Duran is fast becoming an household name in football. His shooting prowress is arguably one of the Best in the game right now, so let's take a closer look at things.
How is he constantly able to shoot so well and generate such an insane goal catalogue so far despite having just over 3 professional seasons under his belt?
ONE FOOTEDNESS
According to statistics, Duran is the most one footed striker in the premier league. He has only taken 7% of his shots with his right foot. He rarely ever uses his weak foot. You can tell it is a deliberate act not to do so.
What is responsible for this?
Well, a few things come to mind. First, it could be his personal preference, which has then led to an almost over reliance on his left foot. However one could argue that this doesn't suffix enough as an explanation, because virtually every footballer out there has a preferred foot, yet the average footballer is more two footed than Duran.
Probably from a young age, he might have discovered that his right foot was not as good as his left. This then means that he must have focused a lot on developing his left foot and striking the ball so cleanly and so well. This is what takes me to the second point.
SHOT POWER
Duran's left foot is just out of this world. It is one of the best in the game at the moment no doubt. He strikes the ball so well with it. And this is due to a few reasons.
Again like I said earlier, the sheer power from Duran's left foot suggests an over training and practice of his left footed shooting to make up for the fact that his right foot isn't as good, since he never really uses it.
This explains to an extent why his left foot is so lethal. This also explains his over confidence in his left foot, almost backing himself to shoot from as much as 40 yards from goal.
PHYSICALITY
There aren't many striker profiles in football that are as physical as Jhon Duran. In fact, it is hard to at times reckon with the fact he is still only 20 years old.
Duran is a physical beast in the game. Across his sample minutes in the PL so far, he has constantly been an handful for the big CBs in the league. He is so sturdy and hard to take off the ball and he seems to relish the physical side of the game both on the ball and off it.
Judging from the controversies that constantly surrounds him off the pitch, his work rate and hardwork off the ball is a very surprising aspect of his game.
Duran has averaged 1.26 tackles per 90, 2.09 clearances per 90, 0.98 blocks per 90 and has won 4.05 aerial duels per 90 in the league in the last year.
This stats say a lot about his hardwork even off the ball, and as you can ready tell, his physicality plays a big part in his defensive prowress. There aren't many CBs in the league who can go toe to toe with Duran physically for 90 mins straight.
The best part of all of this is that he still has a few years to bulk up even further. If things go well, then we might be looking at a world class striker in the making in the coming years.
BIO MECHANICS
For this column of the article, here is an individual compliation that I found on YouTube, which highlights Duran's ball striking style so well.
Here's the link: https://youtu.be/4UFtOHCJX0I?si=tySG_wfFLYY7kFdM
Majority of the goals in that video were scored using his left foot, with a decent amount of them from outside the box.
Examining the clip at around 00:30, we can see that the ball falls to Duran in the box. Watching the clip with a close eye, we can see he does a few very important things to get the shot off:
▪︎ He let's the ball bounce across his body,
▪︎ Then he adjusts his body position to set himself up for the shot,
▪︎ He plants his right foot in the exact direction he wants the ball to end up
▪︎ He stretches out his left arm as he makes contact with the ball with his left foot, to wield enough power on the ball
▪︎ Once the ball leaves his foot, his left arm comes across his trunk, as his left foot also follows the same direction in landing back on the pitch, to counter balance the force already required to hit the ball in the first instance.
The above steps is a very recurrent theme in all of his goals, especially the left footed ones.
Now, all of this is micro analysis, and at this stage of Duran's career, this is something he has done so much that it is now a reflex action to him.
However the idea is to pay attention to the little things he does to set himself up to strike the ball as powerful as possible.
Now, let's look at his more recent goal vs Bayern:
Here Duran does a few key things right:
▪︎ First, he holds off upamecano well
▪︎ He is already aware of Neuer's position, so all he wants to do is create separation to get off the shot
▪︎ Immediately, he gets even a tard of space that he has generated from holding off upamecano, he plants in his right foot
▪︎ Left arm stretches out to create enough space to get off the shot
▪︎ He doesn't strech out his arm as much for 2 reasons: Upamecano was hot on his neck, and he had little time to execute his actions,
▪︎ Neuer was out of position, all he needed to do was lob the keeper. He doesn't need as much force to get a lob off
In conclusion, Duran's potential is world class level. He has what it takes to compete for the biggest prizes in the game. As he gets more games under his belt, his ball striking and even other aspects of his game will only keep getting better.
Barring any form of unforseen happenings in the nearest futures, Duran should become a regulat starter for Villa or a club of that size in the next 6 - 12 months.
Whether he will hit the levels he can remains to be seen, however one thing is certain, The PL has another world class striker in its ranks.
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