Hull City have struggled to put firm feet on the ground since their promotion from League One, barely crawling out of the drop zone in the EFL Championship 2021/22 sitting in 21st position.
However, the Tigers do possess some real talents within their squad depth – one of them being the 20-year-old English winger, Keane Lewis-Potter. Lewis-Potter has come through the ranks of the club academy and has made it to the big stage real well, cementing his place into the senior team almost raking up 100 appearances at such a young age.
The winger was one of the most important players in their promotion campaign to the second tier in 2020/21 with 17 direct goal contributions – 13 goals and 6 assists. At the tender age of 19(at that time) he led the team’s attack from the front with real courage and confidence.
This season he has been by far the best player in the Tigers’ squad with four goal involvements among the eight goals they have scored – two goals and two assists. Lewis-Potter has proved that he has got a great deal of potential and with time will bloom into a much better version of what he already is.
With the massive performances, he has grabbed the headlines for sure, turning the heads of some top Premier League clubs scouts and managements for a future move away. West Ham are one of the most interested clubs once again, after they had already signed Hull winger Jarrod Bowen two seasons back who has proved to be an asset so far for the Hammers. Southampton and Brentford also remain interested in the youngster.
We look at his attacking stats from this season.
The 20-year-old has the ability to play anywhere in the attacking third, comfortable on both feet equally and being able to play on both wings as well as a central striker if needed. This versatility does add great value to his potential. He has appeared in all of the 11 matches for Hull, mostly playing as a left-winger. With an extremely great work-rate he has covered a lot of ground from one corner flag to the opposite, however, spending the majority of his team on the left-wing in the opposition area near the penalty area- the red and orange areas in the above viz. Rather than staying wide and providing width, he loves to cut inside into the box trying to score goals or link-up and set up teammates which makes him such a big attacking threat. This also helps the full-backs to push forward to outnumber the opposition in the final third. He seldomly has drifted towards the right as well while dropping deep to carry the ball forward from his own defensive third as well. A very dynamic player, to be honest with an extremely sharp cutting edge in the penalty area.
The English winger has played almost 90% of his passes near the left flank, most of them have been outside the opposition penalty area with the attempt to link-up with others to create something or a quick one-two before he launches a shot. Averaging 22 passes per 90 with 40 touches, Lewis-Potter has completed a total of 236 passes with an accuracy of 74%. The majority of his passes have been played in progressive motion. He likes to play short passes more than attempting any long over-the-top balls. The 20-year-old has delivered a total of 32 crosses from both the wings with xT sometimes as high as 0.3500 providing two assists to his teammates already. He definitely knows how to move around the opponent penalty area and create attacks.
One of the best attributes of his game is his willingness to take shots from different angles and try to make the keeper work. He scored 13 goals last season and has already scored twice this season. The majority of his shots have been from the left side of the pitch, in and around the box mostly. He has a shot accuracy of 39% averaging a goal every 494 minutes, just 20 he has got a lot of time and room to improve. But his finishing is one of the strongest part of his game and that’s a fact. Lewis-Potter is also a very efficient dribbler of the ball completing 12 successful dribbles. Both of his goals have been scored from his right foot, inside the box.
With a low xG per shot metric, lesser than the league median he has failed to get himself to good goal-scoring positions. But he ranks 80th percentile in the league in dribbles attempted per 90 while ranking 70th percentile in the successful dribbles metric. He has engaged himself in lesser offensive duels than the league average but has won the majority of them ranking 92nd percentile in the league.
Keane Lewis-Potter is a real solid talent brooding in the Championship and a Premier League move seems very imminent for the youngster. But a transfer as early as in January might not be a very sensible decision from the interested clubs perspective, perhaps giving him a full season in the Championship could be a correct decision. A risk of losing him to a fellow opponent club does however follow with that. But there is no false facade over his potential and he certainly has what it takes to be a future superstar. He would very well be a good investment at just 12 million pounds market value. What the future holds for Lewis-Potter only time will tell.
