We Need To Talk About Callum Lang and Thelo Aasgaard…

Considering all of the issues Latics faced coming into this season it’s fair to say the start to the season has been a good one. Several new faces have settled in well, we’ve played some really good stuff at times and the general feeling around the club has improved so much since last season. I think we can all agree it’s been a solid start.

As ever the shining light at our club has been our academy and we continue to produce quality talent. Sam Tickle has shown himself to be a brilliant keeper and recently broke into the England under 21 squad. Charlie Hughes has shown he’s a class above and Baba Adeeko looks like a real talent too. These three new kids on the block have won the fans over immediately.

Unfortunately it hasn’t all been going smoothly for our academy products. The two most notable Christopher Park graduates Callum Lang and Thelo Aasgaard have struggled for form this season despite on paper being two of the best players in the squad, no, the league. It’s something that I noticed three games into the season and has puzzled me ever since.

In this article I’m going to try and find out why the talented pair of forwards haven’t managed to hit the ground running. It’s not a hit piece, I’m more desperate than anyone to see Thelo and Callum succeed this season. I just want to understand the reasons behind their early struggles for form. I hope it helps you understand it too!

Profiles

Often when players are struggling to perform in a new system it’s because they’ve been mis-profiled within it. For example, you might recall Adam Forshaw’s spell at Latics being hugely underwhelming, but when you consider he was completely misused as an industrious, box to box midfielder rather than the deep-lying playmaker that he’s since proven he should be. That is a case of horrendous mis-profiling.

Equally there are times things just don’t click for a player. For example, we used Ivan Toney exactly as he should be used but he failed to impress in a Latics shirt in his short spell at the club. Then he moves to Peterborough and scores a bucket load, gets a move to Brentford where he scores even more and is now, betting charges aside, one of the best strikers in the world.

In terms of profiling Aasgaard and Lang we’ve got to look at their greatest strengths:

Callum Lang is a direct runner who favours driving inside from the right wing on his stronger right foot, allowing him to go on the outside and cross or fire a shot across goal as he angles his run inwards. He’s not particularly creative and is primarily a goal scoring forward, with bags of energy which makes him a valuable asset out of possession.

We can’t rely on him to be the heartbeat of the side from a creative standpoint. Similarly to former teammate Will Keane he’s a player who needs to make the final action in the move rather than being too involved in chance creation. That’s not to say he isn’t capable on the ball and in the build-up, it just isn’t his main strength.

For me he was used perfectly by Leam Richardson in 2021/22. He was used as a right winger, ahead of the side’s primary creator Max Power who occupied the deep right spaces in the opponent’s half. This took the pressure off Lang to be a key creative figure in the side, and if he did receive the ball in non-goalscoring positions they were great areas to create from. I say this without meaning to take away from his achievements that season whatsoever, but it was a system tailored to him.

This season Lang has been used as a number 10 for pretty much all of the season. A big reason for this is the value of him out of possession – his hard work in central areas is extremely useful and a big part of our pressing structure. However, I’d argue this upside is outweighed by some of the downsides. More on that later.

Thelo is an interesting one. He’s the archetypal attacking midfielder, oozes flair and creativity but struggles to contribute on a consistent basis. His physical attributes have come on leaps and bounds but he’s still pretty lightweight which can often see him struggle when playing in tight zones against aggressive midfielders / full backs. He relies on his astounding technical quality to get him out of a tight spot rather than a burst of pace.

He’s a bit of a luxury player in the sense that he can go 60 minutes without doing anything notable, then he’ll pull out a piece of skill and play a through ball no one else is capable of that leads to a chance. You want a player like him in your team but you know, at his current level, it comes at a bit of a cost.

I’d like to see him in a slightly more withdrawn position, ideally as the left 8 in a midfield three. Latics should be looking to switch to a 4-3-3 shape rather than the current 4-2-3-1 as we’re too open defensively and need some more steel in central areas. By playing two 8s in front of a 6 it will allow us a ‘luxury’ midfielder like Thelo to operate with freedom whilst not compromising defensively.

His combination play is wonderful so could combine with the LB and LW, whilst also having licence to occupy areas high up the pitch when he sees fit. Sacrificing a 10 will mean we have to change our press but that’s not much of a concern. Only two teams have a higher PPDA (passes per defensive action) than us which means we allow our opponents time on the ball already.

How to use them?

First of all we need to make something absolutely clear, it’s a bloody good job I’m not in charge of picking the team. Right, now my back is covered I’ll continue. The argument ‘pick your best team no matter what’ is fair but the the phrase ‘horses for courses’ exists for a reason. For example, in Saturday’s game with Portsmouth I probably wouldn’t pick either Lang or Thelo. But for Tuesday’s game with Burton I’d pick both.

As I’ve already touched upon they’re both relatively versatile in the sense that they’ve been used in several positions already in their short careers, but to get the best out of both of them we need to play to their strengths. I always think back to this quote from Pep Guardiola, one of the games greatest ever tacticians:

We should build our system to suit our best players. To some extent we do that already but we’re yet to get the best out of Thelo or Lang and I think this is the way to do it.

Shaun Maloney’s philosophy and playing style should remain the same as it suits the players we have. I’d set up 4-3-3 with Thelo LCM and Lang RW as I’ve already mentioned it suits them the most. We could play Tom Pearce at LB due to the more solid midfield set up and that will allow him to overlap Thelo and link up nicely with him in wide areas. It doesn’t matter who plays LW out of Martial Godo or Stephen Humphrys, a quick right footer is all that is needed.

Thelo Aasgaard

We want Thelo receiving the ball here, back to goal and receiving from his right so he can turn in or out. If he goes to his right he can drive towards goal, slip a ball through to the LW (in this example Martial Godo) who can attack the box. If he turns to his left he’s in space in the middle of the pitch with plenty of options at his disposal.

This shows the kind of scenario that would crop up if we free Thelo up in central areas with him turning to his left. It opens up the switch of play to the right wing, a reverse pass to the left or a ball into the striker’s feet. He has the ability to spot passes that others don’t and if he doesn’t see any he can carry the ball forward himself. That would look something like this…

He has a plethora of options in this area of the pitch. He can pass it wide or through the middle, he can continue to carry the ball forward or he can take aim with a long shot which he’s very capable of. It gets him on the ball in space which is where he’s most dangerous, and the 4-3-3 system should leave us less vulnerable defensively.

Callum Lang

Callum lang is best when he’s entering the box from the right side. In the title winning League One season he scored so many goals from this position having nailed the finishing technique thanks to his work with then attacking coach James Beattie. In this scenario we’ve got Matt Smith in a similar position to that of Max Power in 2021/22, which as I mentioned earlier was a big part of Lang’s success. Our Right Back could do the job too if we want to be slightly more traditional with our positioning.

We want him attacking the goal in as much space as possible, hence the movement of the striker towards the passer. There’s definitely been a knock to his confidence and he seems more reluctant to shoot from this position now, but he has to know how good he can be in this area of the pitch. There’s ten goals minimum from this exact move if he gets his spark back.

We need to give him space to run into so we can’t expect him to be effective in every game. Equally he needs to adapt and become more impactful in every game, but before then we need to get him into form. I do believe the pressure of (vice) captaincy has been getting to him too and he has to shake that off immediately.

The 3-4-2-1

I’ve spoken about this system regularly and part of me still thinks it suits our squad down to the ground. It also suits Callum Lang and Thelo Aasgaard too, they’d be so good as the two behind the striker. Lang making his runs in behind the striker, attacking the box in dangerous areas and finishing moves regularly. Thelo would have the freedom to roam the centre of the pitch, drift wide if necessary and be the creative hub of the side. It just works.

We saw them play in these positions a couple of times last season but not enough for my liking. Millwall at home late in the season gave us a taste of what they could do together, although ideal roles were reversed with Lang laying on a goal for Aasgaard to give us a late victory. That was the moment I became convinced this was the way forward.

Where do we go from here?

I suppose an important thing to note is that we aren’t overly reliant on either of this pair finding form. The truth is we’ve done pretty well this season without our two most talented attacking players firing. You can only assume that when they do find form it will lift the club as a whole and we’ll win plenty of games. If they continue to struggle we have options in the squad to play ahead of them. The pressure is on Lang and Aasgaard to perform, and they should relish that challenge.

In my opinion I don’t see either of them finding form in the current system, it just doesn’t lend itself to their skillsets. Thelo rarely gets the ball in central areas, and when he does it’s often in crowded zones due to his starting position. Lang sees too much of the ball in deep areas and not enough of the ball in goal scoring areas, particularly that right side of the box. As a team we don’t access that zone much at all which suggests it’s a fault of the system rather than the player.

If we can unlock the talent of the pair of them, which I believe we can do simultaneously whilst also fixing other problem areas in the squad, then we’ll be onto a winner. If not, and it’s probably unlikely that we make such changes just to benefit two players, they need to become more versatile. That’s a given regardless of what role they play.

But the reality is it won’t be a quick fix. We’ve got two players in a bit of a rut, particularly Lang who is over a year without a league goal, and you don’t just snap out of one of those. As frustrating as it is we need to have patience with them because they have the talent to take us to a whole new level. They’ve not shown it enough yet but the quality is there, no doubt.

As the chants (nearly) go ‘they’re two of our own’ and we’ve got to get behind them. When Thelo scored against Cambridge it felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders, as it did when Lang netted in the EFL Trophy. Then we travelled to Bristol Rovers, both missed big chances and played really poorly and it feels like we’re back to square one. It just feels like they can’t win right now.

But form is temporary and whilst I hear the argument that over a year without a goal is a lot more than a bad run of form you don’t average a goal involvement every two games as a 21-23 year-old without being a good player. Callum Lang is a good player, a great one on his day. We need to make it his day more often.

The same goes for Thelo Aasgaard. We’ve got him contracted till 2028 so he’s in it for the long haul, it would be foolish to give up on him this early. I’ve said it as much as anyone how underwhelmed I’ve been with his performances this season but you’re lying to yourself if you don’t think he has the potential to be genuinely class. The raw attributes are all there, he just has to tie them all together.