The special one for now? Willian José analysis

What will Wolves' new forward signing bring to the team?

Wolves have a shiny new striker and his name is Willian José da Silva - better known as Willian José.

An initial loan with an option to buy for around £20m, he arrives with a good reputation having been a regularly strong performer in La Liga for Real Sociedead. With no set return date for Raúl Jiménez, this signing is a welcome solution to Wolves’ forward issues. Clearly he is no mug, but what will he actually bring?

I’m going to attempt to cover his strengths and what he will offer, some of it in comparison to Raúl Jiménez. To try and be as fair as possible I’m going to look at the contributions of both since the start of the 2018-19 season (Raúl’s first season at Wolves). Jiménez has played a fair chunk more football than José has - but both have played more than a significant amount of minutes to be able to assess them by.

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Goals

Something that is quite comforting from the outset is how similar their goal records are! From an equivalent of 80 league games, Jiménez has 34 goals whereas José has 25 from just over 56 games worth of minutes.

Goal data - courtesy of Fbref (via Statsbomb)

So while José has scored nine less in that time, his goals per 90 minutes is actually marginally better. Just under a goal every other game basically, which you’d be more than happy with come the end of the season.

If we look at their expected goals (xG) the numbers are fairly similar if slightly more flattering for José.

xG data - courtesy of Fbref (via Statsbomb)

Both clearly produced good, consistent returns in good teams over a lengthy enough period of time. José has more than enough pedigree to give Wolves fans confidence that he will offer a good goal threat.

Shot maps from 2018-19 to 2020-21 from understat

José seems to have less shots (remember, less minutes) but when he does, they seem to generally be from decent positions. He still has shots from outside the area, he scored one in the cup in his last game this way, but he seems to be more of a penalty box striker than you’d say Jiménez is.

Willian José gets in good positions when the ball is being delivered into the box

As you can see from some of his more recent goals, he is a decent threat aerially but also generally has a good sense of when the ball is going to be delivered into a dangerous area. Only Maxi Gomez has scored more headers in La Liga since 2016/17 than José, another forward who has previously been linked with Wolves. We put in almost 14 crosses per game this season, so his aerial ability is an area to hope for improvement in.

Aerial duels

Where we have sorely been lacking since the injury to Jiménez is aerially. Fabio Silva has tried, and improved in some aspects, but at 18 and with his physical stature he is not going to dominate Premier League defenders in the air at this point. Even in the game against Chorley, he struggled to make an impact physically when competing for the ball.

An area José can consider a strength is his ability to challenge for the ball aerially. Once again, he has similar numbers to Jiménez in terms of winning aerial duels. In fact his success rate is slightly higher in the past two and a half seasons.

Jiménez and José aerial duels stats courtsey of Fbref (via Statsbomb)

For more context if you look at a player who is well renowned for his abilities in the air this season, Dominic Calvert-Lewin has currently won 46.8% of his aerial duels. The players that tend to top the charts for this stat are central defenders (Willy Boly is fourth). Fabio Silva wins just 20.4% of his aerial duels this season, so we should quickly seen an improvement in this area, you’d think. Even when José does not win the ball cleanly, or at all, he is able to disrupt the defender’s effort to defend too.

Willian José aerial duels

Link up play

The big benefit we get from a striker like Raúl, and a huge demand we put on our forwards, is the ability to hold the ball up and bring other players into the game. Again, partly due to a lack of upper body strength, this isn’t something we’ve had on a consistent basis from Fabio Silva. His movement is quite good but he can be easily shrugged off the ball and on other occasions his first touch can be poor.

Examples of José holding the ball up in his last 5 appearances

José does well to position himself between the defender and the ball, showing good strength to hold off defenders too. He also manipulates the ball well to give himself an extra yard to then switch the play or lay the ball off to a nearby team mate.

While he is slightly less of creator than Jiménez, he has been called ‘Giroud-esque’ in his style as a physical player who can combine with team mates, especially with nice flicks and one-twos around opponents.

One touch play by José

From what we can see, he seems to have a good intelligence about him. I like the idea of him combining with Daniel Podence through the middle, and feeding the ball to Pedro Neto and Adama Traore in wide areas.

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How will Wolves line up with him in the team?

Having a focal point in attack could help Nuno and Wolves to take a more positive approach to games looking ahead to the rest of the season. Since Jiménez’s injury, Nuno has often tried to find ways to work around the lack of a senior striker (Owen Otasowie as a ‘false nine’, Fabio Silva playing off the left as two examples that spring to mind) with not a great deal of success.

Some of Wolves more coherent performances attacking wise have come in a 4231, with Podence behind Jiménez or Silva. A physical striker who can lead the line like José might give Nuno the confidence to do that, even with some of the defensive frailties Wolves have shown.

Potential eleven in a 4231 shape

Or, if Wolves revert back to the formation that has held them in good stead in recent years, he could spearhead the front three in a 343 formation, with Traore and Neto supporting, and wing-backs providing the width from deeper positions.

Potential eleven in a 343 shape

From a simplistic point of view, we should see a clear improvement in the forward position with José playing there. I have high hopes for Fabio Silva, but this will take the burden off of him and Wolves should carry a greater attacking and physical threat now whatever shape they play. The key now is to give José the best possible support to help him thrive.

In the absence of Raúl, they may just have found the ideal replacement.