Kevin Schade - Scout Report

The young German international is set for a breakout season in 2023/24.

Player Analysis: Kevin Schade

Club: Brentford FC

Nationality: Germany

Age: 21 (Born 2001)

POS: Left-winger, Striker

Preferred foot: Right

Height: 185cm (6'1)

After catching the eye with his performances towards the tail end of last season, Kevin Schade has started 3 consecutive games for the third time in his young Brentford career. Although still clearly a raw talent, he has shown flashes of what the season(s) ahead could hold.

Schade plays on the left side of Brentford's front three alongside Wissa and Mbeumo. This position suits his profile well as he can use his physical and technical attributes to effectively contribute to Brentford's direct attack.

Physical Attributes:

- Standing at 6'1, Schade is taller than average for a winger - he combines this with quick feet and blistering speed to breeze past defenders on occasion he is good at receiving on the half turn: shielding + putting body in between ball and defender.

Schade is a very direct dribbler - his quick feet + long first step + his ability to dribble with both feet allows him to drift past oncoming/static defenders with relative ease, especially when given space to drive at past the defender.

With his height, he is able to tower over many fullbacks - he has a good standing leap, making him a reliable target/outlet ball (won 57.9% of his aerial duels this season). When he attacks crosses with speed + conviction, he is very threatening in the air (more on this later).

Tactical Analysis:

Brentford rotate their attacking approach between direct long balls to the front three and quick, vertical build up to create artificial transitions when the opposition chooses to press. Schade's role within these two approaches varies a little bit.

Defensively:

Schade's role out of possession is nothing special, but he does it well and efficiently. When asked to press, Schade uses his cover shadow well to apply pressure to the ball carrier and cut off the pass to the player behind him, as seen below.

When Brentford are sitting in their 451/4141 deep block, he is used as an LM out of possession, tasked with either marking the opp. RB (when ball is near side) or tuck into mark the RCM. Schade is constantly scanning in these scenarios, showing his defensive knack/responsibility.

Offensively:

A lot of Brentford's settled attack is focused on wing play - wide overloads, over/underlaps, early crosses, etc. Schade doesn't excel in these situations vs deeper blocks. Although his crossing ability is good, it is not an outstanding strength of his game.

Schade is much more effective when playing a direct game - when space behind the opp. back line is exploited. I have already mentioned his utility as an outlet ball - something Brentford were not afraid to use vs Bournemouth, given his height advantage vs Max Aarons.

He is much more than just a target man though, he is able to run channels and has a good understanding of rotations/exploitation of vacated space, and uses this to end up in 1v1 situations vs fullbacks or through on goal.

Schade is also comfortable in the half spaces and has shown this in his rotations with Rico Henry: if Schade occupies the half space, there is space left for Henry to run into. This opens up opportunities for combinations and quick overloads.

Areas of Improvement:

- Upper body strength in carrying + 1v1 situations: I have spoken about the positives regarding Schade's build, but there are too many times where he falls over when going shoulder to shoulder with a defender. This has led to his poor take on % (10%!)

This also contributes to his ineffectiveness vs low blocks, as he cannot consistently size up his man and get past him using pure pace and power. This would be fine if he were a flashier, more specialized 1v1 player, but he is not - making this his biggest weakness.

- Occasional loose first touch + body orientation: Schade's first touch occasionally lets him down - he has the chance to take his first touch past an oncoming defender but instead takes his touch towards the opponent, closing off his lane into the space and forcing turnovers. Also, his body orientation sometimes cuts off his options: he receives on his back foot but his hips are closed off and facing the direction the ball came from (away from goal). This now means his only option would be to pass the ball backwards.

- Box movement + intent to win crosses: Schade mainly occupies far post areas when the ball is on the right wing close to the opp. box. However, he is often very static and does not do any quick movements to try to lose/get ahead of a nearby defender.

Despite his great standing leap, this makes him very easy to mark and leads to him not offering as much of a threat in the box as he could be. On the occasion he does attack the ball at speed, you can see the power he can get behind some headers is frightening.

The way Schade moves reminds me of Leroy Sane the way they can drift past opponents with ease. That being said, in order to do this consistently, Schade must adapt to the physicality of the EPL. He is only 21, so there is not a huge rush with regards to his development.

If he does so, under the coaching of Thomas Frank I believe we could be looking at someone that can consistently score 10-15 goals in the Premier League in a couple of years.