January always brings a certain type of player to the forefront of transfer discussions: the free agent. Thanks to a certain Mr Bosman, players can speak to clubs six months before the end of their current contract. If agreed upon, the player will be able to move for free after their contract expires.
One of the many players who are free to speak to other clubs is Lazio’s Daichi Kamada. Once a hot topic at Eintracht Frankfurt, the Japanese midfielder now finds himself under the radar. Kamada is no stranger to a Bosman transfer – the 27-year-old moved to Lazio for free just last summer. Despite playing 32 of Frankfurt’s 34 Bundesliga matches last season, Kamada has only been a bit-part player at Lazio. Kamada has played 15 times for Lazio so far, with only seven of those being starts. This has led to an accumulation of 685 minutes – 42.3% of the 1620 available.
Reports seem to suggest that a contract renewal isn’t necessarily on the cards for Daichi, making a summer move likely. But can his next club expect from him?
Daichi Kamada, at Lazio, has mainly played in a midfield position in Maurizio Sarri’s 433 formation. Looking at his percentile rankings this season against other midfielders in Europe, we can see that Kamada has excelled in one-on-one situations. A 96th percentile ranking for take-on success and a 93rd percentile ranking for tackles tells us that Kamada is effective at carrying the ball forward, and regularly gets himself into positions to win the ball back. However, his 92nd percentile ranking for fouls committed, along with a low ranking for interceptions, suggests that his commitment off the ball could be regarded as reckless.
Kamada’s good ball progression is highlighted by his high rankings for carries into the penalty area (90) and penalty area touches (84). However, with generally mediocre placements in other creative metrics, it’s hard to say that Lazio and Kamada have made the most of his carrying abilities. Outside of those metrics, Daichi hasn’t stood out much for Lazio this season. This leads us to ask: what did Lazio see in Kamada whilst he was at Frankfurt?
The thing is, Daichi Kamada was a much different player at Frankfurt stylistically.
Using my PCA-based similarity scores, we can see that Kamada has played similarly to the likes of Adrien Rabiot and Matteo Guendouzi this season, with the latter usually deployed next to him in midfield. As good as these midfielders are, they aren’t known for their creativity as much as their tenacity on and off the ball – Nicolo Rovella, who completed Lazio’s midfield in Kamada’s previous game against Frosinone, is more of a creator in Sarri’s system.
However, Kamada found himself in the company of more creatively influential players last season.
Mario Götze (who mirrored Kamada at Frankfurt tactically), Gavi and Pascal Gross are not Guendouzi-type players. Interestingly, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic ranked highly for similarity. Perhaps Lazio saw Kamada as an SMS replacement? Despite the two’s similar style, their positional differences have likely stunted Kamada’s performances this season.
Daichi Kamada last season was definitely different stylistically, but was he better? Well, the difference between Kamada this season and last season is clear to see when looking at his numbers last season compared to this season.
We can use Z-scores to look at the relative performance of Daichi Kamada at Frankfurt last season and Lazio this season, compared to midfielders currently playing. It’s as if we’re taking Frankfurt’s Daichi Kamada to be a completely different player playing in the Bundesliga right now. As shown on the visualisation above, Kamada’s strengths last season are quite different and more pronounced that those of this season.
Immediately, we can see that Frankfurt’s Kamada places very highly regarding xG, npxG per shot, and goals. Kamada last season often found himself in great shooting positions. This may also have been helped by the tactical setup deployed at Frankfurt and the players around him. Expected goals assisted and open play shot creating actions were more common last season as well, suggesting that Kamada was much more involved in the final phase of play as compared to this year.
More key and progressive passes as well as lower pass completion overall suggests that Kamada this season has been a lot safer on the ball. However, Kamada’s take-on success this season has been much better. His off the ball aggression has also risen in Italy.
Is this all to suggest that Kamada has fallen off since moving to Lazio? If we look just at his numbers, then that is a reasonable suggestion. However, I’d argue that this has been due to a change in role.
At Frankfurt, Kamada played mainly as an attacking midfielder in a 3-4-2-1 formation, much further up the field compared to where he has played for Lazio. This has allowed him to play much further up, in positions where he thrives. Being in better positions more often has allowed Daichi to put up better numbers. Looking at his player circle for last season compared to now is enough to paint that picture.
When we look at Daichi Kamada this season together with last season, we can actually see a very versatile midfielder. His ball carrying ability, shown at Lazio, allows him to progress from deeper areas. His creativity in the final third alongside his good movement and finishing ability, shown at Eintracht Frankfurt, make him a huge threat from higher up the pitch.
No matter where Daichi Kamada finds himself playing next season, there’s a good chance we’ll again begin to hear of good performances once again.
