Christian Fassnacht became Norwich’s fifth first team signing of the 2023 summer window, arriving from BSC Young Boys where he’d spent the last 6 seasons. In those 6 seasons in Bern he’d won the title 5 times — what kind of fool must have been in charge of the one season they didn’t win the title…
Despite the lack of success under Wagner at Young Boys, Fassnacht has happily joined up with him again in England. At 29 this will be the first time Christian has played football outside of Switzerland, an ambition he has seemingly held for a long time, and he’s swapped the mountains of Bern for the broads of Norfolk. Given how in his intro video he said he prefers mountains to beaches, he might be slightly disappointed when he finally gets his first taste of his new home after the Austria training camp has finished.
Fassnacht has mostly been deployed as a right winger/right sided midfielder in his playing career, depending on his manager’s preferences.
Under Wagner he played as the right winger in a 4–4–2 or the right sided central midfielder in a 4–1–3–2. In both systems he’d be required to provide width in the buildup phase, but would also try to get into the box when possible to overload the left of the opponents defence.
He has also played on the left hand side if needed, but the right side is his natural preference. This makes him a slight anomaly in modern football of being a wide player who prefers to play on the side of his stronger foot but is helped that he is also adept with his left and has no issues coming inside when needed or crossing/shooting with his weaker foot.
Standing at just over 6ft he is also different to many wide players in his stature but he isn’t a particularly physical player and can struggle in the air against smaller, but more aggressive defenders. 4 of Norwich’s 5 signings so far this summer are over 6ft. Stuart Webber talked about the need for more physical players in the squad and Norwich have certainly added height, this is a contrast to the last time the club talked about the need for more physicality, and then signing Billy Gilmour and Christos Tzolis.
From Fassnacht’s data it immediately stands out that he provides a significant goal threat. He has regularly scored while playing for Young Boys with double figure returns in 4 of his 6 seasons. In 22/23 he scored 8 goals from an xG of 8.34 his second lowest return at the club and a fairly significant reduction of .33 goals per 90 compared to .75 goals per 90 he had scored the previous season. In the 14 games Fassnacht played under Wagner he scored 9 goals and the German coach probably feels losing Christain for 6 games with a head injury that left him with temporarily impaired hearing was a major blow to their title chances that season.
For a wide player Fassnacht gets into good shooting positions close to the 6 yard box and tends to avoid more speculative long shots and is comfortable on both feet. He took 22 shots on his left and 30 on his right foot. A good number of his goals come from him picking up a loose ball in the penalty area, either from a knock down or a spill from the goalkeeper, which shows good awarness and anticipation but can also be a byproduct of a slightly lower quality league where spills in the box are more common.
Twice in the same game against Servette, Fassnacht managed to take advantage of loose ball in the box. The first time (above) a cross came in from the left with Fassnacht on the penalty spot, the keeper failed to claim the cross under pressure and it falls perfectly for Christian to score into an open goal. On the 2nd occasion (below) a fairly tame shot from outside the area is palmed out by the keeper with Fassnacht alert to the possible opportunity for an equally easy finish. It is fair to say that such golden chances probably won’t come around quite so often in the Championship, although having someone to take advantage if they do arise is definitely a positive.
Outside of shooting Fassnacht has good numbers for his xA and key passes, but as he was playing for a team that won their league relatively easily and with a positive goal difference of 52 it isn’t a surprise he has good numbers. Unlike many of the other wingers Wagner has tended to use he doesn’t have high numbers for dribbles and progressive runs, but this partly a by-product of Young Boys style which is more focused on long passes into their two strikers. Although he actually attempted less dribbles per 90 under Wagner the previous season.
In buildup play Fassnacht is a competent, although fairly conservative player. He doesn’t look to make difficult ‘killer’ passes, but is more likely to try and recycle possession if he doesn’t see an opening. His passing is safe if unspectacular but he is an above average crosser of the ball, this is aided though by Young Boys playing with two powerful strikers who are usually arieal dominate making them easier targets. As expected from a wide player his assists come from passes or crosses along the box and he rarely attempts through balls, favouring switching the ball to the opposite post to look for runners into the box. He does possess an very good first touch and uses first time passes to speed up attacks and shows a good awareness of teammates and opposition positioning with regular scanning.
Given Young Boys’ recent dominance of the Swiss League he hasn’t had to do too much out of possession work but he does counter press well — it would be unlikely for Wagner to want to work with him again if he didn’t.
His ability to win the ball back quickly, especially in the final third, is part of the ability he has to be in the right place at the right time he displays in his goal scoring. Fassnacht is a hard worker off the ball and harries opponents when they are in possession and wins around 60% of his defensive duels.
Overall, watching Fassnacht he comes across as a solid, reliable player but not particularly remarkable. Steady in possession and a cool finisher but isn’t likely someone to get people onto their feet through pieces of skills or line breaking passes. With the wingers Norwich started the summer with, who are dribbly boys who will either fall over their own feet, run into a crowd of defenders or create a golden chance, I can see the appeal of Fassnacht as someone more reliable in his actions, but maybe lacking the moments of individual excellence.
When looking at signings you need to consider are the buying club looking to raise their ceiling or their floor. With the current Norwich squad overall I feel their floor and their ceiling are fairly close at the moment, with the lowest quality players still being average Championship players but the highest quality ones not being massive game changers (Sara excluded). For me Fassnacht doesn’t particularly raise the ceiling for Norwich but he does fill an obvious hole in the squad (and their floor) in the wide right position, at 29 and on a 2 year deal, he bridges the gap until Jonny Rowe is potentially ready to be regular first team player.
On paper the signing is relatively low risk, especially having worked with Wagner before, but where there is a doubt is bringing in a signing that has never played outside their own domestic league and are at a later stage in their career. The last signing like that which Norwich tried was for Pierre Lees-Melou who had been, and returned to being, a solid Ligue 1 player but never adapted to English football. There is also a slight concern that Fassnacht’s numbers in the 2022/23 season had declined compared to 21/22, with less goals, shots, defensive actions and chances created but given those numbers came from a season mostly under Wagner, he might be able to get the best out of Fassnacht again.
