo.
The way his campaign has gone in the Italian Serie A it is easy to see why the £27m-rated hitman has long been considered this season one of the most promising strikers on the continent.
16 goals in 36 league outings breeds pure goal-poaching levels, especially for a player who has just undergone his second-full season in the Italian top flight, considerably improving on his eight goals for Genoa last term.
It is why several clubs across the continent are now scouring after his signature of late with the likes of Arsenal, AC Milan, Inter Milan, West Ham United and Newcastle United the latest of potential suitors for the Rome-born forward.
Lazio, Roma, PSV, Sassuolo, Cremonese, PEC Zwolle, Ascoli, Genoa isn’t the usual career path that one of the most promising youth players in Italian football takes. But then again, Gianluca Scamacca isn’t your usual player.
Six foot five inches tall, tattooed up to his neck and with somewhat originating from a quite intriguing and controversial family line — his father smashing executives cars at Roma or his grandfather threatening a man at knifepoint in a bar — the three-time Italian international attacker is the classic example of you should never judge a book by its cover.
So who is Gianluca Scamacca?
It has taken a while for the Italian to apply himself at senior level. For years, he has excelled at international level after debuting for Italy’s under-17 side as a 15-year-old.
While he has flourished at youth level, he had often struggled to translate his dominant performances to senior club level.
First, Scamacca had a torrid time in the Netherlands with PSV Eindhoven after leaving boyhood club AS Roma as a 16-year-old. His return to Italy with Sassuolo then saw him move on loan to Cremonese in Serie B and PEC Zwolle, where he struggled to play significant minutes.
Eventually, his loan move to Ascoli two seasons ago heralded the long-awaited emergence of Scamacca at senior level. 13 goals in just under 2,500 minutes in Italy’s second division was a healthy return for a young striker still learning to manage the jump in physicality from youth to senior level.
This campaign, and the last has seen the forward take giant steps and improvements in his development and he now looks more and more capable of becoming a physically dominant presence for years to come.
What’s Scamacca’s style of play?
The days of a lumpy and lanky centre-forward are numbered. However, mobile 6′5″ strikers that possess a dominant athletic profile with a well-rounded – though still developing – technical skillset? Every team can certainly use one of those, and these calibre of forwards are in high demand, not least this silky Italian freight-train.
While his frame, looks and physical features and may scream danger zone in some quarters, he plays with the elegance and beauty that is often associated with the prestigious country that he hails from.
At just 23-years of age and having his best season to date — 0.67 goals per ninety minutes played — he appears to be ready for the next step.
Sassuolo signed the striker from PSV in January 2017 but had sent him out on loan every year since. Their intention to give him space this season was signalled when they let Francesco Caputo – scorer of 32 goals over the past two campaigns – leave for Sampdoria in the summer.
It was a gamble. Scamacca’s qualities were evident – physical power, extravagant technique and rare height at almost 6ft 5in. But the step from there to becoming a consistent scorer is still a significant one. He netted a modest nine times at Genoa last season – though that number starts to look more impressive when you see that it was one goal for every 104 minutes he spent on the pitch.
It has taken some time for the 23-year-old to settle into senior football. Despite his height as a teenager, he was not physically equipped to deal with the senior demands in the same way a ready-made player like Erling Braut Haaland was during his emergence at Salzburg in 2019.
The former Genoa man isn’t the most explosive like that of the Norwegian talisman; he is slimmer and more agile, but lacks the same raw straight-line speed and ability to bulldoze through defenders.
Physically, the best historical comparison is probably to a young Zlatan Ibrahimović, to whom Scamacca is frequently compared. A comparison of their technical qualities can be made too. Like Ibrahimović, especially when he was younger, Scamacca is capable of being a nuisance to defenders from anywhere in the final third.
He may not have the physical attributes to bulldoze defenders, but he uses his street-smarts, confidence and arrogance to warn them off.
He is willing to hit the channels and run wide, play a target man role to hold the ball up for others, drop into attacking midfield to combine, or sit on the shoulder of the last man and wait to burst through for an opportunity on goal.
Scamacca certainly doesn’t confine himself to specific areas of the pitch, he likes to get himself about, confusing his markers as well as creating space for the likes of Domenico Berardi to exploit the areas he vacates.
Unlike Zlatan, Scamacca has not found himself in favourable situations at club level, often having to scrap for everything he can playing up front in unfancied teams. But it has certainly helped him mature.
His hold-up play has developed immensely; once predicated predominantly on his sweet first touch, he is now able to receive more difficult passes in the air while simultaneously using his massive levers to fend off opponents.
And he has proven to be an effective decision-maker with his back to goal, not only looking to help his team retain possession but also seeking out avenues that will help drive his team towards the penalty box. This is all underpinned by an under-rated ability to manoeuvre himself with the ball in tight spaces between a crowd of defenders.
As we can see via his season heatmap from SofaScore, while he predominantly operates in the central areas, he is more than able to drop into the midfield areas, our out wide in order to get the ball at his feet.
He holds the spatial awareness, technicality and the positional nous to perform as somewhat of a false-nine, dragging defenders about the pitch to become most effective to his team’s play. The Italian is very skilled with the ball at his feet, hence his unique ability to evade tight spots despite his tall and lean frame – an uncommon theme for a striker of his ilk.
For example, he is an effective player to play long balls into, as the ball sticks to him and he is able to then hold the ball, lift his head up and relieve the pressure on his defence.
He is a sacrificial lamb for his teammates, but as he has shown on numerous occasions this season, he is still a devastating finisher despite that, in fact one of the finest in the Italian top flight.
Confident strikers are only known for one job, and that’s to score goals. We’ve shown he can perform other roles too, but it’s also vitally important to explain how good he is in front of goal.
His expected goals per ninety has largely stayed the same from last season (0.45 vs. 0.49) but he has more league goals this season than any other campaign previously with a tremendous 16 to his name.
Scamacca currently ranks in the top seventh percentile for non-penalty goals per ninety in the last 365 days compared to his positional peers (0.63), as well as the top fourteenth percentile for non penalty expected goals per ninety (0.42).
His goalscoring is improving, and one notable strength of the Roman is the technique he uses to strike the ball. If you need any indication as to how, just check out his two goals against AC Milan if you haven’t already, goals truly reflecting of the unerring quality, elegance and arrogance to which he performs at.
‘Blink and you’ll miss it’ comes to mind for Scamacca’s shooting technique. He is able to put so much strength into a shot with what looks like so little effort. Goals like the one above aren’t just a one-off either, he is often seen trying the impossible and pulls it off more than any normal human should be able to.
Check out his goal against Napoli too, receiving the ball on his chest in a tight area in the penalty box before unleashing an unstoppable volley in the top of the net (2nd goal in the below clip):
This doesn’t mean he doesn’t score more conventional goals, he is able to — as you’d expect from a 6ft5 striker — use his head to great effect, and act as the poacher/off the shoulder attacker. But goals like this only improve Scamacca’s overall game, with the knowledge he can punish you with even an inch of space, defenders can’t afford him any space, which then opens up attacking areas for his talented teammates in Raspadori & Berardi.
If there is one criticism of Scamacca, then it would probably be the shots he does take. Long-range goals are the pinnacle of the sport when they go in, but they rarely often do.
This can often be to the frustration of teams and coaches. He can often have his head down and take a shot that has little chance of going in. This can of course be coached to a degree, and it is still something that makes Scamacca dangerous, but doing it on a less frequent basis may be beneficial to the Italian’s consistency.
As ever in the modern game, attackers are now expected to do a lot more than just attack. They are also expected to do some of the dirty going towards their own goal too, or even pressing their opponents to stop them progressing play into dangerous areas.
He currently ranks in the top 58th percentile for pressures per ninety (14.34), the top 35th percentile for tackles per ninety (0.88), and the top 50th percentile for interceptions per ninety (0.38). While none of these are exactly the top in his position, his overall defensive profile is extremely solid, and it shows an ability to adapt to his surroundings. He is indeed a confident and robust performer when he wants to be, and that makes him such an attractive prospect for any top calibre side.
Forecasting Scamacca’s Future
Scamacca’s enormous potential is no secret to many of Italy’s biggest clubs, but it is certainly not a surprise to see some of Europe’s other elite sides drawing towards his abilities.
It’s a real shame he won’t be gracing the world stage with Italy this year after their qualification mishap, because his talents certainly warrant a huge platform.
It’s increasingly likely he will leave Sassuolo this coming summer though, and maybe a bigger club and as a result, more refined and advanced coaching could well propel his game to a whole new level next season, and that is a scary sight for Italian defences if he does fulfil his wish to move to a bigger Serie A outfit like Milan or Inter.
Just imagine him with playing alongside Lautaro Martinez or playing with his icon Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He is certainly not short of suitors for next season.
The underlying numbers are there, and the improvement can be seen on the pitch. It feels that the hype around Gianluca Scamacca is simmering, and sooner rather than later it will explode. Italy needs its next great number nine, and Scamacca has all the tools to be that guy.
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