Injuries had stalled Marco Tilio’s career after an Australian record move to Celtic, but ahead of this weekend’s Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final, the Melbourne City star is in ominous form. These numbers show just how good he is right now.
Asked for his opinion on this weekend’s Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final, Melbourne Victory icon Archie Thompson didn’t hesitate to name the one player his former side must be wary of in this Saturday night’s decider.
“You’ve got to stop (Marco) Tilio,” he said on A-Leagues Download. “You see how good he is.”
Not long ago, Tilio was one of the most talked about young talents in Australia, earning an Australian record transfer to Celtic in July 2023 for a reported fee of $3 million.
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Unfortunately for him and the Subway Socceroos, opportunities were limited at the Scottish giants, leading to a loan return to City, where injuries had – until recently – denied the skilful attacking midfielder any chance to rebuild the sort of form that earned him an opportunity abroad in the first place.
However, since returning to City’s starting XI in mid-February, consistent football has seen Tilio return to his best, scoring four goals and providing five assists in 13 matches.
Heading into this weekend’s Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final, you could make the case the 23-year-old is in career best form, with his underlying numbers painting the picture of a player excelling in several facets of the game right now.
Heading into a Grand Final, if you look solely at Tilio’s last four matches, he (3.29) is the number one player in the Isuzu UTE A-League ahead of Western United captain Ben Garuccio (3.26), so strong is his current form.
Traits Insights, an analytics platform used increasingly by Europe’s top clubs, provides a new digestible way to interpret the numbers, weighting metrics that matter in specific positions to deliver a rating comprising four key facets of football – scoring, creating, passing and defending.
Across the course of the season, Tilio (2.98) ranks as the 14th best player in the Isuzu UTE A-League among players to have averaged more than 45 minutes across 10+ appearances in a single position, wedged between young gun goal machines Archie Goodwin (13th) and Noah Botic (15th). He is also City’s top-rated player.
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This data highlights exactly why Melbourne Victory must formulate a plan to stop City’s talismanic forward, with Thompson tipping Australia U20 international Josh Inserra to be given the task of limiting his influence in the biggest match of the season.
Breaking down Tilio’s numbers across this imperious run of form, it is clear to see how important he is for City, far beyond his basic goal and assist numbers.
Explained: How the Traits Insights rating system works
Traits puts players’ data into context by benchmarking them against other players in their position and competition.Traits’ unique approach to talent evaluation uses a layered framework of statistics which consolidates raw data into each individual metric, which then feeds into a series of ratings – see image below for a detailed breakdown.
A player’s data is benchmarked relative to the competition average and variance of performances in their position.
Ratings at all levels (Overall, and for specific traits and metrics) are set to the same 0-5 scale.; ratings above 3 are considered good, 2.5 is the competition average and anything below 2 is considered somewhat poor.
Each positional model is weighted in accordance with a player’s role within the team. Traits default positional profiles into a robust 433 formation, however clubs can adjust and align the platform with what they value most in each position.
Tilio’s numbers across the last eight matches would place him second among Isuzu UTE A-League attacking midfielders for creating, fifth for passing and ninth for defending.
Honing in further, he would be top for assists – a number that encompasses not just providing the last pass for a goal but also secondary, third assists and shot assists – and passing intent, second for combination play behind only Douglas Costa and second for off ball defending adrift only of Perth Glory’s Nikola Mileusnic.
This season (2.98) ranks alongside Tilio’s best in the Isuzu UTE A-League historically, alongside his 2021 (2.93) and 2022 campaigns (2.99).
He’s putting up career best numbers when it comes to passing (2.93), while his other metrics have not suffered as his influence has grown for City.
One of the most intriguing match-ups in this Saturday’s Grand Final will be the battle between creators-in-chief Tilio and Melbourne Victory’s Daniel Arzani.
The pair profile similarly and it seems likely that whichever player can exert more influence over the derby contest will tilt the odds in their side’s favour.
Traits Insights also allows users to compare data to identify similar players across world football, helping coaches, sporting directors and executives better understand the profile of player they are looking at.
In Tilio’s case, the names that arise are hugely impressive.
Looking at Europe’s top five leagues over the past five seasons specifically, Tilio’s closest matches in technical profile for the current campaign are Angel Di Maria’s 2021-22 at Paris Saint-Germain, Kingsley Coman’s 2022-23 with Bayern Munich and Phil Foden’s 2022-23 with Manchester City, which saw him named Premier League Young Player of the Season.
With that in mind, it’s fair to say Tilio is back to his best and should have his sights set back in Europe. Whether that eventuates with Celtic or another club, he has unfinished business to attend to this weekend to complete an incredible return to form.
