Lukaku's replacement is an emerging star

The UEFA Nations League is a fake competition, and I respect England for showing it the correct level of respect last time around by playing a bunch of backups and getting relegated. It is, however, the variety of reasonably high level football that is on television this week, so I thought we’d look at a player who has a lot to gain from it.

Loïs Openda already has 22 caps for Belgium, but he’s been behind Romelu Lukaku on the depth chart, and currently has just 2 international goals. Lukaku presumably won’t be Belgium’s center forward when the World Cup rolls around, and Openda should finally be given a chance to make the No. 9 role his.

Belgium’s match against Italy on Thursday is comfortably the most interesting game on the schedule, and gives Openda the opportunity to show he can succeed in a different role than he plays at his club. RB Leipzig usually play variants of 3-4-3 with Openda partnered by target forward Benjamin Šeško and playmaker Xavi Simons, but he’ll be a lone striker in a 4-2-3-1 shape for his country.

Right after the transfer window wrapped up, a few readers asked why Openda wasn’t the subject of more speculation, given the thin and extremely hot striker market, and the fact that he scored 24 times last season. The easy answer is that he wasn’t pushing for a move just one year after joining RB Leipzig for €46m, and they weren’t taking less than a king’s ransom for a player with 4 years left on his contract.

But Openda will certainly have a lot of eyes on him this season, and he’s started it a little bit slower than he left off last campaign. Leipzig’s attack as a whole hasn’t quite clicked after Dani Olmo’s departure to Barcelona. A 4-0 win against Augsburg suggested they might be back on track, but they only managed 1 goal and 1.17 xG the following week away to Heidenheim.

But this radar + 4 non-penalty goals in 6 games is far from alarming. Openda isn’t running crazy hot at the moment, but he’s still very much a great player. I’m looking into my crystal ball and seeing Manchester United rumours in his future.

His shot chart from last season has a lot of stuff you love to see. Good shot selection, basically no crap here. A wide variety of shot and finish types. He can get it out of his feet quickly, dribble an opponent, or get on the end of the header. He’s surprisingly proficient in the air despite being just 1.77m (5’10”).

If you don’t believe in these newfangled stats and would like to see visual evidence of the variety of finishes, the fine folks at the Bundesliga have you covered.

Openda is quite a different profile to Lukaku, a guy with the body of an NFL EDGE rusher. He’s not going to bully anyone with his size, and Belgium have to adjust to not having a striker with that kind of physical presence after relying on Lukaku for a decade-plus. But Openda is a step quicker at this point in their careers, certainly a more skilled dribbler, and probably a more technically sound finisher.

If Belgium is going to continue to compete at the top of international football after their golden generation has aged out of the squad, they’ll probably need Openda to replicate his club form while he’s wearing their shirt.

As a side-note on this game, it could mark the international debut of 2 meter (6’7”) Italy striker Lorenzo Lucca, one of my favorite video game cheese players of all time. It’s very easy to get this guy to score an utterly stupid amount of goals on EA FC or Football Manager, and I hope he starts doing it for the Azzurri in real life too. He’s insane in the air, but he’s scored some non-headed bangers for Udinese lately. —KM

I love when people post Struggle Era lineups from their teams. Every big club has had at least one season like this. Not going to lie, I did not remember who Milan Jovanović was and had to look him up.

I would very much enjoy Remembering Some Guys tomorrow or early next week if you’d tell me about your club’s worst team you’ve fielded in recent memory. Send them to me: [email protected], or @kimischilling on Twitter.

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