Holland? Mbappe? Kane? Suddenly, the top scorer in the major leagues ended up in Stuttgart
Grigory Telingater September 22, 2023, 18:30 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Sera Guirassi is already called an “absolute psychopath” in Germany.
There is a lot of talk about Harry Kane’s excellent run in the Bundesliga. The striker continued to score goals at the same rate as he did in the Premier League. The Englishman has four goals after four days, in addition to an assist. He also scored in the Champions League. Excellent numbers, but the league’s top scorer has double that!
Guinean Serou Guirassi has already scored eight goals for Stuttgart! He is the top scorer this season in the top 5 leagues. In fact, even in the top 14 leagues, because in 15th place in the UEFA coefficient table is Norway, which spends the season according to the “autumn-spring” system. The teams there have the 23rd round scheduled for this weekend. It is no surprise that Bodø-Glimt striker Pellegrino has already scored 18 goals.
Stuttgart forward Serou Guirassi scored eight goals at the start of the season
Photo: Langer/DeFodi Images via Getty Images
Who did Guirassi score so much against?
The forward has scored every game this season. Even in the match in which Stuttgart lost devastatingly to Leipzig. Guirassi’s eight goals were distributed as follows:
1st round. “Stuttgart” – “Bochum” – 5:0 (2 goals);2nd round. RB Leipzig – Stuttgart – 5:1 (1 goal);3rd round. “Stuttgart” – “Freiburg” – 5:0 (2 goals);4th round. Mainz – Stuttgart – 1:3 (3 goals).
On matchday five, Stuttgart hosts Darmstadt, the penultimate team in the Bundesliga. It is very likely that the scorer will score again.
Interestingly, the leader in expected goals is Bayer forward Bonifacio, who in the last round of the match against Bayern missed many chances. This forward had 5.09 chances per goal according to UnderStat xG statistics. And Guirassi only had chances of 3.63 expected goals, but he managed to score eight of them. Normally, this excess performance accumulates in football players over the course of an entire season, but here it occurred in just four rounds.
If you don’t understand the xG metric, here you go:
In football, xG is constantly criticized. People just don’t seem to get the point.
What is your strong point?
Speed and hitting with both feet is already a good combination. Guirassi is right-footed but has already scored two goals with his left foot this season. Furthermore, both times he put it under his left foot and the ball did not reach him that way. However, perhaps the main quality of a footballer is cunning. And we’re not talking about false swing, which has long become a standard technique. In the match against Freiburg, Guirassi shot without swinging when the shot seemed unexpected. Furthermore, he hit precisely in the nearest corner, hiding the moment of impact behind the defender.
Although the striker’s most astute goal this season was different, also against Freiburg. But don’t confuse it with the most beautiful. At first glance, nothing special: a cross from the wing and closing. He didn’t hit himself, he didn’t jump like a fish like Van Persie, but he paid attention to the trajectory of the race. Guirassi changed direction twice. It turned out that he ran in a zigzag pattern. For the pull I chose the moment based on the opponent’s movements. The Bayer centre-back looked back four times, but still missed Guirassi. Basically, with his maneuver, the forward created a space to score without resistance.
Why haven’t we heard of Guirassi before?
Because he never stood out so much. He is 27 years old and has spent his entire career in relatively average teams in France and Germany. There were ups and downs (he scored twice for Rennes in the Champions League) and failures (he played in the second Bundesliga with Cologne), but Guirassi did not achieve star status. He never scored more than 10 goals during the championship. Only last year he surpassed this mark: he scored 11 goals in the Bundesliga.
The forward was on loan at Stuttgart last season. This summer the Germans bought Guirassi from Rennes for 9 million euros, although in June Transfermarkt valued the footballer at 14 million euros, apparently, after updating the prices on the portal, he will be valued at a much higher amount.
Here’s who else isn’t worth that much, but can shine this season:
Nine cheap but promising signings this summer
At the end of the recent transfer market, Fulham set their sights on the striker, releasing Aleksandar Mitrovic for Saudi Arabia. According to Bild, Guirassi wants to play in the Premier League, but Fulham are not interested. In addition, in Stuttgart he received a salary increase and since the summer he became the highest-paid footballer on the team.
It is very likely that this season the forward will set a personal record for goals in a season. Meanwhile, Guirassi is receiving some very unique praise. After a perfect hat-trick (he scored with his right foot, his left foot and then his head), his teammate Deniz Undav said about the striker: “An absolute psychopath.”
