Christopher Nkunku is now considered one of the Bundesliga’s most talented players but over the course of the past four seasons, the French forward has undergone some big changes to the way he approaches his game.
When Nkunku arrived at RB Leipzig in 2019 he was primarily played as a traditional left winger, where he did a decent job of providing assists for star striker Timo Werner.
That season he bagged 15 assists in the Bundesliga and no less than five of them were for the Germany international, while bagging five goals of his own.
However, when Werner left for Chelsea, RB Leipzig had to make do without a single goalscorer and so Nkunku joined the likes of Emil Forsberg, Yussuf Poulsen, Dani Olmo and Marcel Sabitzer by chipping in with goals.
This is when we saw Nkunku’s goal scoring and playmaking level out as the player became a more complete inside forward.
Then, last season, the French talent found himself playing a more direct style of football and quickly became the clearest source of goals for RB Leipzig
He did this by perfecting his late runs, with all but three of his 27 goals last season coming inside the box. Which saw the former winger finish the campaign with almost twice as many goals as striker Andre Silva.
In an interview in 2022, Nkunku confirmed his preference for this new role when he stated that he “found a position that suited him” and allowed him to improve his game.
[“I really enjoyed that season on the pitch. I found a position that suited me and that I could improve in with every match”]
And we’ve seen that trend continue this season, with Nkunku become more of a No.10 or false No.9, as Marco Rose has played the French talent up front alongside Silva in a 4-4-2 formation.
This has allowed Nkunku to drift across the final third, where he has begun to look more and more like a classic striker in the way he scores goals deep inside the opposing box.
Nkunku may have arrived in Germany as a young winger, but over the course of the last four seasons he has taken on more and more responsibility at the Saxony club to the point that his entire style of play has changed.
As such, Nkunku has gone from being a traditional wide player who created goals to a complete forward or perhaps even a traditional striker, who can score goals as well as any player in the Bundesliga.
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