Loan watch: Theo Corbeanu

Corbeanu took a while to break into the Sheffield Wednesday team but is proving to be a hit, here's a brief look at why!

Name: Theo Corbeanu

Nationality: Canadian

Position: Wide player

Date of birth: 17 May 2002 (19 years old)

Senior appearances: 14 (2 goals)

International appearances: 6 (2 goals)

Loan club: Sheffield Wednesday Football Club

Corbeanu joined Wolves from Toronto FC in 2018

He’s played just 558 league minutes (the equivalent to 6.2 games) and didn’t make a league start until the 2nd of November but Theo Corbeanu has quickly made himself very popular with Sheffield Wednesday supporters.

Isaac 🦉🎸🏎 @Isaac__blake

Theo Corbeanu is the greatest footballer of all time #swfc

Corbeanu made his senior debut last season in the Premier League as a substitute against Tottenham Hotspur. In his ten minute cameo, he looked way off the standard physically and looked in much need of regular first team football at a lower level. Sheffield Wednesday has proved to be a good fit even if took him a while to make his mark.

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Interestingly, it’s in the wing-back positions that Corbeanu has made an impact in League One. Having watched him plenty of time for Wolves U23s in the past couple of seasons, defending has not appeared to be his forte.

It probably helps that despite playing slightly deeper than in youth football, he doesn’t seem to have been shackled by too much defensive responsibility in Sheffield Wednesday’s 3-5-2. His goal involvements in his full league debut against Sunderland demonstrate this well.

Corbeanu’s first league goal

He has a very high start position in the clip above, even when the opposite wing-back has the ball.

Corbeanu sets up a goal with an excellent cross

Likewise for this assist in the same game he is already in the box as it is being delivered from the opposite side. He then recovers the ball, beats his man and delivers an excellent cross for the Sheffield Wednesday attacker to nod home.

Wolves fans will appreciate the idea of the wing-back being given more freedom to attack and create in the final third. While there some individual issues in that sense, our wing-backs also struggle to get into consistent positions that cause the opposition problems and stretch them. If used properly, playing in this system should give Corbeanu the chance to express himself whilst also exposing him to more defensive situations which should help develop him as an all round footballer.

Corbeanu is attempting 6.26 crosses per 90 minutes, ranking 4th amongst players in his position in League 1, with 35.14% accuracy.

Corbeanu struggles with crosses from deeper/wider positions

His crossing from deeper positions or out on the touchline still needs work. Whereas another loanee in Ryan Giles is getting great success with his crossing in these areas and set pieces, Corbeanu is not quite able to get the type of whipped delivery you need from those positions.

When getting nearer to the byline or penalty area in those wide positions, Corbeanu has been able to show glimpses of quality with a variety of delivery types whether that is cutting inside, delivering early or taking on his man and then crossing.

Corbeanu is adding variety to his game

In fact, the below assist in the EFL trophy is the type of situation you want to see Corbeanu in as regularly as possible.

His willingness to use his right foot to cut the ball back gives him the benefit of being unpredictable and he has a useful ability to shift the ball and cross, pass or shoot quite quickly.

Ranked amongst players in his position in League 1, Corbeanu is way out in front for attempted dribbles (with a 65% success rate too). At U23 level last season even as a first year professional it was already apparent that he would need to be challenged in a harsher environment soon. A loan to League 1, to one of the biggest clubs in the division, appears to have struck the right balance where he is challenged physically but without drowning.

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As strong as he is in attacking 1v1s, he still needs some work in defending those situations. Again, playing wing-back will be exposing him to far more of these situations than he might be used to and in more critical positions too. With his long term future probably as a wide forward it will help him become a very useful team mate knowing he can be asked to defend - if he can get it right now.

Corbeanu defending 1v1 situations

Quite often, it appears the attackers are finding it easy to draw him in and push the ball away from him.

Initial positioning is fine

His initial positioning is fine in the picture above but he is slow to respond to the attacker’s movement and the pass being made to his feet. As a result, it causes him to still be slowing himself down as the attacker is taking their first touch (below).

Corbeanu is arriving as the attacker takes their touch

This means he isn’t set, so has to try and adjust in a hurry which leaves him unbalanced and means the attacker can get away from him in what to begin with was a relatively secure position.

Corbeanu is now unbalanced and can’t prevent the attacker going past him

Reading his opponent’s movement and the timing of passes arriving to them will make a big difference for him. Even further up the pitch if he can predict opportunities to pressure and win the ball, this will help him also have more opportunities to create and score goals.

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Corbeanu is currently producing a goal or assist every 0.65 games. Although it is a small sample size to be going off so far it is an encouraging start to his loan spell. Darren Moore seems to be managing him quite well at the moment, dipping him in and out to get full use out of him. He doesn’t seem to deem him quite ready to be consistently starting, judging by his comments last month when he rested him.

“It’s about managing the squad and not losing anybody.

“Hopefully we’ve come through unscathed. We manage the group again and go on from there because we’ve got a game on Wednesday again then two games next week on Tuesday and Saturday.” (Darren Moore, 27 November 2021)

It will be interesting to see if he can earn his trust more to have a run of games as he will learn a lot from that, with less protection he will have to be resilient both mentally and physically. His expected goals and expected assists are running at a fairly similar level to his goals and assists which suggested his output can continue to be fairly productive if given more minutes.

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