At only 19 years old, Wilfried Gnonto has had an incredible breakthrough in his first season playing at the top level. Not being an habitual starter for Leeds, he has participated in 5 goals this season, giving flashes of his high quality and becoming one of the best young players of the Premier League, with incredible potential towards the future.
The young Italian, born on 05/11/2003 is a product of Inter Milan´s academy. Having played until the U19 squad, in 2020 he moved to Zurich FC looking for that transition into professional football, where he got to unlock high potential catching attention of many top clubs, finally being transferred to Leeds at the start of the current season.
Despite being right footed, Gnonto starts as left winger, but due to characteristics and adaptability, he can also perform as striker or as right winger, being a quality and versatile attacker. He stands out due to his tendency to verticality, unpredictability, pace and ability to create imbalances.
Knowing his attributes, Gnonto is the kind of player that prefers to play into open spaces and high tempo matches rather than possession based football and tight spaces, having great capacity to progress forward either with carries or passing. He understands the game well, and has a great repertory of movements. He attacks spaces well behind rivals back, providing a direct alternative for his team when facing a high pressing block. He is also clever inside the penalty area, being aware of where rivals are in order to lose markers and find interesting spots. In that sense, he is not a player that comes to support midfield and help in the build up phase, but his presence staying wide and operating in the last third has great value for his team, fixing the defensive block, creating spaces and managing to get overloads and numerical superiority in the attacking phase.
The Italian footballer is a constant menace to the opposition when he has the ball on his feet. He is the classical winger who looks for 1vs1 situations to try to beat his man, helped by his incredible dribbling ability. Gnonto likes to receive next to the sideline, widening the field as much as possible and isolating rivals. Receiving the ball with his right foot, his close ball control becomes determinant, allowing with his low gravity center to fastly shift direction and surpass his defender with high speed. In advanced areas, he tends to drift inside, looking for shooting or combinative options, despite his passing in the last third could be improved in order to become a more dangerous and complete footballer. Preferring to play as an inverted winger, he possesses good crossing ability, being unusual in this type of players, which makes him have a lot of alternatives when facing a full back, being able to play wide or cut inside playing in both sides. In the last metters, he also has good decision making towards goal, selecting good chances and position for shooting. He averages 1.4 shots per 90 minutes, while his percentage on target (41.2%) and goal scoring effectiveness have great room for improvement.
Having not played in such a demanding stage such as top Leagues, there was a debate about how he could adjust to the physicality and rhythm of the Premier League, but he has cleared the doubts quickly. His pace and explosiveness suits perfectly in the Premier League, and his corpulence and strength levels are quite accurate and averaged to outrageously perform for such a young aged player. Another important skill that he has added to his repertory since joining Leeds is his attitude in the defensive phase. Not only is he an important player in the pressing of the team but he has also improved in tracking back to help his teammates. He has become much more of a winner in ground duels, improving his tackling and tactical awareness in the defensive phase. In fact, stats show those defensive contributions, providing 2,13 Tackles+Interceptions per 90 minutes, being 0,98 in the half third of the pitch, high defensive stats for an attacking profile.
Wilfired Gnonto is being a key player in Leeds´ squad this season despite not being an usual starter. Either playing in the line ups or entering as revulsive, his impact on Leed´s game is huge for such a young player, and seems to have much more potential to unlock and fulfill expectations about his future development.
Click here to see full scouting report
The young Italian, born on 05/11/2003 is a product of Inter Milan´s academy. Having played until the U19 squad, in 2020 he moved to Zurich FC looking for that transition into professional football, where he got to unlock high potential catching attention of many top clubs, finally being transferred to Leeds at the start of the current season.
Despite being right footed, Gnonto starts as left winger, but due to characteristics and adaptability, he can also perform as striker or as right winger, being a quality and versatile attacker. He stands out due to his tendency to verticality, unpredictability, pace and ability to create imbalances.
Knowing his attributes, Gnonto is the kind of player that prefers to play into open spaces and high tempo matches rather than possession based football and tight spaces, having great capacity to progress forward either with carries or passing. He understands the game well, and has a great repertory of movements. He attacks spaces well behind rivals back, providing a direct alternative for his team when facing a high pressing block. He is also clever inside the penalty area, being aware of where rivals are in order to lose markers and find interesting spots. In that sense, he is not a player that comes to support midfield and help in the build up phase, but his presence staying wide and operating in the last third has great value for his team, fixing the defensive block, creating spaces and managing to get overloads and numerical superiority in the attacking phase.
The Italian footballer is a constant menace to the opposition when he has the ball on his feet. He is the classical winger who looks for 1vs1 situations to try to beat his man, helped by his incredible dribbling ability. Gnonto likes to receive next to the sideline, widening the field as much as possible and isolating rivals. Receiving the ball with his right foot, his close ball control becomes determinant, allowing with his low gravity center to fastly shift direction and surpass his defender with high speed. In advanced areas, he tends to drift inside, looking for shooting or combinative options, despite his passing in the last third could be improved in order to become a more dangerous and complete footballer. Preferring to play as an inverted winger, he possesses good crossing ability, being unusual in this type of players, which makes him have a lot of alternatives when facing a full back, being able to play wide or cut inside playing in both sides. In the last metters, he also has good decision making towards goal, selecting good chances and position for shooting. He averages 1.4 shots per 90 minutes, while his percentage on target (41.2%) and goal scoring effectiveness have great room for improvement.
Having not played in such a demanding stage such as top Leagues, there was a debate about how he could adjust to the physicality and rhythm of the Premier League, but he has cleared the doubts quickly. His pace and explosiveness suits perfectly in the Premier League, and his corpulence and strength levels are quite accurate and averaged to outrageously perform for such a young aged player. Another important skill that he has added to his repertory since joining Leeds is his attitude in the defensive phase. Not only is he an important player in the pressing of the team but he has also improved in tracking back to help his teammates. He has become much more of a winner in ground duels, improving his tackling and tactical awareness in the defensive phase. In fact, stats show those defensive contributions, providing 2,13 Tackles+Interceptions per 90 minutes, being 0,98 in the half third of the pitch, high defensive stats for an attacking profile.
Wilfired Gnonto is being a key player in Leeds´ squad this season despite not being an usual starter. Either playing in the line ups or entering as revulsive, his impact on Leed´s game is huge for such a young player, and seems to have much more potential to unlock and fulfill expectations about his future development.
Click here to see full scouting report