Andreas Christensen: A very elegant centre-back... but lacking a bit of nastiness

Andreas Christensen did not come through the Ajax youth academy, but his style of play fits perfectly that of the centre-backs who plied their trade at the Dutch side.

Standing at 1.87 metres tall, Christensen is an elegant centre-back who seems as though he could be a good fit for the Barcelona following his summer signing.

His father was a goalkeeper... but he started out as a striker

Christensen's father, Sten, who was a goalkeeper that played for Brondby, couldn't convince his son to play in goal.

"I started as a striker, dribbling a lot, doing all the tricks and scoring goals," Christensen told Chelsea's website.

"Then I went into midfield, where I was on the ball a lot and you had to be a good technical player. So when I became a defender, I would still drive the ball up to midfield."

Great footwork

Bringing the ball out from the back gradually became his trademark at Chelsea and Denmark.

However, there are certain occasions when he made mistakes that cost his team, such as the one in Chelsea's 1-1 draw with Barcelona in 2018, when he gave away the ball for Lionel Messi's equaliser.

"He was one of the best players tonight," said Antonio Conte after the game.

"We bet on young players and, from time to time, they make mistakes."

His passing success rate is very high (91.4 percent), having completed 1.166 of the 1.276 passes he has attempted in the Premier League according to Fbref.

Christensen also has a high success rate in long passes, as he has successfully completed 188 of the 227 attempts he has made.

His good footwork makes him a perfect decoy. At Euro 2020, for example, he started as a centre-back in a back-three and when his team attacked he moved forward to the wide area to create superiority.

"For a centre half by nature to move into midfield today and be comfortable in possession, he's having a great summer," said ex-Wales captain Ashley Williams.

"Fair play to him, the manager has asked him to do something a little bit different and he was brilliant."

His former coach Thomas Tuchel has praised him in the past but asked the Denmark international to be more aggressive when needed.

"I think it is important we accept the personality of every player," Tuchel said. "Some are more loud, some aggressive, some more calm. He's a calm guy, very intelligent player.

"He is also a trustful and reliable person. These are good attitudes as a defender.

"From time to time he needs to be reminded to come out of his shell and show his strengths."

His former teammate Cesc Fabregas agreed with Tuchel's take in a Twitch interview for Jijantes FC.

"I think he's a great player," said Fabregas.

"When he was young, you could already see the way he could read the game, anticipate the play.

"However, I always say that, sometimes, he needs to be a bit more of a bastard. That's a little bit what I see in Eric Garcia. In today's football, without attacking anyone, but you have to be a bit more forceful."

It is true that it is difficult for him to impose his physique despite being 1.87m tall. In attack for example you barely see him threatening the opposition, having scored nine goals in 242 games.

In the image above, Smarterscout data defines his stylistic traits, weighted from to 99 compared to players in his position. We can see that he excels in aerial duels at set pieces, but when it comes to balls that come from open play, his performance drops.

An extraordinary reading of the game

Christensen has an outstanding understanding of the game in defence which, along with his long legs, allows him to prevent the creation of chances from the opponents, with anticipation being his main virtue.

Last season, he committed just 13 fouls and saw two yellows in 34 Premier League games. In fact, he has only been sent off once in his career.

In the graph above we can see that he is not an active defender (Defending quantity: 14 out of 99), although he is going in recovering balls (Recover: 78).

In other words, we are talking about a centre-back who knows how to stop opponents through his defensive positioning, who can stop an opponent from pushing forwards (Disrupt: 94) and who is very difficult to get past in one-on-ones (Ground duels out of possession: 85).

Therefore, his defensive actions are of high quality (Defending Quality: 75 out of 99).