Greek ‘wonderkid’ Christos Tzolis shot to prominence in the 20/21 season in Greece. Scoring 16 goals and 10 assists in all competitions (although 5 were scored in the Greek Cup, with a hattrick against low league opposition). His relatively rapid rise apparently drew attention from Europe’s elite clubs, with Man U and Dortmund both reportedly expressing interest. His breakout season in the Super League also resulted in international recognition and Tzolis has 8 Greece caps and a single goal to date.
After the sale of Emi Buendia, Norwich have been looking to retool their attacking areas and the arrival of Rashica and Tzolis sees two players come in who can play out wide, as well as potentially through the middle. That is not to say these are similar players — Rashica has explosive pace that can be matched by few players and while quick, Tzolis doesn’t base his game around speed.
Although he has occasionally been deployed as a central attacking midfielder or on the right (Greece have even played him as striker due to the strength of their left wing), Tzolis has spent nearly all of his playing time as a left winger, who cuts inside onto his preferred right foot. He tends to remain in wider positions rather than moving into more central positions to receive the ball opposed to how Cantwell or Buendia would notionally be played on the wings but spend the majority of the game in central positions.
What you get from Tzolis is shots, lots and lots of shots. No one in the Super League took more shots than Tzolis with 65 (2.67 per 90). As visible from his shot map, he isn’t just taking a large number of low quality shots from outside of the box and for a winger takes a surprisingly high quantity of shots from the edge of the 6-yard box. However, he does have a tendency to shoot from slightly too wide an angle, and has a large patch of unconverted chances on the left hand side of the penalty area (as marked in the red circle). Overall, his finishing is close to his expected goals with 16 goals from an xG of 15.45 in all competitions in 20/21.
Tzolis’ desire to constantly attack isn’t just reflected by the shots he takes. He also took about 5 touches in the opposition box per 90, the 4th highest in the league and looks to get the ball into the box at any opportunity whether through passes, crosses or carries. In just about every attacking metric, whether it is xA, key passes, dribbles, carries into the box, crosses into the box or xGChain, Tzolis featured highly when compared to other players in the Super League and held his own when compared to all attacking players in Europe’s top 5 leagues. Maybe the most appealing statistic for Norwich after losing Buendia was Tzolis’ “Deep Completions”, these are passes, that are not crosses, that successfully reach a team mate within 20 meters of the opposition goal. Basically how many dangerous passes does the player complete. While not at the creative levels of Emi Buendia yet, there are signs that Tzolis could be a player that makes significant contributions to Norwich’s attack.
For PAOK, Tzolis will often stay in a very wide position out on the left hand side to stretch defenses, only when receiving the pass will he look to move into more central areas. PAOK will often look to hit longer balls into the left hand channel for Tzolis to run onto, knowing he can then bring others into play.
In more patient build-up Tzolis will drop into deeper, although still wide positions, to collect the ball from teammates on the half turn, before looking to move forward. Tzolis had a good number of passes into the box for PAOK (3.32 per 90) but his ability to carry the ball into dangerous areas is more impressive. He has good balance, upper body strength and technique, as well as a fairly low centre of gravity , which makes it hard for opponents to knock him off the ball — at least in the Super League.
Tzolis will often look to force the issue, which means he is prone to losing the ball through overly ambitious passes or aggressive dribbles — this did improve through the 20/21 season though as he developed a more measured patient approach when required. His overall pass accuracy of only 75% isn’t due to him being a poor passer per se, although this is an area he could improve, but is largely the result of a player who wants to get the ball into dangerous positions.
What is more concerning in his overall play is knowing when to hold the ball and when to release, or when to dribble out of danger and when to make the easy pass to safety. These are all signs of Tzolis’ rawness which is to be expected of a player who has only made just over 50 senior appearances so far in his career. He also saw performances start to reduce in quality after an excellent start to the season, this isn’t unusual for a young player in their first season, but is something that will need to be carefully managed.
Although Tzolis loses the ball around 12 times per 90, he does tend to do so high up the pitch in attacking areas — although the red dots on the losses map in his own half are something Norwich will hope he can avoid in the Premier League.
Overall it is clear that Tzolis is a stand out player in the Greek Super League, especially considering his age and lack of experience. However, there are many rough edges to his game that will need refinement and improvement if he is to make the considerable step-up at Norwich. There will also be the need to adapt from playing in one of the best teams in his league, to one that is fighting relegation.
His desire to maintain a wide position during attacks may lead to issues with crowding out Norwich’s full backs who look to also occupy that area. However, with Tzolis likely to be playing in front of former teammate Giannoulis there should already be an understanding between the two. Indeed some PAOK fans have said they felt the drop in Tzolis’ performances were due to Giannoulis moving to Norwich in January 2021.
Tzolis appears to have the tools to make himself a success, but will need to improve in many areas around decision making and positional awareness to be able to justify regular minutes. If he continues on the trajectory he is currently at he should have no problem in developing into an effective attacking player at Premier League level.
Profiles on Norwich’s other summer signings;
