Axel Witsel

{Profile Updated 01/09/12}







Date of Birth: - 12 January 1989

Height: - 186 cm (6 ft 1 in)

Position: - Defensive midfield

Nationality: - Belgian

Current Club: - Benfica

Estimated Market Value: - 25 million pounds

Linked with: - Manchester United

Real Madrid

AC Milan









Club Statistics





Standard Liege



2006-2007 season - 16 matches, 2 goals

2007-2008 season - 33 matches, 7 goals

2008-2009 season - 45 matches, 9 goals

2009-2010 season - 39 matches, 9 goals

2010-2011 season - 37 matches, 10 goals

TOTAL - 211 matches, 40 goals





Benfica



2011-2012 season - 41 matches, 3 goals







International Statistics





Belgium U19



2006 season- 3 matches, 0 goals





Belgium



2008 - 2012 season - 30 matches, 5 goals









General Comments:



First off I would just like to say that Axel Witsels hair can be rivalled only by that of his fellow countryman Marouane Fellaini. It really is a terrific afro. Now that thats out of the way on to his ability.



This was a very hard profile to do as there were so many conflicting stats redarding Witsel. So I had to dig really deep in order to get accurate stats. As for Witsels ability, he is a really excellent player. And I mean excellent. He is a much classier version of Fellaini, he may not be as physical but he is a much better player. If I were to describe him as a player I would say a blend of Fellaini and Dembele. He is the kind of player who gets on the ball to create chances but never neglects his defensive duties. This shows a high level of concentration and positional awareness. He is a perfect blend of steel in the middle of the park and finesse. One moment he will make a crunching challenge on an opposition player leaving him on the ground in pain and the next minute he is skilling his way past 2 or 3 players before rolling the ball square for a team mate to score a simple tap in. As a defensive midfielder myself I can only watch in awe at his natural talent.



Witsel has the kind of ability where he could play in any midfield in the world and look right at home. He is also incredibly versatile and has played attacking mid many times, and been very effective there too. In addition to this Witsel does not over complicate things when he gets on the ball, which is an incredibly impressive feat considering he is just 23 years of age. So the level of maturity he shows is years beyond his age. I have to say as well, that for a defensive midfielder Witsel has a ridiculously impressive goalscoring record. He chimes in with 10 goals a season which is extremely good for a defensive mid.

However, not all of what Witsel does is to be admired. Whilst it is almost a necessity in the modern game to have a strong, hard tackling central midfielder in your team at times Witsel takes it to the extreme. At times he is overly rash in the challenge which can lead to sending offs and injuries to the oppositions player. There is an obvious example of this, the much documented horror tackle. It happened when Witsel was playing for Standard Liege in a match against Anderlecht, Witsel stamped on the opposition players ankle badly breaking his leg. This is not an isolated incident though, just the most severe. So this is definitely a problem if he were to move to the premier league.









Would Witsel cut it in England?



In my opinion yes. Absolutely. The boy is a real class act. He would add something extra to any midfield in the world and Im surprised that no bigger club came in for him when he moved from Standard Liege to Benfica. Because his talent sticks out like a sore thumb. Even amongst players like Nico Gaitan I am immediately drawn to Witsel. He is THAT good.







Summary of Witsel:





Strengths: Concentration, defensive positioning, touch, vision, strong tackle.



Weaknesses: Rash in the challenge, consistent fouling.







The Business End of the Profile:



Witsel never even attracted any move on Deadline Day, which was a bit of a shocker to be honest. However, a move next summer will definately be in the offing for him























Thanks,

{A profile by Ed063}