Luca Netz - Scout Report

A look at Netz's data profile in the Bundesliga this season, and a report on his performance against Bayern Munich last October.

Forest made a late move for 22 year old left sided defender Luca Netz on deadline day, on what on the face of it at least looks like a smart low-risk high-reward deal in a position that the club desperately needed to strengthen. With over 120 Bundesliga appearances under his belt, he has more experience than most at his age.

Most of Netz’s game time this season has come as a left wing back in a defensive back 5 system, but the split between that position and the LB role that Forest tend to use is around 65/35 in this campaign - with the share being much closer in the last 3 seasons.

Netz’s data profile suggests he is able to get into some very good positions to make some very valuable defensive contributions - with a Threat Prevented percentile ranking of 83. No LWB in the Bundesliga has blocked more shots per 90 than Netz either.

For this season, Netz profiles primarily as a ‘Shielding Wingback’, something that would probably be quite appealing to Sean Dyche who always wants his full backs to be defensively responsible.

This Impact by Pitch Area visual tells a similar story, there’s lots of green in and around his own box, showing again that he does more than his fair share of defending despite being in a back 5 for the purpose of this visual. You’ll also notice green on the top right of the pitch - this is because Netz has on occasion been given the corner taking responsibilities from the right.

You’ll basically see that Netz isn’t the kind of player who will contribute massively in the attacking third on his natural side, at least compared to other wing-backs. Despite having good overall chance creation metrics, the majority of these come from dead ball situations.

This season, only 4 of his 10 chances created have come from open-play, last season he created just 16 chances (2 assists) - but all of them were from open-play. This reenforces the story that we perhaps shouldn’t expect too much creation from Netz, more so the ability to provide some real balance on the left in the final third, perhaps unlocking a little more space for his winger with some overlapping runs that can’t be ignored by defences.

Performance v Bayern Munich - October 2025

Using the ever valuable Footballia website, I was able to take a look at Netz going up against one of the toughest teams in Europe. You can watch the game here too.

Netz lined up as a LWB in a back 5 - no surprise against such a talented side. He was always going to have a busy afternoon but this was made even more difficult by an early red card to one of his team mates. This actually gives us a great opportunity to check out his defensive capabilities against such a talented player in Michael Olise.

The above clip is all of Netz’s on-ball actions in the first half. You’ll notice that he seems pretty well built considering his reported height of 5”11 - he isn’t afraid to be physical and get tight to his winger. Here he only makes a couple of what I’d say were ‘poor’ actions, the first being a bad clearance on wide on the left back into a dangerous area, the other being a poor pass in the opposition half after initially reading the game well.

What you don’t get from these on-ball actions though, is a lot of his 1v1 defending against Olise.

There were so many examples in this game where Netz gets as close as he can to Olise as early as he can, and offers him no space to cut inside. If Olise is going to go back on his left foot, Netz is going to force him to go backwards, not sideways. He also backs himself to beat Olise for pace and strength should the Frenchman try to go down the outside.

It didn’t matter where Olise received the ball, Netz straight away pushed out of the line and forced him backwards. You only need to take a look at Olise’s own action map from the game to see how difficult he found life down the right flank.

It wasn’t until the second half where Olise decided it was time to roam into more central areas, essentially getting away from Netz, where he was able to cause some damage.

The other thing that really stood out as a positive in this performance from Netz was his willingness to communicate with his midfield and centre backs. Bayern consistently tried to overload their right wing to isolate Netz and give Olise or Boey more space on the flank.

These are just two examples of him communicating clearly (and judging by the reaction of his teammates, also vocally) to let all around him know where the danger might be coming from. This is a great trait for someone so young, and is likely a product of his great experience breeding confidence to demand help from his team mates.

It wasn’t all good though, there was one weakness that looked pretty obvious to me upon first watch of Netz. He likes to give himself a bit of space to react in case he gets targeted with a ball in behind or through the channel, but this has its drawbacks.

This inclination to give himself some space means that he can find himself a yard or two behind his defensive line. This can cause massive issues if opponents can put in a decent ball over the top.

This happened throughout the game, fortunately for him it was never exposed but that’s not to say it’s something Forest shouldn’t worry about. Defenders, especially younger ones, are more likely to make mistakes when thrown into new environments - when you also think that Murillo can be very proactive at times, this could cause a very jagged defensive line at the back that good teams will be able to expose.

Conclusions

I think Forest have got their hands on a decent little project here in Luca Netz. The reported fee of under £2m is a bargain in today’s market considering his age and experience. But there’s obviously a reason (along with his expiring contract) why the price was so low, and why despite him being tentatively linked with other sides recently, it was Forest that got their hands on him.

Don’t expect Netz to contribute too much going forward with end product, especially initially - instead expect him to be involved in those passing moves high on the left, even more so if and when Dyche feels its the right time to go with two out-and-out wingers. I think we can rely on Netz to be a solid 1 v 1 defender, but his positional sense as mentioned above does need some coaching.

If I had to put money on it, I would guess that he doesn’t start against Leeds tonight. That kind of atmosphere doesn’t strike me as the best place for a young player to make his debut and I would imagine that’s what is going through Dyche’s head.

If it was me, I would stick him at left back and keep Murillo & Milenkovic together in the middle. I think having that partnership and a debuting Netz at left-back, outweighs the worry of having Morato step in and moving Murillo to left back.