New Celtic signing Sead Haksabanovic scouted: Creative wide playmaker with brilliant ball striking

Journalist Vladislav Zimagulov first revealed that a deal for the Swedish-born player is in the offing.

Despite only signing for Rubin Kazan for £6m last summer, the versatile winger, who joined Allsvenskan side Djurgarden on loan in March, has left the club that Celtic signed Carl Starfelt from last summer.

This scout report will analyse data from Haksabanovic’s recent loan spell in Sweden, as well as his time in Russia last season, taking a closer look at his playing style to assess what kind of role the 23-year-old will play at Celtic Park.

Player profile

Capped 28 times by Montenegro, Haksabanovic started his career at Halmstads in Sweden before West Ham picked him up for £2.7m in 2017.

However, he failed to make a breakthrough at the London Stadium and, following a loan spell in La Liga with Malaga, returned to Allsvenskan two years later, signing for Norrkoping.

He caught the eye in Sweden’s top flight again with Rubin Kazan paying a fee of just under £6m to take him to the Russian Premier League last summer.

A versatile player, he operates mostly off the left where he tends to drift inside on his stronger right foot, but can also play as a central midfielder, central attacking midfielder, and also on the opposite flank as a right winger.

During his loan move back to Allsvenskan earlier this year, he played almost exclusively as a left winger in Djurgarden’s 4-3-3, as can be seen in his heatmap above.

At Rubin Kazan in the 21/22 Russian Premier League season, he played most often as either the central attacking midfielder in their favoured 4-2-3-1 or deeper as a central midfielder in a 4-4-3 system. He also played several times as a right winger at the start of the campaign for the Russian side.

Although most often used in those central positions, the above heatmap from his season at Rubin Kazan shows Haksabanovic drifting out to the left, with the highest concentration of his touches in the left half-space.

The above pizza charts can help to build a clearer picture of Haksabanovic’s profile, firstly from his loan spell at Djurgarden and then for Rubin Kazan during the 2021/22 season.

The charts use Wyscout per-90-minute data converted into percentile ranks to compare him with wide midfielders and wingers for his recent time back in Sweden and then other central midfielders and central attacking midfielders in the Russian Premier League as he played there most often then. Both cover several attacking, possession and defending metrics.

Looking at the attacking sections first, we can see Haksabanovic had stable output in terms of goals and assists in both spells, scoring 2 and assisting 1 from an xG of 2.33 and xA of 1.38 during his time in Sweden, then at Rubin Kazan, 3 goals from an xG of 3.1 and 1 assist from an xA of 2.33.

He looks to be a high-volume shooter, ranking in the 90th percentile for shots per 90 for his time at Djurgarden and in the 92nd percentile at Rubin Kazan. His ranks for his on-target percentage is slightly higher during his time in the Russian Premier League compared to his time back in Sweden earlier this year.

He also ranks higher for his touches in the box at Rubin Kazan, but this is probably to be expected playing in a more central attacking role. As a winger for Djurgarden, he ranks around average for the number of crosses attempted with a decent accuracy rank just below the top quarter.

Looking at his possession section in both charts it looks like his threat comes more from passing than crossing with higher ranks for his dangerous passes, a combination of through passes and key passes, than his crossing during his time at Djurgarden. He also ranked above the 50th percentile for his dangerous passes at Rubin Kazan.

He looks to be a strong ball carrier with an impressive rank for carries, a combination of dribbles and progressive runs, during his season in Russia while he also has similar high ranks in those metrics from his spell at Djurgarden too.

Finally, on his pizza charts, Haksabanovic looks to fit the bill when it comes to his work off the ball. His defensive ranks are not as impressive centrally, but he potentially may not have had as much defensive responsibility playing as a ‘10’ in that system.

When compared to his wide midfielder/winger counterparts in Sweden though, he put up very good numbers, winning 61.2% of his defensive duels and averaging 3.85 possession-adjusted interceptions per 90 minutes.  

Shooting

Haksabanovic is a very high-volume shooter. Although he does get a decent amount on target, his shot selection at times can be wasteful and is certainly something he could improve upon.

The above shot map from Wyscout shows he takes most of his shots from the left half-space. Covering all his shots in the last calendar year, the graphic shows that he takes most of his shots on his stronger right.

The graphic also highlights his poor shot selection too though, with a big concentration of shots from low-quality areas, particularly from that left side. He has scored twice from outside the box in the last year but his xG per shot was just 0.08 in the last 12 months. 

Here we can see a good example of how his decision-making could improve when it comes to shooting. With possession in the left half-space, Haksabanovic takes on the shot from distance, which is blocked. In this situation, he had two options to pass to a teammate in a better position, one overlapping down the left who could have then crossed into the box from or perhaps through to the central striker on the edge of the box.

When he does get into higher quality positions, such as in the above example, his shooting can then become very effective. He has brilliant ball striking technique and can generate plenty of power on his shots.

In this example he strikes through the ball powerfully, arrowing his shot into the left corner of the net away from the goalkeeper.

Passing

With that tendency to cut inside, Haksabanovic appears to be more of a creative wide playmaker or an inside forward than a traditional winger.

As just seen with his shooting, he can sometimes make the wrong decisions in the final third but when he does opt to keep the play moving rather than going for goal, he has the ability to pick passes and find his teammates in good areas.

He has good vision and can be inventive in his passing, as shown in the above example. Drifting across to the right, Haksabanovic shapes to pass to the full-back on the outside before shifting his body and playing the ball in between the full-back and the deep midfielder, putting his teammate in a position to pull the ball back across the box from a high-quality position. On this occasion, his teammate opts to go for goal at a tight angle. 

The next example shows his passing range from a deeper central midfield position while at Rubin Kazan. Initially facing infield, he pivots back onto his right and spots the run in behind the striker. Without taking another touch he lifts a perfectly weighted ball over the top of the opposition’s defence which the striker is able to latch onto to go through for a one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

Dribbling

At 5ft 9in and 11 stone, Haksabanovic has quite a small build but his low centre of gravity, coupled with lightning-quick feet and good acceleration, make the Montenegrin a very effective dribbler.

As seen in his pizza charts, he ranked highly in the ball-carrying metrics. During his spell with Djurgarden earlier this year, he averaged 5.55 dribbles per 90 minutes with a 53.4% success rate.

As mentioned, he will often cut inside on his stronger right rather than drive the outside. Well balanced, he can quickly change direction when dribbling thanks to his excellent close ball control and sharp body movements.

An example of this can be seen above. Here, he initially stands his immediate opponent up, keeping the ball on his stronger right.

As the defender drops to cover the overlapping full-back, Haksabanovic moves inside, stepping past the recovering midfielder with one touch on his right and a quick shift of his body the same way. This leaves the midfielder for dead and opens up space in his favoured shooting position. On this occasion, he unleashes another powerful effort that is beaten away by the goalkeeper at full stretch.

Crossing

Although Haksabanovic ranked higher for his dangerous passing than his crossing in his Djurgarden percentile rank pizza chart, he is still more than capable of producing quality deliveries.

As mentioned, when cutting in from the left he prefers to cross with his stronger right than go on the outside to cross with his left, such as in the above example which creates a good goalscoring opportunity for his teammate at the back post.

He is also just as capable of crossing with quality from the right side too, as shown above. Here, deep in the game, Haksabanovic produces a brilliant whipped cross to the back post which is headed in by a teammate.

This is encouraging to see as the right side may well be a position where Celtic see Haksabanovic making an impact, given this is one area in front three where the quality is maybe not as high as on the left or through the middle.

Defending

Work rate without the ball is key for Postecoglou’s Celtic so Haksabanovic will be expected to do his share defensively if he does join the Scottish champions.

Unsurprisingly then, for a player identified by Celtic’s recruitment department, as well as having good quality on the ball, he looks to be effective off the ball too.

With winning the ball back as quick as possible, and as high up the pitch as possible, the key aim of Celtic’s system off the ball, the ability to counter-press successfully is a prerequisite for midfielders or attackers.

Haksabanovic ranked well in general defensive metrics on the pizza charts but looking at the above graphic from Wyscout, his recoveries in the final third highlight further how he might be very well suited to Celtic's high-intensity pressing game.

Compared to other outfield players in the last year in Sweden’s topflight, he is towards the top of both recoveries in the final third and dangerous recoveries, which is impressive for an attacking player with his profile.  

The above still shows an example of Haksabanovic recovering the ball in the final third. After his initial pass inside is cut out, he accelerates to quickly get to the loose ball before the opposition, knocking the ball infield to ensure Djurgarden stay on the attack.

Conclusion

At first glance, Haksabanovic appears to be best suited to a position where Celtic already have good options, the left wing. However, two key things make him an attractive option for Ange Postecoglou: quality and versatility.

Postecoglou has often talked about bringing in the right quality rather than quantity in this window and, although he has a few areas where he could improve like shot selection, it is clear from watching him that Haksabanovic has real quality.

The Celtic manager has also recently mentioned a versatile attacking option was what he was looking to add during the last few weeks of the window. Haksabanovic certainly ticks this box too.

Right wing may be a position he could come straight in and compete for and looking at his role at Rubin Kazan, he also appears to have attributes that make him an option for one of the 8s.

There will still be minutes available at left-wing too, as Jota or Daizen Maeda will not play every minute of every game there between them, especially if Haksabanovic comes in and shows he can offer something a bit different there.

Either way - or, rather, whatever position - the Montenegrin will certainly represent another exciting attacking option for Postecoglou to add into the mix.