Does Jay Stansfield have what it takes to become Fulham's next number 9? — scout report
7th February, 2024.
Fulham lost their most important striker when Aleksandar Mitrovic was sold to Al Hilal (£58m). The 29-year-old scored 14 times in the Premier League 2022/23 season and without him Marco Silva’s game model changed a lot. Notwithstanding, Fulham signed Raúl Jiménez from Wolves, the position needs new faces, just like Armando Broja, who has been on-loan at Fulham since January. However, the-also-Fulham-player Jay Stansfield has been on-loan at Birmingham City for this season playing as a striker frequently and he has scored 8 goals and made 2 assists in 27 Championship matches. So maybe Marco Silva thinks the 21-year-old can be the next Fulham’s striker… but will this actually happen?
How important was Mitrovic for Fulham?
Besides his 14 goals, Mitrovic won 4.47 aerial duels per 90 in Premier League games during the 2022/23 season with Fulham and was ranked in the 94th percentile amongst Premier League forwards. His aerial domination was one of the keys in Marco Silva’s game model because of two reasons: firstly, long balls to Mitrovic created a way for the team to progress while evading high-pressing efforts from their opponents; secondly, Fulham found a good way to exploit their wide overloads — mainly the Robinson-Pereira-Willian relationship, creating dangerous situations through which to pull-off crosses in the general direction of Mitrovic’s head.
After Mitrovic went to Al Hilal, Fulham could still count on two centre-forwards: Carlos Vinicius, who played last season when Mitro was not available and scored 5 goals in 1096 minutes of play; and Rodrigo Muniz, who returned to Fulham this season after a not so successful loan to Middlesbrough (2 goals, 889 minutes played). In addition, the signing Raúl Jiménez (£5m) was far from exciting but still a hopefully-decent-enough replacement for Mitrovic if, and it has been a weighty if so far, he was able recapture his productions level from four year prior — at the height of his Wolves days, he was a really effective scorer and could make excellent play-reads throughout many different situations of on-the-break attacks. However, his performance level has been a story of ever-decline since his head injury against Arsenal in November of 2020.
The Fulham striker this 2023/24
Throghout the first half of the current season, while he remained injury-free, Raúl Jiménez has become Fulham’s main striker (as he has played 56% of available Premier League minutes). He does not have the same aerial ability as Mitrovic and his presence is definitely less imposing, but he has contributed a lot of build-up virtues with his superior dexterity for short-passing as well as being a source of great intensity in the pressing phase — proving vital in what is an important aspect of play in Marco Silva team. In that order, cottagers needed to add more threats in center channels and half-spaces, explaining Cairney, Pereira, Wilson and Iwobi improvements.
Still, the team was missing not having a reliable scoring threat and cutting box-presence in their attack. Fulham are 6th in crosses made per 90 in the Premier League this season (18.44), and that is one of the reasons why they decided to sign Armando Broja on-loan for the second half of the season. Raúl has now been injured for weeks on-end and Carlos Vinicius went to Galatasaray, so things felt uncertain and almost bleak. That was until Rodrigo Muniz finally and completely broke through, establishing himself as “the” guy to solve once and for all every one of Fulham’s attacking issues.. Broja and his 1.91m could still prove to be a boost that would help Fulham gain a more markedly aerial presence when needed, but from what we’ve seen so far in the so fruitful decision to give Muniz the starting position, Marco Silva is evidently trying to change some things in his game model to freshen up and evolve his attack.
Jay Stansfield — player profile
As stated previously, Jay Stansfield is Fulham’s dark horse of sorts for the future of their attack as he’s been able to prove through his good performances as one of the centre-forwards for Birmingham City in the Championship. Already an England under-21 international player, Fulham were able to secure his signing from Exeter close to five years at the young age of 16. Throughout his development, whether it’d in the Fulham youth ranks or afterwards back at Exeter on-loan or now at Birmingham. He has played as a right-winger, left-winger or centre-forward — sometimes, and preferably, next to a more static, main attacking reference. That said, Jay could be one of the options to strengthen the Fulham attack in the medium-to-long-term and Marco Silva will definitely be hoping so.
Stansfield made his Premier League debut in August of 2022 vs. Wolves coming of the bench and playing a total of 7 minutes. Although his real chance was one-week later vs Brentford as right-winger, where he showed personality, pressing attitude and a knack for optimal diagonal runs. He then had the aforementioned loan back to Exeter City, where he played a lot of matches in a two-man attack, scored 9 goals and made 7 assists in League One.
Attacking phase
After his two loans, Stansfield has evolved as a well-rounded forward player. Jay stands out because of his off-ball movements: he is brilliant making unmarking runs to spaces behind, attacking the defender’s blind side. His ability to offer himself as a direct way of passage and make carries into the penalty area is his most valuable resource — he is in the 88th percentile making progressive carries compared to all Championship forwards.
Also, Stansfield has improved his capacity to create danger inside the box. Now he understands how to disappear from the rival defender’s radar and receive cutbacks from his partners, to therefore exploit his ability to make unmarking runs and ball-carries into the opponent’s area.
As a finisher is where Jay possesses a great variety of skills, being able to pull-off shots from all kinds of different angles. He has a powerful right foot and a never-lacking confidence to shoot when in front of the goalkeeper. However, even with that said, he has never quite an innate goalscorer. But that has been an ever-improving issue as his stats have been able to keep up pace with his overall development and one could probably ascertain nowadays that he has the potential of being a 10-plus goals per season player in the Premier League if his progress remains full-steam ahead.
Stansfield’s main weakness, however, is in aerial duels. He still struggles noticeably in the trenches, in the physical battles against opposing defenders. Which is something the numbers bear out as he wins only 0.12 aerial duels per 90 minutes; being in the 1st percentile-rank compared to all Championship forwards during the 2023/24 season.
Transitions
Jay’s link-up play has been limited kind of limited thus far in his first team play. But he has good decision-making with regards to reading and situating himself in open spaces, so he is a good outlet through which to progress quick in transitions. Even if his passing range could be better, he is a real threat carrying the ball and leading the counterattacks. Furthermore, he is constantly threatning to make runs behind the defenders and he is also capable of making quick and strong first-time shots.
Defensive phase
Stansfield’s pace and stamina makes him an intense player pressing. He uses his athletic body to block long balls from centre-backs or to tackle defenders sporadically. He is one of the most comitted players compared with Championship forwards and he is capable to press constantly during the 90 minutes.
Conclusion
To sum it all up, being currently part of a team that overall plays a more minimalist, long-passing style at Birmingham, even if Stansfield is not good in aerial duels, his speed and dexterity carrying the ball forwards, in addition to his good shot, makes him a type of player who could be a good addition to Fulham’s attacking options, and especially in the times when the passing is short-circuiting and become in need of a skilled ball-hitter that can find enough space to get a shot off on goal. Also, the versatility of Stansfield would be valuable for Fulham: a team with tenacious pressers playing on the wings and that also play a very key part in the passing fluency of all Fulham attacks. With Muniz emergence, if Stanfield is able to mold his game to playing more so on the outside, or a the secondary striker, his chances massively improve to carving out a spot in the team.
His evolution thus far has been a very interesting and encouraging process these last few years. He has a lot of talent, personality and a wide variety of useful attacking aptitudes. Even if Rodrigo Muniz has improved leaps and bounds to the point, he’s now the established number one choice, it is still up in the air if he’ll be able to sustain this level of performance and hold on forever to the position. Something Stansfield will undoubtedly try to disrupt, to give Marco Silva food for thought. And what will be non-negotiable is that the team will need attacking depth going into next season. Stansfield is a man that Fulham have bet on and, again, if his upward progress is able to self-sustain he will be someone who brings a fantastic set of abilities to the table — as his defensive intensity, his shot, his runs and ball-carries into the box. Although his physicalness is still a red flag in terms of if he will be able to make the jump the Premier League or not, and his passing ability is still to be worked on, you have to look no further than Muniz to see a guy Fulham sent on-loan to the Championship and the following in season ended up making himself a key cog in the machine. A key cog in the Cottage.