Emiliano Buendia was a £1.3m snip-of-a-bargain from Spanish side Getafe for Norwich City. Since arriving at Carrow Road, the livewire midfielder-cum-winger has captivated the Canaries faithful.
Such has been the consistency of his play that he has stood out in all campaigns that he has featured in for Daniel Farke’s side. Be it the Championship or the Premier League, the Argentinian has shown that he can last the course. That has continued into this current season.
Emi Buendia was class and still is
Since his arrival at Carrow Road, Buendia has firmly entrenched himself into the affections of Canaries fans. That first season in Norfolk was enough to do that with him more than repaying his £1.3m fee from Getafe with 8 goals and 12 assists.
Admittedly, the silky-smooth Argentine trickster found the Premier League a whole different kettle of fish. Still, he managed to acquit himself well with 1 goal and 7 assists.
That form has continued this season and has done so at pace. The fan-favourite has already netted 3 goals and added 4 assists in just 11 appearances for the Norfolk side.
A glimpse of just what Buendia delivers
The following graphic (below), courtesy of Smarterscout, shows Emiliano Buendia’s output this season for Norwich in the Sky Bet Championship.
What can be seen here is that Buendia does stick largely to the right flank, although he does seem to have freedom to roam across the centre of the park and does pop up on the left.
Additionally, as can be seen [1], the Norwich star favours short passes (blue blocks) in and around the fringes of the box. Furthermore [2], Buendia prefers to shoot (grey box) from a central position – this opens up higher %age chances of scoring.
Buendia across his three seasons in English football
The above, composite graphic shows Buendia’s output using Smarterscout’s metrics (these are explained here in more detail). Essentially, these metrics are a measure of a player’s success out of 99 in certain areas/skills.
Key points of discussion:
- Attacking output [1] stays the same across two Championship campaigns (2018/19; 2020/21)
- Shooting rises significantly (17 in 2018/19; 47 in 2020/21)
- Link up play [3] improves to 77 (2020/21) from 63 (2018/19)
Looking forward with Emi Buendia
Should the Argentine dynamo be able to keep up this output, then Norwich’s resolve to keep him will be tested. With Premier League sides always on the lookout for proven quality from the Championship, they might expect a few incoming bids in January.
