The 2. Bundesliga to League One appears a well trodden path this summer. Adam Price takes a look at newest signing Xavier Amaechi.
Last Thursday, rumours swirled that Plymouth Argyle were about to announce the signing of Tyreece John-Jules. The 24-year-old former Arsenal youngster had just endured a painful season at Crawley Town, scoring no goals as his side were relegated from League One. That evening, Argyle announced the signing of…Xavier Amaechi, a 24-year-old former Arsenal youngster. I can at least appreciate the source of the confusion.
Frankly, I’m relieved. Whilst John-Jules’ arrival would have been seriously underwhelming, Zah-vee-ay Am-each-ee (to use the Argyle Twitter account’s confirmed pronunciation) has just enjoyed a solid campaign at 2. Bundesliga side FC Magdeburg. He’s back in England now on a free transfer after six years in Germany, also having spells at Hamburg and Karlsruhe.
A winger wearing the number 10 shirt, Amaechi will have natural early comparisons to Morgan Whittaker. I suspect Amaechi will at least turn up to play when required, but matching the on-field output of Whittaker will naturally be a tall order. So, let’s take our customary look, and see what he could offer Argyle ahead of their League One campaign.
Concerns regarding minutes
For all the stats I’ll use in this piece, we have a sample size of the 1,068 minutes Amaechi played in the league last season. And for an entire season, that isn’t a huge number by any stretch. For some context, Joe Edwards played 1,135 for Argyle last season despite being injured for most of the campaign. Nikola Katic, who only played his first Argyle game in February, managed 1,225.
Naturally, that has led to concerns about how many Argyle appearances Amaechi will be able to make. Is he going to be fully fit to make a decisive impact? Or will his influence be limited by his time on the treatment table? To be honest, I can absolutely understand those worries.
Previous years lend weight to the anxiety surrounding Amaechi’s fitness. At Magdeburg in 2023/24, he only managed 938 minutes – and that was in all competitions, not just the league. A year prior, serious ankle issues limited him to just eight appearances in total, and 144 minutes. And back in 2021/22, a season-long loan at Bolton Wanderers was hampered by foot and hamstring problems. He played just 12 times, and 380 minutes overall, for Wanderers across the year.
I’m not going to pretend that doesn’t leave me concerned; quite the opposite. Amaechi is a talented player, and we’ll touch on some of his exciting numbers shortly. However, he’ll only be beneficial to Argyle if he’s available to play. There is a huge risk associated with this signing. I’d perhaps put Amaechi in the same category as Brendan Galloway; the Zimbabwean would probably be playing at a higher level if his career hadn’t been plagued with injuries, and I suspect the same is true for Amaechi.
I think there are signs that Amaechi may be over the worst of his issues. I was initially disappointed when I saw he only made 25 league appearances last year. However, a 2. Bundesliga season is relatively short, and Amaechi still played most Magdeburg’s games. I dearly hope he can do similar at Home Park, and that his stay in Devon is more fantastic than frustrating.
Quality in spells
Despite the blindingly obvious risks involved, I can understand why Argyle have made their move. Amaechi was available on a free transfer and, when he did feature for Magdeburg last year, he regularly looked impressive.
As ever with attacking players, we can look at goal contributions as a good starting point, Amaechi scored five league goals and provided a further four assists in 2024/25, combining for a total of nine goal contributions. Not astronomical but, given his limited number of minutes, it certainly isn’t bad. It’s also better than any Argyle player managed per 90 minutes in the league last year.
| Player | Goal Contributions per 90 |
| Xavier Amaechi* | 0.76 |
| Andre Gray | 0.65 |
| Mustapha Bundu | 0.62 |
| Ibrahim Cissoko | 0.54 |
| Ryan Hardie | 0.51 |
| Muhamed Tijani | 0.40 |
Magdeburg finished fifth, and Argyle were relegated, so you’d naturally expect players at the former to contribute to more goals. Fortunately, there are also stats suggesting Amaechi’s style of play can be effective no matter who he’s representing. Last season, for example, he completed more dribbles than any Argyle player, and per 90 he was only edged off top spot by Ibrahim Cissoko. Both were miles clear of the rest of the field.
| Player | Dribbles completed per 90 |
| Ibrahim Cissoko | 3.08 |
| Xavier Amaechi* | 2.95 |
| Freddie Issaka | 1.37 |
| Morgan Whittaker | 1.29 |
| Darko Gyabi | 1.06 |
| Rami Al Hajj | 1.04 |
Amaechi also excels when given the opportunity to shoot. He’s a proactive shooter, with only Whittaker, Cissoko and Ryan Hardie managing more shots per 90 than Amaechi’s 2.26. And he also tends to be accurate with those shots; both his shot accuracy (41%) and shot conversion (19%) were comfortably above Argyle’s average last term.
Amaechi’s numbers are aided by the relatively small sample size. Of course, delivering this quality on a consistent basis will be crucial to the success of his time back in England. Undeniably, however, Amaechi is a player with raw talent. A season in League One under Tom Cleverley could prove to be the perfect tonic for his career.
Creativity as well as goalscoring
With Amaechi’s willingness to shoot, it naturally follows that he’ll score a few goals. As I mentioned earlier, he got five in the league last season, and each one was particularly important. Four of those gave his side the lead, whilst one was an equaliser in an eventual 4-1 win over Darmstadt. Amaechi seems to have a knack for popping up with a goal at the right time.
Much to my frustration, videos of those goals don’t appear to be readily available on YouTube. Luckily, I’m not too annoyed; I believe it’s Amaechi’s creativity, and not necessarily his goalscoring, that allows him to stand out.
In vital creative statistics, Amaechi’s numbers offer significant encouragement. For example, he managed an average of 2.11 key passes during his final season at Magdeburg. It’s a figure no Argyle player really came close to matching last term.
| Player | Key Passes per 90 |
| Xavier Amaechi* | 2.11 |
| Ibrahim Cissoko | 1.47 |
| Mustapha Bundu | 1.36 |
| Tymoteusz Puchacz | 1.27 |
| Michael Baidoo | 1.19 |
| Adam Randell | 1.14 |
And it’s the same story with big chances created, as Amaechi tops the charts compared to any player on Argyle’s books in 2024/25.
| Player | Big Chances Created per 90 |
| Xavier Amaechi* | 0.67 |
| Mustapha Bundu | 0.35 |
| Andre Gray | 0.16 |
| Adam Randell | 0.16 |
| Joe Edwards | 0.16 |
| Tymoteusz Puchacz | 0.16 |
There’s more. Amaechi completed 0.67 crosses per 90 last season, with only Tymoteusz Puchacz and Adam Randell posting a higher figure, whilst I’ve also been particularly impressed by his long passing. It may not be the most obvious strength for a winger, but Amaechi completed 25 long balls last season with a success rate of 64%. Argyle’s average was 34%.
All of the above suggests to me that, whilst Amaechi will clearly back himself to score goals, creativity could prove to be his main strength. At his best he’ll put defences under pressure, bag a hatful of assists, whilst also switching play to the other flank with aplomb. It could prove to be a joy to watch.
A luxury player?
Of course, Argyle won’t have everything their own way this season. Amaechi may be glorious going forward when he’s on song, but does he have the necessary skills to defend, including pressing from the front and tracking back, to be effective when Argyle don’t have possession?
Well, first of all, I haven’t seen him play in the flesh nearly enough to make any judgements about his work rate. That’s something we’ll all need to learn together. However, we can make a few assumptions from his defensive numbers last season. And honestly? Those numbers aren’t terrific.
I don’t see him as the sort of player able to press from the front particularly brilliantly. To be effective, a player will need to cut off passing avenues and win the ball in advanced positions, but Amaechi hasn’t particularly been doing either. Last year he made an average of 0.42 interceptions per 90, and 0.93 tackles per 90. Neither would place him within the top 20 in Argyle’s ranks.
Other defensive numbers are no better. For instance, Amaechi made 0.08 clearances per 90 during his final season at Magdeburg, which would have him dead last at Argyle. Genuinely, every single player to play even a single minute for the Pilgrims last season completed clearances more frequently.
Unsurprisingly, that’s reflected in his stats for defensive actions, where he averaged 1.60 per 90. Whittaker, unfairly in my view, received some criticism for failing to pull his weight defensively last year, but even he managed 3.09 defensive actions per 90. Effectively, he was making a defensive action at practically double the rate of Amaechi.
All this may lead one to conclude that Amaechi is somewhat of a luxury player. At the moment at least, I’d find it hard to disagree. To be clear, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing – Argyle should expect to dominate plenty of games next season, and could thus “afford” such a luxury if Amaechi is delivering in attack. I just don’t currently see him as the sort of player to dig Argyle out of a hole in some of the physical battles they’ll inevitably endure.
Amaechi may post better defensive numbers at Argyle this season. He may improve his pressing when given time to adapt to Cleverley’s system, and he may have a different defensive role to play overall. Just don’t be surprised if the bloke behind you at Home Park starts calling him lazy when things aren’t going particularly well.
Adaptation still necessary
I feel I’ve been ending these pieces recently with a warning that adaptation to League One will be key, and failing to adapt could make any signing an eventual failure. Sorry again for bringing the mood down.
There is an argument that Amaechi won’t need as much time to adapt as other signings from abroad, and that school of thought certainly has its merits. After all, he’s English, grew up in England and played for an English club and English national team at youth level. However, he’s only ever had 12 senior appearances in English football, all at Bolton and all over three years ago.
The change in quality between League One and the 2. Bundesliga will be a crucial factor. And I’m fascinated to see how Amaechi gets on, given I feel I’ve spent much of the summer assessing the differences between League One and the 2. Bundesliga. At least Amaechi had a decent record in Germany, which included getting an assist in his first game of the season against Schalke. Sure, Schalke may not be the biggest or best 2. Bundesliga side, but it’s a nice record to have nonetheless.
Back in his homeland, Amaechi will now need to hit the ground running. And my early suspicion is that he will. He may need a bedding in period, but this isn’t comparable to, for instance, the signing of Michael Baidoo. The Ghanaian barely had a rest for a year-and-a-half before joining, whilst Amaechi now has a full pre-season in a country within which he’s already comfortable. Realistically, I also suspect the level of football will serve him well.
I hope it does, because there’s no doubt this signing is a risk. Argyle could provide the perfect environment for Amaechi to go on a Whittaker-style run, benefitting both the club and player alike. Alternatively, he could fail to adapt to the physicality of League One and spend more time in the physio’s room than anyone would desire. It’s a gamble but, on a free transfer, I certainly see it as a gamble worth taking.