Comparison between on-loan sensations Raul Jimenez and Andre Schurrle
Fulham and Wolverhampton Wanderers secured promotion to the Premier League after an impressive season in the Championship last term. While Nuno Espirito Santo’s men arguably played the best brand of football in England’s second tier last season, Fulham had their fair share of luck and booked their place in the Premier League with a victory over Derby County in the playoffs.
Well, it has been a completely different tale this season for the two new boys of the Premier League. While Wolves have taken the top flight by storm, Fulham have struggled to keep pace with the Premier League sides.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s men currently sit 9th in the standings with four wins and three draws from their first nine games. On the contrary, the Cottagers have slipped down to the relegation zone, having managed only a solitary win from mine games. Jokanovic’s side have shipped goals at an alarming rate, having conceded 25 already with a dismal goal difference of -14.
Both the teams in question resorted to extensive transfer activity to bolster their squad ahead of the Premier League season. While Fulham made the headlines with the signings of Aleksandar Mitrovic, Andre Schurrle (two-year loan deal from Dortmund) and Jean Michael Seri, Nuno Santo used his contacts to bring in the likes of Rui Patricio, Joao Moutinho and Raul Jimenez (loan deal from Benfica with an option to buy for £30million).
To put things into perspective, both the on-loan sensations- Andre Schurrle and Raul Jimenez, have played an important role in the campaigns of their respective teams.
While the Mexican has established himself as the leader of Wolves’ forward line, the former Chelsea man has also racked up the goals on his return to the Premier League.
Jimenez has arguably been the standout figure for Wolves in the attacking third. He has used his mobility and game awareness to link-up the play with the wide forwards. At times, the likes of Helder Costa and Diogo Jota has narrowed up which has allowed the wing-backs Matt Doherty and Jonny Otto to overlap. Jimenez has used his positional sense to good effect to combine effectively with both the wide forwards and the wing-backs.
The Mexican has not only proven himself to be a clinical finisher but is equally adept at holding the ball. He uses his upper body strength to shield the ball from the defenders and tends to draw the defenders away from their positions, allowing his teammates to get into free spaces.
A dynamic forward, Jimenez has also shown that he is capable of taking quick turns inside the penalty area and keeps good close control. He tends to get a lot of power in his shots from inside the penalty area and is also a very good header of the ball.
On the contrary, Schurrle has been deployed as a left-sided wide forward by manager Slavisa Jokanovic in his 4-3-3 formation. He set the stage on fire with a man of the match performance in his team’s 4-2 win over Burnley and scored against Brighton, Arsenal and Cardiff City in the subsequent games.
However, he hasn’t had the same impact as Jimenez has had on the Wolves forward line. Being the most high-profile player in the line-up, he was expected to spearhead the attack but he hasn’t managed to assert his authority so far. Although he has scored 4 goals, he hasn’t combined much with his teammates. That is quite understandable given that Fulham haven’t got players like Ruben Neves or Joao Moutinho in the midfield.
Schurrle has formed a decent partnership with Luciano Vietto up front and the Argentine set him up beautifully for Fulham’s equaliser against Arsenal. The German was also deployed in a No.10 role behind the striker against Everton but he failed to spark that creativity.
While Jimenez has scored 2 goals and registered 3 assists, Schurrle has found the net on 4 occasions but is yet to pick up an assist. Jimenez has won a whopping 2.6 aerial duels per game as compared to Schurrle’s 0.6 per game, which is quite understandable given that he is a wide forward.
There is not much to separate the two when passing is taken into consideration. Schurrle averages 1.4 key passes to Jimenez’s 1.2 per game. However, the German has a higher pass success rate, 80.5, as compared to Jimenez’s 73.2, which can be attributed to the difference in positions.
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To sum it up, both the on-loan players have done really well this season. Raul Jimenez has been an excellent and impactful all-around player for Wolves and has contributed greatly to his team’s success. On the other hand, Schurrle has been impressive as well, but he needs to contribute more to the build-up play apart from scoring goals.
