What To Expect: Kornel Szűcs
Adam Price takes a look at Argyle's latest Magyar as Wayne Rooney's squad takes shape.
Plymouth Argyle are rolling back the years, and I don’t mean with the 4-4-2 Wayne Rooney has deployed in pre-season. Instead, the club have reignited a trend from the mid-to-late noughties by signing a Hungarian: Kornel Szucs (he’s Kornél Szűcs
if you want to get all exotic, but I don’t have the regular keyboard power). Szucs becomes the fifth Hungarian to play for Argyle, after the memorable trio of Peter Halmosi, Kristian Timar and Akos Buzsaky, and the much more forgettable Gyorgy Sandor.
There is a certain kind of romance to such a signing. Not just because Szucs follows in the footsteps of three Mighty Magyars from Argyle’s past, but because he arrives as an unknown quantity. I’m sure you’ll forgive me for saying I’d never heard of the player before rumours linking him with Argyle broke on Saturday, and I doubt I’m alone. For all we know, Szucs could prove to be the best player Argyle have ever signed. Forgive the blind ambition; it’s the aforementioned romance.
So, as ever, I’ve delved into his numbers to see just what we can learn about the latest Home Park arrival.
Physicality remains important
Szucs (Argyle claim it’s pronounced similar to “Soodge”, but when I’ve heard the man himself say his name it sounds more like “Sooch”) played 2006 minutes in the Hungarian top flight for Kecskemeti last season. In addition to that, he featured in both legs of the side’s UEFA Europa Conference League play-off with Riga, which Kecskemeti only lost via a last-minute goal in extra time. Those appearances were roughly equally shared between the right centre back and right wing back positions.
It’s not just last season we can investigate. Szucs has already made a competitive appearance during the current campaign, playing the full 90 in Kecskemeti’s league opener with Fehervar at the end of last month. They drew 0-0.
That amounts to 2216 minutes in all, and we can use that as our statistical basis. Because as I’ve said before, when Argyle make a bizarre signing from an equally bizarre league, they must have seen something in the data to convince them to make a move. I’ll always caveat this by saying the data I have access to is miniscule compared to what the club will possess (or at least it should be), but if we can identify similar trends in the data, we can go a long way to working out Argyle’s thinking in signing the player.
As far as Szucs is concerned, one element sticks out above all others when looking at the data: tackling.
His raw number is already notable – across the time period we’re investigating, Szucs made a total of 57 tackles. At Argyle last season only Bali Mumba (65) made more. And that’s before we even contextualise the number by considering tackles per 90 minutes. In that metric, Szucs made 2.31 tackles per 90, beating Mumba’s figure of 1.96 by a comfortable margin.
And it’s not just the quantity of tackles we need to consider; let’s also look at the quality. Szucs also posts good numbers for the success of his tackles. Whilst he made 57 last season (and a tiny bit of this season), he was only dribbled past on 16 occasions, giving him an implied tackle success of 78%. It compares nicely – Mumba posted a figure of 71% whilst Argyle’s average in total was 66%. The total average in the Championship was 69%.
This paints an encouraging picture. Szucs isn’t the sort of player who will dive into a tackle at any given opportunity with no concerns about the result of his lunge. He will, however, win the ball with
regularity, with enough technicality in the tackle to ensure he doesn’t overcommit, making him a difficult player to face. That’s all we can really ask for out of possession.
His tackling obviously points to a certain degree of physicality, and I think that can be backed up by his duels. Across the 2216 minutes, Szucs won 54% of his ground duels and 56% of his aerial duels. Those aren’t groundbreaking numbers, but by definition they are above average, and demonstrate how Szucs has no problem involving himself in the physical side of the game.
That continues a theme we’ve seen across the summer. Through a number of Argyle’s signings, particularly the arrival of Muhamed Tijani and return of Darko Gyabi, there’s been a clear demonstration of how physicality matters to the new head coach. Wayne Rooney’s Argyle may be several things, but all opponents will surely expect to be involved in a battle.
Room for technical improvement
As well as his willingness to fight for possession, Szucs has been known to have quality when on the ball. Most notably, this involves his crossing. Last season he attempted 39 crosses and completed 12. Not massive numbers by any stretch of the imagination, but he’d have ranked in the top five in both metrics for Argyle last year.
I’m particularly impressed by the fact that Szucs completed his crosses with a success rate of 31%. Put simply, most crosses are not successful, and 31% is a more than solid figure. The average cross success in the Championship last season was 23%, and Morgan Whittaker, who attempted more than anyone else in Argyle’s side, completed just 16% of his crosses.
Crossing aside though, I’ve not been too impressed by what I’ve seen of Szucs on a technical level. His total pass success of 74% is below Argyle’s average, and if I’m honest fairly poor for a defensive player in the modern game. And it’s not like Szucs has done enough going forward to make up for it; he’s not a proficient dribbler, and only had one shot on target in the entirety of last season.
Now, we can caveat that pass success figure slightly. Szucs would have ranked 16th at Argyle for his 58.16 touches per 90 last season, and 19th for both passes attempted (34.40) and passes completed (25.34) per 90. This suggests he isn’t the sort of player to “stat pad” his pass success by playing simple balls across the back line, but that his passing tends to be riskier. With that in mind, his long pass success is impressively above average at 44%.
So, we can’t claim for sure that Szucs is a poor passer of the ball. However, I think we can reasonably suggest that he isn’t particularly familiar playing the ball out from the back, something we are led to believe will be necessary in Rooney’s Argyle side. Picking up that style quickly will be crucial.
Szucs can stake a claim for a place in this side. Many of his numbers in possession remind me of what we see from Joe Edwards; given Szucs’ activity off the ball, there’s certainly an argument that he could represent an upgrade on the Argyle skipper. It’s worth remembering though that Edwards has an awful lot of credit in the bank, and with seriously good reason after many years of service.
To truly be seen as an upgrade by the Argyle faithful, Szucs will have to demonstrate superior ability on the ball. His crossing shows he has the potential to do so, but I think it’s clear there is at least some room for improvement. Let’s hope that’s found.
Argyle playbook wide open
So in Szucs, we have a player who is excellent in the tackle, will put himself about physically, but may have some work to do in the technical side of his game. Hey, it’s the sort of player some Argyle supporters have flocked to adore in the past. I’m sure Szucs will win many fans across the campaign, simply because of his playing style.
Still, it’ll be his technical prowess that truly decides whether he’ll be an Argyle success. He’s playing in the second tier of English football, and in a highly technical league. How he handles the step up (and I’ve no doubt it is indeed a step up) from the Hungarian top flight will clearly be crucial.
The good news is that Szucs has time on his side. He arrives at Argyle as a 22-year-old, meaning he fits in nicely with a squad that is already young. Given the fee the Pilgrims spent on him (believed to be north of £400,000), I can’t imagine Szucs will be arriving at Home Park on a short-term contract. That fee will be with one eye on his potential, as well as what he can offer in the immediate future.
That fits in with a theme we’ve seen from Argyle over the years. As I believe I’ve mentioned in the past, Argyle had the third-youngest squad in the Championship last season. Weighted for minutes played, the average age of the Pilgrims’ squad was 24.43, with only Leeds United (23.94) and Sunderland (22.53) being younger. Yes, that figure will be skewed by young loanees such as Ashley Phillips, but it demonstrates that buying young players, improving them and developing resale value has been, and is still, paramount to Argyle’s overall strategy.
Consider also the specifics of this signing. Argyle have signed a relatively unheralded player from abroad, who probably wouldn’t even have been on the radar of other sides. As well as all the similar signings the Greens have made this summer, this feels very Mustapha Bundu-coded. Bundu probably needs to do a little more to be considered a total success, but his match-winning goal against Leicester City will live in the memory for years. A similar moment from Szucs would be incredibly welcome.
Szucs is another data driven arrival, with such signings proving crucial to Argyle’s rise through the leagues since 2019. And the club simply must tackle the market this way. They can’t outspend their opponents, and many clubs will now have sufficient data analytics to procure the top outliers across the continent. A signing from the sixth-best team in Hungary may not feel grand, but if the Argyle hierarchy have seen enough in him to make an investment seem worthwhile, I think they’ve earned our trust.
This signing really is directly out of the Argyle playbook. I don’t know for sure whether Szucs will be a success, but I do know that playbook has proved highly successful in the past.
Fitting everyone in
I think my biggest fear (or perhaps I should call that confusion) with Szucs’ arrival is just how he fits into the side. As I mentioned previously, the Hungarian played both as a right-sided centre back and as a right wing back for Kecskemeti last season. Given that, you’d imagine he’d comfortably slot into a right-back position in a back four. Still, it’s not a position he’ll be completely natural playing in, at least not straight away.
He’s not the only player who feels he suits a system other than Rooney’s form of 4-4-2. Victor Palsson feels like the perfect fit for a back three. Darko Gyabi is the sort of player I feel could flourish in a midfield three, but may struggle in a two. Bali Mumba strikes most of us as much more of a wing back than a full back or winger.
In this sense, I’m getting a case of déjà vu (wow, maybe my keyboard can cope with accents after all). A year ago, Argyle were signing several players who appeared tailor made for the 3-4-2-1 system that led Argyle to the League One title under Steven Schumacher. When the competitive action got underway though, Argyle lined up with a 4-3-3.
Now, that 4-3-3 tended to work, so that’s not to say Rooney’s attempts to fit these players into his system will be unsuccessful. Still, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to claim that the squad as it stands is a little unbalanced. At the very least, many would agree that it currently seems more suited to a system with three at the back.
For me, this is a symptom of the upheaval at Argyle across the last year or so, and particularly since the start of 2024. Since winning the League One title, Argyle have switched from a back three to a back four under Schumacher, returned to a back three under Ian Foster, and now favour a back four once again under Rooney.
Given the ever-changing priorities, it’s no surprise that squad building has suffered. We’ve heard indications from Rooney recently that his squad is somewhat bloated and may need to be trimmed in some areas. That’s true, but that same squad is also looking notably light in other areas, and work must also be done to address those concerns in the remainder of the window. The unsettled nature of Argyle recently leads to an unbalanced squad, and these problems arise.
Szucs is part of that. He arrived as a talented player with plenty of potential to improve, and about to embark on the toughest challenge of his short career to date. How can he be placed into the side to give himself the best possible chance of realising that potential?
That, as well as doing the same for the rest of the squad, is a challenge for Rooney. One I don’t envy, but one that’s absolutely vital to get right.