Why Mario Götze?

Sports media and fans are always searching for the next great talent, ready to turn it into the next Pelé, Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods. Demonstrations of great sport performances at young ages are enough for big transfers and contracts with sports gear brands. However, what turned the above cited players legends in their sports was a consistent high performance in the long-term.

In the actual days, it is possible to cite few of them: Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, LeBron James, the top four male tennis players (Federer, Nadal, Murray and Djokovic) and Serena Williams.

Mario Götze had his first international appearance for Germany at age 18, as he showed to be one outlier. After that, he kept working on his skills and had steady improvements, according to data from WhoScored?.  On the following diagram  are displayed his performances for total assists, key passes per game, dribbles per game, fouls received per game and the rating for each of his Bundesliga seasons.

His golden years happened during seasons 2011/2012, 2012/2013 and 2013/2014, as his outstanding numbers regarding assists, key passes and dribbles improved his rating and made him one of the top 10 Bundesliga players for three straight years at ages 20, 21 and 22. The decrease in his performance is highly notable in the last three seasons, as he struggled with injuries, coach’s decisions and a transfer in the last summer. This places him today at position 149 at the Bundesliga according to WhoScored? and at position 154 according to Squawka.

His national team colleagues Julian Draxler (23 y/o), Julian Brandt (20 y/o) and Max Meyer (21 y/0) are better ranked in this season and show a similar performance in the last three seasons as Götze’s.

Brandt shows a great improvement, having one assist less than in the last season after only ten fixtures, maintaining his key passes per game and dribbling much more than before. Draxler is dribbling less than before, but has improved his key passes and still has a good rating. Meyer performed better last season than now, but oscillations are expected at this age. Götze’s performance, as showed before, has been decreasing and only his key passes improved since last season, although it’s still far from the 2,5 key passes per game he had during season 2010/2011.

Why Mario Götze? Joachim Löw could educate Götze on Germany´s play style during the last six years and trusts him the false nine role always when a system change is desired, as Götze recognizes free spaces and offers himself for vertical passes, creating spaces and goal chances for his teammates. Götze shows an ability to learn different playing styles and adapt himself to them. However, he does not produce anymore the highlights he became known for and he should be aware that the German staff is monitoring other young talents, who may be able to deliver high-level performance on the long-term.