(Re-Upload): Jens Cajuste – Scout Report
Originally uploaded in December 2021 to when Cajuste was at Midtjylland.
Intro
Up to this point, 22-year-old Jens Cajuste has globe-trotted his way up the footballing ladder. The Swedish-born midfielder went to China and back before breaking through at Gothenburg-based Örgryte IS, from which he was able to earn himself a move to Denmark to play for FC Midtjylland.
Although Cajuste hasn’t necessarily been the first name on every team sheet under Kenneth Andersen or Brian Priske, he has continued to earn more and more minutes which of his three passing seasons at the top of the Superligæn. Those accumulated minutes have been enough to showcase talents that have drawn sincere interest from a small handful of Premier League sides who appear likely to acquire his signature before the summer window closes.
That being said, is the Swede ready to make the leap, does his game translate well to the Premier League, and does he fit the mould of Newcastle United (who appear mostly likely to acquire him)?
Style of Play
In possession
Movement and positioning
Last year, Priske’s instructions for Cajuste changed over the course of the season. Initially, he was tasked with partnering Evander in the double pivot of a 4-2-3-1 but was later moved into an interior position in a 4-3-3 – playing on the right side in both. The two roles have worked to bring out different sides to the Swede’s game but some traits are hidden when moving away from one role, and vice versa.
In the double pivot, Cajuste let his partner do most of the on-the-ball work, which allowed him to roam a little more freely, and in doing so, he helped create paths into teammates further ahead. His consistent scanning of the space and teammates around him resulted in some very good examples of him shifting lanes and varying the depths of his positions to pin those spaces into the forwards.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430537964371779596)
The drawback was that it only seemed to pay off when buildup passages were slow and patient, as it gave him time to assess the situations. Whereas, in faster buildup passages, his movement wasn’t as sharp and reactive, and so he appeared a little more static and much more of a passenger since his preference was always to open lanes into teammates rather than receive the ball himself.
These intentions only added to some of his difficulties as, even when he’d mapped out a way for him to connect the ball into a blocked teammate, he wasn’t always fully prepared to be able to play or, in some cases, even control the ball smoothly with his first touch.
This was highlighted to an even greater extent when receiving horizontally in phases of play that were slightly higher up the pitch. In spite of good awareness and the intent of wanting to connect play to his side, Cajuste was far too often caught out by resting in positions that were unnecessarily deep and/or close to Evander.
Consequently, he would then be too close to immediately exploit gaps through the lines and would instead be faced directly by an opposing midfielder, or, in the case of deeper positions, he would draw in unnecessary pressure from behind.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430551313402712064?s=20)
Beyond that, though, there isn’t too much more to speak about as his pushes through the lines when needed could be quite, if not overly, sporadic in trying to aid ball circulation. That kind of movement was much more frequently seen in his #8 role.
Cajuste’s role as an interior was a lot more routine than in deep midfield – it was much more about rotating correctly within the wide triangle, and it’s something he eventually became quite comfortable with but has still appeared reluctant in carrying out to its fullest extent.
Given that the inside players are the ones typically making runs into depth, either for their own sake or for their wider teammate’s sake, his tendency to want to drop back and be the nominal fullback out of the three made certain passages quite difficult. He was often guilty of starting in positions too deep and near to the opposition’s midfield line, as opposed to their defensive line, which meant he was rarely in position to attack channels and pin space better.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430565183227895810)
This speaks to his lack of direct threat to the spaces in behind. Despite, at times, drifting across into more promising central positions and into open channels, the Midtjylland player always seemed to cower from pushing the boundaries and making more of a go at the space that was there for him to attack. The half-hearted approach to run-making meant he sometimes found himself clogging up areas between the ball and forward options and spaces.
On a more basic level, though, the previous issues of passivity and being a passenger were still very much present here. When not having to make runs into depth, the Swede was generally very static and hidden in the cover shadow of his opposite number. Much like in deep midfield, there was little speed and reactivity to his shifts, so catching out his marker with a short and quick change of angles was a rarity. His most prominent form of offering came in the way of dropping flat and short to the ball, which leads onto his receiving…
Receiving and carrying of the ball
This is the most exciting aspect of Cajuste’s game. In spite of an ever-present ball-facing approach to receiving, the midfielder’s awareness and preparedness is nigh-on impeccable. He is so often in tune with opposition pressure and the space he has, which sees him exploit it with purposeful touches into space, against the grain, and even into congested areas to be able to spin and exploit the drawn space behind.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430568501010485253)
For such a large figure, the Swede shifts his body in such a graceful manner and sets himself up to do so immaculately with both feet – smartly using one foot, often his weaker, to set the ball and open up his body before bursting on the turn with his stronger foot. It’s then a testament to how easily he glides with the ball, how adept he is at taking delicate touches to avoid challenges, and how well he uses his body to ensure he can hurdle challenges and to be able to carry the ball at pace over great distances.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430571244676599815?s=20)
On the spot he’s just as formidable. His press-resistance is remarkable because he’s both composed under intense pressure and is an expert improvisor – so many times he’ll execute Cruyff turns that open up the pitch for him.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430584845252632582)
This composure carries through to how he takes ownership of second balls, as he’s so used to letting the ball run across his body that faking to let the ball run his way comes naturally to him.
What has the most attacking potential, though, is how well he’s able to push the limits of his dribbling, particularly in transitions. These can be devastating during counterattacks as they can do the initial work to open up forward angles, but he’s also able to go one better.
Be it dribbling in from the right or the left, Cajuste’s weight of touch and the consistency of them ensure he never over-extends himself and ensures that he’s able to make the right ball path adjustments to overcome lunging challenges. Better yet is how often he looks to draw in as much central pressure as possible before relieving the ball to a wider teammate.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430588884178685952)
Thankfully, he is capable of producing these moments of quality in either aforementioned position, although the interior position is where he seems to show more of a willingness to drop, set, turn and burst through the lines with more dangerous intent on a more consistent basis.
The main angle for improvement on the receiving side is how he lets the ball run – the midfielder doesn’t tend to let the ball run across him whilst being goal-facing, which makes pushing the ball forwards and capitalising on the space ahead of him much more difficult than it needs to be. Consequently, he then has to resort to more safer passes than is helpful, which touches on a wider issue in general.
Passing and offensive output
Passing is the least spectacular, if not also the weakest, part of Cajuste’s game. As alluded to earlier, he isn’t the first man calling for the ball, and he isn’t by any means a high-volume passer. The Swede is a low-risk, low-involvement midfielder whose brief actions can still result in disappointment.
Whilst most of his short passing is relatively clean, there are plenty of occasions where, having evaded a press and opened up the pitch, he has followed it up with a misplaced pass out to the flanks.
Arguably even more damaging are the times when he doesn’t capitalise on the options he’s created space for himself to feed the ball into. Despite frequently getting his head up, he’s very slow to combine or risk playing passes through the lines that can help progress play at higher speeds and with greater force.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430595210736816135)
It’s an attitude that seeps into all corners of this side of his game, as he easily talks himself out of playing the slightly riskier forward pass when it is on for him to do so in favour of playing backwards or sideways. This isn’t offset by other approaches, either, as he doesn’t use these as a catalyst for combinations despite possessing the potential to do so.
There’s little to say about his range, also, as his consistent looks up at what’s ahead rarely translate into anything like a switch of play or a ball in behind. A lot of the time, he overthinks just how much preparation needs to be done to release a slightly riskier pass rather than trusting in his own ability.
That being said, there is one aspect that remains incredibly raw but has shown the most promise: through balls in transitions. Particularly from his double pivot position, Cajuste not only showed that he can open up holes in opposition counter-presses through his press-resistance, but that he could also be a threat in his forward passing.
Midtjylland’s away match against Liverpool in the Champions League best highlighted this, as he moved the ball forward and quickly with either foot following turnovers. However, the incision was the biggest point missing. Part of this is down to Cajuste not extending his scanning perimeters to look at the threats ready to run in behind, as well as not attempting difficult passes unless they were perfectly set, however, much of this stills comes down to a reluctance to play into space.
The 22-year-old regularly targeted passes into feet, even when the recipient was signalling for the ball to be played in front and/or through a gap.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430601191617093634)
He’s shown similar but slightly lesser struggles in the follow-ups to great ball-runs, as he doesn’t have the range or execution to weave more difficult passes through gaps, and can sometimes leave teammates wanting with his simple layoffs to create chances.
In any case, this ability to open up these opportunities is lethal, especially for sides like Newcastle, whose attacking hopes against a lot of teams rest upon counterattacks. The more situations Cajuste is placed into in this sense, the more chance he has of developing and profiting off of it.
Cajuste’s mere two assists certainly reflect that inability to, yet, have a say in the final moments of attacks. His goal tally for last season goes one less, and is also not much of a surprise given what I mentioned earlier in regards to his movement, but he does find odd opportunities, still, to have strikes at goal, with hugely varying levels of success.
His best efforts – including the one that resulted his only goal – are shots whipped low towards the bottom right corner, as he’s able to maintain good control with the inside of his boot. These are typically hit from the edge of the box and come from him pushing up in line with the ball-holder on the left side. In contrast, though, he has routinely struggled with any other type of shot – miscuing them to disastrous extents when having to hit through the ball with his laces. Safe to say, it’s not an area that appears to have much potential in reaping many greater rewards in the future.
Out of possession
Pressing and counter-pressing
Pressing can be a real mixed bag when it comes to Cajuste. On the good side, you have a player who covers short spaces at monstrous pace, is aggressive and is willing to confront ball-holders with great technical precision. On the bad side, you have a player who’s an exploitable man-marker through a lack of alertness and is someone who can certainly be caught flat-footed in his attempts to make those same challenges.
He typically doesn’t mind opponents having the time to turn and face with the ball since he’s great at closing down face-to-face. Thanks to the awareness he has and the intelligent use of his cover shadow, he’ll frequently push out onto deeper ball-holders even when they’re not his own man. What makes him so difficult to get around his how well he spreads his body in acknowledgement of what’s behind him, which is then furthered by how he uses his low and slightly angled stance to aggressively shift towards the ball-holder but without giving up his sturdy body shape.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430611132855767042)
Through this and his excellent, constant lunging challenges with either foot, he’s able to apply ample pressure and force play backwards without having over-committed in his attempts to stab the ball away from its possessor. This then translates magnificently into close-quarter situations, where his reach and short ground coverage are, at times, phenomenal in pressuring the ball from whichever direction, using whichever foot.
The fact he trusts in his teammates to cover the necessary lanes around him is what helps him force so many turnovers, as it gives him the freedom to push wide or forwards with the same intent, knowing he can make the angles past him difficult to play through successfully. With that being said, it is still a habit he could do with tethering a little more during deeper phases of defence, as he can over-expose the centre unnecessarily.
On the flip side, his tendencies to switch off from what’s happening and how he presses a player from behind is in need of improvement. Sometimes it’s an issue of alertness, and other times it’s a matter of him over-committing to his singular focus, meaning that he struggles to balance in-between positions that can cover against multiple threats.
When pressing so directly but being behind the run of play at the same time, he can then be caught out from a technical standpoint, as he’ll plant himself flat-footed and too much towards one angle, which makes touching the ball past him that bit easier.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430621740753985553)
Counter-pressing offers up many similar outcomes to Cajuste’s pressing but is even more positive, overall. His persistently deep positions in possession work in his favour, here, as he’s ready in good positions to mark up and pressure from there.
His alertness following turnovers is far superior to other situations on the pitch – he scans well to know which option to first press onto, and he thrives on the fact his long reaches and quick ground coverage can work to tear down counterattacks in closed spaces.
Even over larger spaces, Cajuste has illustrated a fantastic ability to time not only his steps across to the ball-holder but also the sliding challenges he makes from either side, using either foot, very effectively.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430626488013967365?s=20)
Defending in a block
In more of a mid-block, and sometimes in a deep block also, Cajuste can be an excellent interceptor of the ball. He scans his blind-side well and continues to display a great technical stance that enables him to shift in any which direction to account for pass attempts through the lines. Combined with his reach, he’s able to consistently and cleanly intervene.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430633448415416323)
That long reach is also incredibly useful in deeper areas, too, as he can pivot well to recover immediately and be persistent in his pecking away at opponents.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430641760129200138)
Where it falters slightly is when a narrow, trailing leg of his can only kick the ball into the opponent’s leg, rather than away, and so it can, in some cases, keep the ball moving his opponent’s way.
The deeper he is, the more areas of concern there are. Whilst his awareness remains sharp, his alertness does not, and his consideration of space centrally can crucially lack.
When less straightforward angles come into play, which require him to time his engagements in wide areas in front of the back-line, he’s liable to planting himself outwards too heavily, which leaves him massively susceptible to intricate combinations, particularly when the ball’s being worked from out-to-in by the opposition.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430646770493689864)
But with greater risk comes greater reward, as his presses out towards the ball-holder are frequently well-intended, mostly because he knows how to press with the element of surprise – he has a trained eye for seeing when the ball-holder has looked away from his eye-line, which allows him to make up the ground to apply effective and unexpected pressure, be it wide or centrally.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430654306089328642?s=20)
The deeper you go, however, the worse his tendencies are. The matter of switching off from what’s happening resurfaces here as it allows opponents to get goal-side of him very easily. So, even if he’s tracked an underlap fairly well, he won’t necessarily work hard to ensure he’s back on-side.
These kinds of reactionary plays, late or on time, also prove him to be a fairly unreliable edge-of-the-box defender, as he’s so easily drawn to the ball and potential nearby recipients, resulting in him needlessly vacating his zone in favour of doubling up in a limited space.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430662802805563403)
Tying into the point of his reactions is his athleticism. His habit for playing as if he has an on and off switch suggests he struggles to keep focused and cover ground consistently well across the course of ninety minutes, which is why he often slows down, almost to a halt, during certain counterattacks when play has already surpassed him.
Unsurprisingly, these defensive habits hurt more when playing as part of a duo rather than as an interior since the latter position affords him the freedom to be more aggressive positionally, which can often work in his favour.
Set-pieces and aerial ability
In spite of his tall frame, Cajuste is so far from being any kind of aerial threat. In every sense, he is incapable of claiming any stranglehold over an aerial ball – he’s unable wrestle well enough with opponents on the ground prior to the jump; he mistimes his jumps in various ways; he misjudges the flight of the ball often, and, even when it’s a mismatch in his favour, he doesn’t have the control over his headers to direct them in any meaningful manner.
Nonetheless, he is still someone used in the box for set-pieces at either end but finds himself on the end of very little.
There is one rather unique upside, though, which is his long throw-ins. Although they haven’t proved all too fruitful for Midtjylland so far, Cajuste is certainly able to get enough height and depth on them for Priske to have trusted this as a genuine form of attack. Doing this more so from the left, the Swede has sometimes struggled to nail the height aspect, so to be able to accurately measure the depth, but it is nonetheless a feature of his game that offers something different, which could be especially helpful to a team like Newcastle.
(https://twitter.com/idwllt/status/1430663947464679426)
Conclusion
With a Premier League move well on the cards, Jens Cajuste could well have a very steady tenure in England’s top flight. Based on all I’ve seen, a club of Newcastle’s calibre and style appear to be very well-suited to a midfielder such as him, who operates most dangerously in close-quarters defensively and in transitions offensively.
His ability to carry the ball forwards, over short and long distances, accompanied by the growing potential of his general play, could make him a lethal prospect for counterattacking sides.
Specific to Steve Bruce’s side, Cajuste, even with some of his defensive flaws, would have the luxury of playing with a back-three, which is something that he didn’t have the help of last season. Therefore, the question of his alertness and athleticism might not be so integral, were he to play as an interior rather than a holding midfielder, since his lack of passing range, aerial inabilities, and positional indiscipline add up to something currently a little ill-suited to that role.
With that being said, many players are able to raise the intensity of their game when shifting environments, not only to a higher level but also to a different type of approach given Newcastle’s (and the like’s) place in the table in contrast to Midtjylland’s.
Overall, Cajuste seems to have the capabilities to equip himself quite well in the Premier League, but it’s tricky to imagine him going much higher unless significant improvements are made to his overall game. And, at just 22 years of age still, there is plenty of time and room for that to happen.