Juanmi real name Juan Miguel Jiménez López is a 22 year old 1.69m (5 foot 7 inch) Spanish secondary striker who has signed for Southampton from Malaga for a reported £5m. We look at the player assessing his stats and prospects for Southampton
fantasy premier league new players to watch – Southampton’s Juanmi
Here’s his stats:
| Juanmi | ||||
| Season | Team | matches | goals/assists | Mins per Goal/Assist |
| 2014/15 | Malaga | 34 | 8/2 | 223 mins |
| 2013/14 | Malaga | 22 | 4/0 | 249 mins |
| 2012/13 | R Santandar | 19 | 0/0 | – mins |
| Totals | 75 | 12/2 | 312 mins | |
| UCL | Malaga | 1 | 0 | – mins |
| Europa | n/a | |||
| Spain | 1 | 0 goals | ||
Well the stats ceratinly arent anything to write home about. It’s not clear whether he will be classified in FPL as a midfielder or a striker so that causes some confusion over who to compare his stats to. As a player he’s been compared to Victor Moses, Bojan and Wilfred Zaha. In those 3 players you’ve got 2 midfielders and 1 forward in FPL. It’s hard to compare the premier league to others as I’ve said the premier league has more depth than other leagues. However Malaga struggled last season and that does go some way to mitigation.
Lets compare 14/15 stats to those 3 players and also the competing teammates Mane, Tadic, Elia and Long in Southampton for places
| Player comparison 14/15 | ||||
| Player | Team | matches | goals/assists | Mins per Goal/Assist |
| Moses | Stoke | 19 | 3/4 | 206 mins |
| Bojan | Stoke | 16 | 4/1 | 241 mins |
| Zaha | Palace | 35 | 9/4 | 239 mins |
| Mane | Saints | 30 | 10/4 | 152 mins |
| Tadic | Saints | 31 | 4/8 | 174 mins |
| Elia | Saints | 16 | 2/0 | 394 mins |
| Long | Saints | 32 | 5/7 | 129 mins |
So if you just focus on Juanmi’s season last year it doesn’t look good at all compared to his Southampton teammates. I haven’t even included the returning Jay Rodriguez in those stats. The only good thing is that none really nailed that secondary sriker position in the 3 of 4-2-3-1. His stats are reasonably comparable to the 3 similar players of other teams but at the moment those players are really restricted to gambles when good fixtures arise.
The prospects
His gametime prospects aren’t that clear. Koeman will generally play 4-2-3-1 and Juanmi would ideally play in the centre of the 3. As you can see from the above stats he has competition from Mane, Tadic, Elia, Long and Rodriguez. Add to that Koemans tinkering that we saw last year and Southampton’s particpation in the Europa League and you’ve got a player with significant gametime risk for our ongoing lineups. However we have 2 Europa League qualifying games on the 30th July and the 6th August which should rationally closely follow the GW1 lineups.
Positionally last season Juanmi played mainly as a secondary striker although he played a few games as a centre forward and a winger. Hard to see him leading the line in a more physical league at 5 foot 7 inches. If he does play it seems likely he will be the central player of the 3 in 4-2-3-1.
As a player he follows the diminutive Spanish model. Very quick, great touch and technical skill plus good vision and passing. He’s also known as very hard working defensively. If you’ve searched against him you’ll probably find his winner against Barca last season when his pressure forced a Danny Alves mistake.
Probably the most crucial factor as I said before is his FPL classification. If he’s classified as a forward rather than a midfielder he will be far less attractive than he already is.
