Background

Simon Gustafson has been relatively solid as an attacking force since the day he made his professional debut, back in 2013 in a 2-1 defeat to Falkenburgs in the Svenska Cupen. He has never looked like one of the exciting talents that has an amazing couple of games and then goes missing for the rest of the season, instead, he has shown steady and continuous progress at BK Hacken as a teenager and now at Feyenoord. His standout year to date was the 13/14 season in which he asserted himself as one of the more impressive attacking players in the Allsvenskan, despite being played out of position in a number of positions throughout the year. As shown by his 10 goals and 4 assists in 28 matches (9 of those appearances as a defensive midfielder) the variety of positions he played in massively helped his development and versatility.

This is what has been most impressive about his steady progression with each passing season. Not the fact that he has been contributing to a decent number of goals for a young attacking midfielder but the fact that he plays with such maturity and a calmness that has made him stand out from the start. So when Feyenoord bought him for just over £1 million it was expected that he would continue his development with the second team and make occasional appearances for the first team so that he could be carefully integrated into the team. This is the way way things started as he made the first four of his appearances for the second team but such was the standard of his play that he was called into action for the first team by September (again not due to his direct contribution to goals; 0 goals and 1 assist) but largely down to how much of an influence he was on the pitch. The way he has responded to playing for a team challenging for the Eredivisie title has been outstanding. In his third start against Heerenveen he announced himself to the league by scoring 1 and setting up another 3 in a 5-2 demolition and has continued his form, keeping Jens Toornstra out of the starting line-up (a signing from the previous summer who cost over twice the amount Gustafson did, as well as being 6 years his senior).

Strengths

He creates a lot of good chances consistently with his set-piece deliveries, they tend to be whipped in with a lot of pace as opposed to trying to pick someone out in particular.

Very composed on the ball, especially in and around the area which is handy because he likes to linger on the edge of the box so he can pick up the ball and lay it off to someone else or take a shot at goal.

With the ball he’s a deceptively powerful runner because his running style looks laboured but he has the ability to run past people as well as holding them off when shoulder to shoulder.

He almost plays the role of a centre-forward with the regularity with which he makes clever runs in behind the defence.

Finally, he’s incredibly comfortable using either foot, with both tremendous passing ability (particular the weight of his through balls) as well as a fantastic shot which he really does get a lot of power behind.

Weaknesses

He doesn’t come short to look for the ball which is definitely something that could add to his game because he has the ability to be more involved in the build-up and to unlock defences from deeper positions.

Unless the ball is near him he does almost no defensive work, whether that’s putting pressure on opposition defenders in possession of the ball or tracking back to help his team when they’re under pressure.

For someone of his height, 6’0, he would be useful on the end of set-pieces when he is not taking them however, he seems to have no inclination to try and head the ball so it is difficult to know whether he has that side to his game or not.

He has a tendency to try and play instant little passes in behind the defence the second he receives the ball and whilst a fair few of them work a lot of others don’t resulting in him giving away possession. I think the reason for this seems to be a combination of having a fantastic range and weight of passing which gives him the confidence to attempt them as well as not being the most comfortable when actually dribbling with the ball. This is a side of his game that seems lacking because he’s good enough on the ball to get it out of his feet and pass it or as previously stated, he’s a very strong runner with the ball when he is going at the defence but it’s when he’s in tight spaces or if he has to use a bit of skill to get round an opponent that his lack of dribbling ability falls short of the norm for his position.

Final Thoughts

It could be an incredibly exciting season for both Gustafson and Feyenoord as they push for the Eredivisie title, for Feyenoord his unexpectedly quick progression into the first team is a bonus as well as the relationship Gustafson seems to have quickly built with the legendary Dirk Kuyt. I don’t like making comparisons between players but raw athleticism aside, it is striking how closely his playing style resembles that of Kevin De Bruyne’s.

Here’s highlights of his standout performance against sc Heerenveen.