Gabriel Jesus’ transformation from a goal scorer to an all-around attacker at Man City
Gabriel Jesus’ transformation from a goal scorer to an all-around attacker at Man City. Gabriel Jesus will start a new chapter in his Premier League career after finalizing his £45 million transfer to Arsenal this summer, ending his 512 years with Manchester City. Jesus left Palmeiras for City in the summer of 2016 for almost £30 million, but the 19-year-old wasn’t able to move to the Premier League until January 2017, at which point he officially joined his new squad.
He first arrived at the Etihad as a dynamic, adaptable, all-action forward who, before joining City, had amassed 26 goals in 67 senior games for his boyhood club. He retires with 95 goals in 236 games in all competitions (along with 46 assists), and has contributed to four Premier League championships, one FA Cup, three EFL Cups, and a journey to the 2021 Champions League final.
The Brazil international was only allowed 20 league starts last season, and even though he still contributed with eight goals and nine assists, it is clear that Jesus should look for a new challenge elsewhere, especially since City signed Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund this summer.
Jesus spent the majority of his early City career playing as a specialist goal scorer in a central position. Unquestionably efficient, he rapidly developed the habit of scoring from close range with one-touch finishes. Only one of his first 14 Premier League goals, a penalty against Leicester in May 2017, was really scored from farther than 8 yards.
Jesus has since developed his style of play and adjusted to become a much more well-rounded forward in the vein of Pep Guardiola, capable of playing off either wing or down the middle as necessary. He now possesses a much larger repertoire of deft passes, touches in the penalty area, assists, and even goals from outside the box.
The player is currently traveling to the Emirates. Jesus played in 42 matches in all competitions in his first full season at City under Guardiola, 34 of which were as the central striker.
Jesus scored 17 goals across all competitions with an xG rating of just 17.72, displaying an impressive level of effectiveness in front of the goal. His 17 goals were all scored from within the penalty area once more (eight from inside the 6-yard box). The lowest season total of his City career was the mere 4.2 touches of the ball inside the penalty area per 90 minutes that he averaged.
The Brazilian also finished fewer dribbles per game (0.8) and enrolled fewer assists (three) in 2017-18 than in any other season he spent at the Etihad, returning his lowest single-season passing accuracy (80.3 percent), illustrating the strong emphasis on goal scoring rather than goal creation.
The highlight of Jesus’ 2017–18 campaign came in the 94th minute of the season’s final league game when he scored in extra time to give his team a razor-thin 1-0 victory over Southampton. At that moment, City had already been crowned champions, but the Brazilian’s goal made Guardiola’s team the first in history to accumulate 100 points in a top-flight season, earning them the moniker “Centurions.”
Jesus continued to outperform himself in 2018–19, scoring 21 goals and dishing out seven assists in 47 games across all competitions as City swept the domestic treble, taking home the Premier League, FA Cup, and League Cup. The Brazilian was usually employed as City’s attack’s center-forward and scored an average of one goal for every 107.3 minutes he was on the field, although occasionally being used as an extra left flank.
By scoring four goals with his left foot, 11 with his right, and six with his head, Jesus substantially expanded the variety of ways he could score goals. The lone goal Jesus has ever scored for City came from outside the 18-yard box during his triple trick against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League group stages. This game also featured two penalties. You wonder why he didn’t score more when you see the mouthwatering 20-yard lob that he scored in the 92nd minute.
Because of a string of injuries that frequently kept City’s first-choice striker Sergio Aguero out of the lineup, Jesus’ City’s following season ended up being the most productive of his career. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jesus scored 23 goals in 53 games for City, which was his greatest performance for the team, and added 11 assists.
The Brazilian striker for City had multiple statistical career highs, but they were forced to settle with the EFL Cup as their lone trophy after coming second to Liverpool in the Premier League during a COVID-plagued season.
Jesus not only had his best goal and assist return, but also more touches inside the area per game (5.7) and a better pass completion rate (85.9 percent) than at any other time during his time with City. He also saw an increase in his average number of completed dribbles per game to 1.3, which indicated the start of a subtle change in his playing style.
After Ruud van Nistelrooy achieved it for Manchester United in 2003–04, Jesus became just the second player in Champions League history to score for an English team in both legs of a knockout match against Real Madrid.
Jesus’ playing time was cut down in 2020–21 as a result of minor injuries, a positive COVID-19 test, and a suspension, which all contributed to a drop in his stats. It was the striker’s lowest goal contribution return in any of his five full seasons at the Etihad, as he made just 42 appearances for City in all competitions (down from 53 the previous season). He scored 14 goals and provided four assists.
Jesus scored five goals with his left foot, seven with his right, and two with his head within the 6-yard box, accounting for exactly half of his 14 total goals. The striker’s average number of touches within the penalty area decreased nearly 20% from 5.7 per game in 2019–20 to 4.7 per game in 2020–21, adding to his difficulties.
Positives include the fact that the Brazilian scored a total of 14 goals while maintaining an xG rating of just 14.2, maintaining a pass completion rate of 84.6 percent, and successfully completing an average of more dribbles per 90 minutes than any other player at the Etihad this season (1.6 per 90 minutes). In other words, he carried and moved the ball more effectively in the development of attacks, but at the expense of creating opportunities by being in the right place at the right time. The fact that midfielders Raheem Sterling (14 goals), Riyad Mahrez (14 goals), Phil Foden (16 goals), and Ilkay Gundogan (17 goals) emerged as the team’s top goal scorers in 2020–21 suggests a more all-encompassing strategy for distributing the goals.
In 2021–22, City once again distributed the goals evenly, with Mahrez topping the club’s all-competition scoring lists with 24 goals, followed by Kevin De Bruyne (19) and Sterling (13). (17). In any of his five full seasons at the Etihad, Jesus made the fewest number of appearances for City (41) and scored the fewest goals (13), although he was able to increase his assist total to a joint-high of 11.
All 13 of the forward’s goals were scored inside the 18-yard box, and just one was scored with his left foot and one with his head. Jesus, though, hasn’t produced as few close-range tap-ins since his first few months at City in 2016–17, as only four goals came from inside the 6-yard box.
Jesus’ reduced involvement will have naturally had a negative impact on his productivity in terms of goal contributions, but it may be noteworthy to note that he experienced an increase in average touches inside the area (5.8 per game — a career-high), pass completion (85.1 percent), and minutes per assist (233.7 — again, a career-high).
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was released by Arsenal in February of last year after being frozen out of the team and stripped of his captaincy two months earlier. Alexandre Lacazette, on the other hand, left the club as a free agent after his own contract expired at the end of the season in a more graceful manner.
The Gunners will undoubtedly be hoping Jesus can transform back into the ruthless poacher of old given that the team’s top scorer across all competitions in 2021–22 was 19–year–old winger Bukayo Saka (12 goals), and only three players on Mikel Arteta’s squad managed to reach double digits in terms of goals.
It will be interesting to see if the Brazilian is able to regain his skills and adjust to life as a predator in the penalty area who can score 20 or more goals per season. Given that the Gunners don’t have a tonne of seasoned, Premier League-tested goal scorers on hand, perhaps a combination of both wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Young academy product Eddie Nketiah’s late-season performance, in which he scored five goals in the final seven games of the season, earned him a new contract, but the 23-year-old is still far from being a finished product. The ability to really have someone in the area to finish opportunities with reliable consistency will be crucial to Arsenal’s ambitions of finishing in the top four next season, especially now that Fabio Vieira has joined the ranks of attacking midfielders and wide forwards at Arteta’s disposal.