Charles De Ketelaere Milan's newest addition

Charles De Ketelaere Coming to the San Siro

Charles De Ketelaere is a 21-year-old striker who can also be used as an attacking midfielder and on the wing. He plays for Club Brugge and has won 3 Belgian championships and 2 Super Cups with Club Brugge. He is a left footer and a tall player (192 cm). He has played 78 games in the Juplier Pro League, scoring 18 goals and 12 assists. He already has Champions League experience: in 16 games he scored 2 goals and bagged 3 assists. He has also played 8 international matches for Belgium and scored a goal in the Uefa Nations League 3rd place match against Italy. With all these numbers and at the age of only 21, De Ketelaere has attracted interest from Leeds United, Leicester City and AC Milan. With news from around the world that Ketelaere is step away from the Italian champions for 35 million euros, I decided to analyse his performances for Club Brugge.

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Video Analysis of De Ketelaere's player profile

For this video analysis, some clips were collected from two different games. The first was against PSG, as I wanted to know how De Ketelaere will play against high profile teams, and another game against Standard De Liege, as De Ketelaere plays on the left wing rather than as a striker. The game against De Liege is more to underline the versatility of the player.

De Ketelaere vs PSG

De Ketelaere played the role of an advanced forward against PSG in last match for Club Brugge in the Champions League last season in 3-5-2. 

1-4 PSG De Ketelaere highlights

Let us look at the different clips. In the first clip, De Ketelaere, highlighted by the circle, manages to pass a great ball to his teammates under pressure, but it does not reach its destination. In the second clip, De Ketelaere delays his run until the PSG defender tackles the player holding the ball. As soon as the PSG player leaves the position, De Ketelaere demands the ball in open space and plays the ball across the penalty area. In the final clip you can see De Ketelaere running into space again and holding up the defender, in this case Marquinhos, and then playing the ball back, but the supporting player was unable to receive the ball.

In this 15-second clip we can see some of De Ketelaere's advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages

• Ability to hold off defenders
• Great vision
• Ability to move into space behind defenders

Cons

• Needs to work on his passing game

De Ketelaere vs Standard De Liege

De Ketelaere played the role of an left winger against Standard De Liege in 14th matchday for Club Brugge in the Juplier Pro League in 4-3-3 formation.

In the first clip, De Ketelaere again shows his ability to find players who are not under pressure and play the ball into dangerous open space after dragging three defenders with him. The second clip shows De Ketelaere keeping defenders off the ball and recovering the ball for his team. In the third clip, De Ketelaere again delays his run before moving into space to take on a dangerous ball in the opponent's penalty area. The final clip shows an amazing volley goal from De Ketelaere, but I wanted to highlight how De Ketelaere managed to break free from his guard by dropping down. This way he gets the ball without anyone marking him, which makes it easier to execute the first time volley.

Conclusion

Charles De Ketelaere is an amazing young prospect with Champions League experience. His capability to hold the ball combined with his vision and the ability to find open space makes him a valuable asset for AC Milan who needs a lot of players like De Ketelaere if they want to get out of the group stage of the Champions League and return to the glory days.