When Christopher Nkunku left Paris Saint Germain in 2019 people had every reason to be skeptical.

The young midfielder was getting a more than fair number of minutes for the side in both Ligue 1 and the Coupe de France – it would have been easy for him to collect medals and a paycheck whilst playing a bit part role in the side, but that wasn’t going to be enough for his ambition.

Instead, he moved to RB Leipzig and joined a side full of stars who were yet to transform themselves into household names and looking to make a splash at European level.

So, has the bold move worked out for him? And what direction is his career currently heading in under the management of Julian Nagelsmann?

RB Leipzig’s style

Leipzig and Nagelsmann have become synonymous with a high-intensity, all-action, never-give-you-a-moments-peace style of football and look just as good whilst defending as they do when flowing forward.

The side have experimented with a range of formations this season and are flexible in their approach from both a game by game basis and within game. Often, they’ll operate in a 4-4-2, a 4-2-2-2, or a most-commonly a 3-4-2-1, with emphasis on dominating the centre regardless of XI.

Kevin Kampl (or one of the versatile Angelino or Konrad Laimer) and Marcel Sabitzer operate a double pivot and will look to build attacks from deeper positions, with the former tasked with protecting the defensive line whilst Sabitzer pushes forward.

Wide players are important though. Be it full backs streaming forward or genuine wide midfielders, they will make runs in behind and provide crosses to the centre forwards, whom this season have been either Alexander Sørloth or Yussuf Poulsen.

Just behind the forwards sit attacking midfielders, usually Dani Olmo, Emil Forsberg or the man himself, Christopher Nkunku. These are not traditional attacking midfielders though and play more like roaming shadow strikers who are expected to be in the box for finishing moves but have the option to drop deep if the play requires.

As a result of these extremely advanced attacking midfielders, the in-game formation could sometimes be looked at as a 4-2-4 or even a 3-3-4 so it is little surprise to see that Leipzig have scored in 90% of their matches in 20/21.

Pressing is key and to play in the side you must be selfless, putting the team before yourself and moving as an unrelenting unit. As the extremely high defensive line advances, so must the attackers (and vice-versa) to reduce the space between lines and squeeze the life out of the opposition, forcing them into mistakes and regaining possession before a fully transition is completed.

This will often involve boxing the opposition into their own third of the pitch from a goal kick, meaning defenders have to look for a sub-optimal long ball (which Dayot Upamecano and company will eat up) rather than build from the back.

Something that has changed lately for the side, however, is their move towards more possession based build up. Whilst still lethal on the break, Leipzig enjoy much more of the ball nowadays with an average of 58% possession this season compared to 50% back in the 18/19 campaign.

Passing therefore has to be extremely slick and attacking players are expected to play quality one-touch passes as often as possible, regularly taking less than a second on the ball in order to bring defenders out of shape and exploiting the space left between the lines.

Key traits

The first thing that should strike you about Christopher Nkunku is his incredible touch and close control. Even when the ball is fired into him at pace he can stop it dead and can easily switch the ball from foot to foot at speed to breeze past defenders and make space for himself.

These credentials mean he’s a player who loves to dribble and holds onto the ball very well with a near 59% success rate, something which is permitted in Nagelsmann’s side. However, it’s what he does when he finishes his dribbling that is most impressive.

Unafraid to have a strike from distance having taken almost as many shots outside the box for Leipzig as inside. He’s scored some brilliant goals for the side, having 11 career Bundesliga goals already (3 from outside the box) and averaging 2.54 shots per game in the league.

When he’s not shooting, he’s a creative passer, as showcased in his 13 Bundesliga assists last season and his highly impressive 3.51 key passes per 90 minutes for Leipzig.

Nkunku is a thoughtful and crafty player, one who reads the game well to find himself in the right place at the right time, be that in the 6-yard box to slot home as a centre forward, or moving into a channel between centre back and full back to create space for a delicate through ball from Olmo and company.

This intelligence of movement is a key factor in helping Leipzig penetrate deeper defensive blocks and his effective partnerships with Olmo, Sabitzer and Werner before him benefit the side in these situations. These complimentary partnerships are relied on fairly heavily by Nkunku, and explosive movement from Sabitzer and his fellow attackers help Nkunku shine in the Leipzig system.

Reading the game well also makes Nkunku a real match-winner as his instinctive, skillful nature means he can create something out of seemingly nothing, such as his recent goal against Bayer Leverkusen which secured a 1-0 win. Have a quick look at his highlight reel from last season too and you’ll see his technical assets in full flow.

Defensively he does enough to warrant a place in the Leipzig starting XI as he presses as part of the unit and is effective both in and out of defensive transitions high up the field. He’s not the best tackler, but he shouldn’t be expected to be so either.

Finally, and in many cases most importantly, is Nkunku’s set piece delivery. Whilst many players in the side are adept at putting pinpoint balls into the area, Nkunku truly excels with his corner taking, providing assists and dangerous deliveries to the height coming up from the back.

Reasonable comparisons

Nkunku is statistically just as impressive and sits suitably amongst some of Europe’s most exciting playmakers.

A strong comparison would be the well-celebrated Papu Gomez. Both love to drift between the lines and are capable of popping up in dangerous areas to take the weight off their respective forward lines, which is shown in their matching goals per 90 of 0.29.

The difference is that while Papu is outperforming his xG at 0.27, Nkunku falls short of his at 0.39, which given that a number of his goals were longer ranged efforts could be a call for concern as he does have a tendency to miss some simpler finishes.

Assist wise though, you may be surprised to learn that Nkunku is statistically superior. Not only does Nkunku have a higher number of assists per 90 at 0.47 compared with 0.44, he also has an xA of 0.42, whereas Gomez sits at 0.28, meaning either Papu’s assists are uncannily excellent, or the receivers tended to convert very difficult chances, whereas Nkunku delivers easier chances to teammates.

This is similar when looking at fellow Leipzig man Dani Olmo, who offers an xA of 0.19 and 0.3 assist per 90, again outperforming his xA, unlike the Frenchman.

Most of all though, it is worth looking back at Nkunku’s key passes per 90 for Leipzig, which sits at a whopping average of 3.43.

This is more than Papu Gomez, Dani Olmo, Jack Grealish, Bruno Fernandes, Thomas Muller – it’s even more than Lionel Messi – what more do I need to say? Nkunku is frankly exceptional passer of the ball and has incredible vision, sitting just behind Kevin De Bruyne (3.83) in the key passing department. Sure, the system absolutely suits this willingness to make important passes, but to pull them off at such a rate is quite extraordinary.

The downsides

As you may be able to tell already, Nkunku is a high-quality player, but he does have some areas of his game he could improve on.

With an xG of 0.39 but an actual goals per 90 of 0.29, Nkunku tends to miss some easier chances, which he really should be putting away. He’ll sometimes pop up inside the penalty box and blast his shot straight at the goalkeeper, or just wide, having missed chances a handful of worth 0.58, 0.55 and 0.54 xG in the past couple of years. Working on his striking instinct then would help to elevate him to the next level and allow him to play the shadow striker role even more effectively.

He can also get some tunnel vision on occasions and can fail to make some easier passes to open teammates; this is to be expected of a player with such proficient dribbling ability as more often than not his dribbling will get him out of trouble.

Lastly, Nkunku is not a good tackler meaning his is restricted to playing further forward in the midfield. If he could improve this defensive side of his game, he could be an exceptional box-to-box midfielder within Nagelsmann’s system and beyond.

Conclusion

Christopher Nkunku is already a brilliant attacking midfield presence and at just 23 years of age, I feel there is much, much more left to be written for him.

He has good movement, creative dribbling, shoots fairly well and is a premium passer of the ball. From open play and set pieces he registers amongst the very best in Europe and is surely ready to make the next step in his career.

Attacking players of his efficiency and creativity are always at a premium and I wouldn’t be shocked to see him move to a historically-larger club (sorry Leipzig fans) in the next couple of seasons. Any team who loves to attack would suit him and there would surely be a number of elite suiters across Europe. Liverpool, Barcelona and his former club PSG are just three sides which I feel would really benefit from his creative services and versatility in the forward positions.

No matter where he ends up, be sure to watch Nkunku play when you get chance, he’s a real joy on the eye and surely set to be one of the next best in Europe.