2018 Fulham Player Profiles: Ryan Sessegnon

Basic Stats: 48 appearances | 48 starts | 1 substitutions | 4,297 minutes | 16 goals | 8 assists

Economics: Academy Graduate | Signed: 2016 | Contract Ends in Summer 2020 plus a 2-year option

Stats by Seven-Game sequences

WhoScored Rating Chart

Radar

Goals vs. Expected Goals

Transfermarket Value Chart

CC Thoughts: So to put things in perspective, I thought I was starting to feel like an adult when Wayne Rooney started terrorizing defenses the way he did. Now I feel like an old man that wonders if he can find the fountain of youth again watching Ryan Sessegnon: the first athlete I have ever witnessed with joy and passion born in the year 2000. Anywho, enough about age and growing up on my end.

But it just can’t be pointed out enough that Fulham supporters are witnessing something special. With a debut at 16, 16 goals to his account before turning 18 and assisting on the lone goal in the Playoff Final to guide Fulham back to the Premier League, it is just downright frightening to imagine what his ceiling might genuinely be. But that still doesn’t mean he has hit it yet and there is still plenty of room to grow as a result.

For one, like the rest of his teammates, it took until November for Sessegnon to really get his 2017/18 going. He was able to kickstart his campaign with that famous hat trick at Sheffield United and the rest has been history. What followed was more consistent performances and more appearances over on the left wing rather than at left back. That resulted in braces against Ipswich, Burton and Barnsley and was capped off with a fantastic second-leg performance against Derby County in the playoffs where he scored the first and assisted on the second via a corner kick. There were fears that Sessegnon was cooling off by the end of the season, but the England Under-21 International was able come through in Fulham’s most important games.

And with that, the club will be playing Saturdays in front of International television audiences with the world about to take notice what a brilliant talent is coming through. Sessegnon may end up becoming a big fish in a small pond ala Gareth Bale, but for now, he is still wearing Fulham white continuing his development.

Key Stat: 80.6% of Sessegnon’s shots were from inside the penalty area. As it has been discussed before, Sessegnon’s shot rate is atrocious for an elite attacking player. That will have to improve dramatically if he were to ever be considered world class. To prove how bad it is, his 1.2 shots per game is the worst rate of any Championship player that has scored nine or more goals in the league.

However, what has made the budding star rack up 16 goals in the league were that he led all Fulham players with 50 shots inside the penalty area out of his total of 62. I still expect regression to the mean for Sessegnon, but if there’s data that can perfectly explain his astronomically high 25.8% goal conversion rate. Only Neeskens Kebano comes close to having a higher ratio of shots coming from the penalty box with 73.5% among Fulham players.

Your thoughts: People, 2018/19 is going to be fantastic and watching Sessegnon trying to figure out the Premier League is among the top reasons why. So how do you think he’ll perform to it? What do you think is Sessegnon’s ceiling? And how long will he be able to play for Fulham until it’s time to worry about his move to a bigger club? Let us know your thoughts on the comment section below.