QPR have dipped back into the European transfer market this afternoon to secure giant, ball-playing Danish midfielder Nicolas Madsen for £2m from Belgian side Westerlo.
Nicolas Madsen is a ginormous 24-year-old central midfielder from Odense in Denmark (bacon, Hans Christian Andersen, various Schmeichels). He has represented Denmark at U17, U18, U19 and U21 level.
The Wikipedia says he started playing for his local side Marienlyst when he was just three (three!? Jeremy, that’s insane) and later played for Næsby before being picked up by local small people adventure park Midtjylland, presumably because at 6ft 4ins tall they considered him to be some sort of God or mythical beast lord people would pay to come and marvel at.
Midtjylland, you’ll perhaps know, is one of the new fangled data driven clubs that has soared up the Danish leagues with involvement and input from Matthew Benham, landlord of rival theme park LegoLand Kew. Madsen signed there at 15 in 2015, and by 18 had made a first team debut as a late sub in a cup game against Dalum IF. His Superliga debut followed soon after against Lyngby Boldklub, who meet every Thursday and are currently reading To Kill A Mockingbird.
Eight starts and a chunky 27 substitute appearances (alright Albert Adomah) followed as they finished second in the Danish league. Four of those substitute appearances came in the Champions League against Atalanta, (twice), Ajax and Liverpool. This before a loan for the 2021/22 season in the Eredivisie at Heerenveen. A better haul of 20 starts and six sub appearances came his way in Holland.
At this point the family member editing his Wikipedia profile seems to have had some sort of falling out with him, or just lost interest in his career, because according to that nothing happened next and he’s effectively been at QPR since 2022. In fact he was sold by Midtjylland to Westerlo in Belgium (strong beer, mayonnaise on chips, bureaucracy) where he has really found his feet as a domineering, box-to-box midfielder with an excellent goalscoring record.
In 66 starts and eight sub appearances across league and cup Madsen has scored 15 goals including nine penalties in what is, let’s be honest here, not a great side – they’ve finished 11th and 7th during his time there. The Antwerp-based side has, though, started this season very strongly, with three wins from four games and 12 goals scored already. Madsen has one of those – another penalty in a 4-2 away win at Mechelen on August 3. This after finishing 23/24 with 13 goals in 34 appearances, including a hot streak of ten goals in 15 games over the winter which has made him something of a darling of the data and analytics community and, well, enter QPR.
He joins Rangers for an undisclosed fee (West London Sport say it’s £2m to start with) on a contract of undisclosed length (Gazet van Antwerpen report it at a fairly punchy five years) – but you plebs are allowed to know he’ll be wearing squad number 24, so that’s nice.
Attacking Movements
Madsen is not your stereotypical no.8 or no.10 – often drifting into wide areas and overlapping wingers, or playing neat combinations with them. He does play centrally too, and does so to an impressively high standard, where he can display his intelligent movement best. He holds his runs as attacks develop, leaving him in acres of space centrally and giving him a chance to spot the runners in-behind the opposition’s defence before he clips, dinks or caresses the ball for his teammate who is invariably in on goal.
Real lack of movement from Madsen draws out the CB & he flicks it in-behind the defence.
His ability to consistently find space in the midfield, both centrally & wider areas is incredibly impressive – but perhaps indicative of an epidemic lack of defensive structure in the Jupiler Pro League. In the Championship this is unlikely to be the case for Madsen, but I believe he has the quality to move the ball quickly & smartly into space or feet.
However, the most attractive part to his game is his ability to hit the box for cut backs or pick up any scraps in attack. He times runs into the box relatively well, with his very casual jog to begin with before bursting into space and coming on to the ball to finish. Being able to know where the space is and time your run into it can be the difference between a good goalscoring midfielder and a great goalscoring midfielder.
Quality on the Ball
Madsen’s intelligence reoccurs when he is on the ball too, where he has a strong understanding of his options and times his execution well. Being able to draw in defenders before releasing the pass is severely underrated as an attribute and will be very welcome at Loftus Road in order to get Saito, Dembele, Andersen, Celar etc through on goal. On a broader point, while Madsen may be somewhere between 6’3” and 6’4”, he has tight close control & is able to use quick feet to manipulate the ball & beat defender’s outstretched legs.
It feels like a bit of a given at this level, but he’s able to pass and shoot with both feet to a relatively high standard. Being able to do so really opens up his passing range & gives him the flexibility to play in the wider areas if required – likely rotating with Saito or Dembele who can then occupy central areas & be more threatening. If you watch the clip below, the touch, control & pass are extremely smoothly executed, and he slips his teammate through with ease.
Madsen is able to provide intelligent through balls and quality touches to facilitate attacks but he also knows how to finish them. He’s a clean ball-striker that shows great composure to pick his spot when within congested areas or close to goal. Nine penalties scored over last season and the first four games of 24/25 campaign too – he’s lethal from the spot, despite being rather predictable and hitting the bottom left corner (to the GK’s right) with seven of his eight kicks.
Physicality
Despite his tall frame, Madsen isn’t the best at utilising it to shield the ball or to muscle in on 50/50 duels. He lacks physical assertiveness when out-of-possession but if paired with Varane or Field, I’m hopeful that this flaw might be masked slightly – although it leaves him open to being targeted by opposition. In addition, he isn’t a high-energy player in the press or in defensive transitions which makes me intrigued to see how Cifuentes, Calm etc. will look to utilise him. We’ve been playing a more zonal defensive structure/ mid-block in recent weeks so he could slot nicely into that, but don’t expect him to be a front-foot presser like Andersen, Dykes & Colback. With his taller frame, he lacks the short area quickness to change direction and beat opponents with sharp turns – but he’s a capable runner over long distances, marauding into space with or without the ball.
Conclusion
A player that I mentioned back in April and described as "an excellent addition to play alongside Andersen and Field, providing a middle ground between their skillsets”. I stand by this assessment of his technical qualities and feel that he’s a strong upgrade into our midfield. A classy operator that might need a bit of time to adjust to the pace & quality of opposition’s defences – but I believe he can come good and provide that much needed link between the back four and the attacking four of this team.
"I am a very technical player even though I am also quite tall, so it may be a little unusual but with the ball I have my best abilities. Last season I played as a 6, 8 and 10, and it gives me the flexibility to perform in all these positions. If I could choose, I would play as an 8. With the role I had last year, I was playing a bit more offensive and I got into these situations I like, to create chances and also score goals. I am in the best shape I have ever been in. Always the best way to get going at a new place is to get started fast and play some games. I am excited also to see the fans and the atmosphere in the stadium.” - Nicolas Madsen
Little over a year ago, in between all the QPR defeats and drowning lesbians, I sat down in a quiet corner of an Austrian bar to write the Lewis Wing signing article. Such was the state of QPR at that stage, Wycombe’s attacking midfielder chose the ongoing meltdown at Reading rather than a job as one of Gareth’s culture guardians in W12. Halcion days.
The theme of that piece, though, remained valid. It was valid before, it was valid at the time, and it’s valid now. Just as well, cos I've still got a match preview to write tonight. QPR do not score enough goals from the middle of midfield. This is a problem so chronic, going on for so long, that even Luke Amos looked half decent in this team – 12 sub appearances and three starts for Hibs in the 18 months since he was released.
Last season QPR’s central midfielders contributed nine goals. A reasonable total for one midfield player, but actually shared among Jack Colback (three), Sam Field (four) and Andre Dozzell (two). Isaac Hayden, Elijah Dixon Bonner, Stephen Duke McKenna all played there at various points and didn’t score at all. Nine goals from 107 collective starts and 36 sub appearances.
The season before it wasn’t even that good. Seven goals scored by Field (three), Iroegbunam (two) and Johansen (two). Amos, Dixon-Bonner and Dozzell contributed nothing. Seven goals from 126 collective starts and a further 44 substitute appearances. In 2021/22, actually a good year for the team, the pattern repeated. Luke Amos got six goals in 17 starts and 16 sub appearances, the only halfway decent total any of our central midfielders have managed for years. In total the CMs scored eight – those six from Amos, and one each from Johansen and Ball in a 3-3 at Reading, the Ball goal initially counted as an OG. Eight goals from 90 starts and 50 sub appearances. Dozzell (who would infamously finish with two goals, two assists and two red cards in 98 appearances) scored none in 21 starts and 12 sub. The laughable Jeff Hendrick bagged none in 11 insipid appearances. Johansen, who’d been signed as a goalscoring midfielder after his exploits on loan, scored one in 33 starts and four off the bench.
Goalscoring is, of course, not the primary role of people in this position, but it is vital to a successful team. Some of the players we’ve had in those positions – Field, Johansen, Iroegbunam – are well good enough to be getting up around eight goals a season. Dozzell, in theory, should have been. And when your top scorers from the attack are two players on seven, as Chair and Dykes were last year, lack of goals from elsewhere in the team becomes a big issue.
What is a primary function of the players in that position, particularly in a Marti Cifuentes system and what ChatGP Nourry would describe as QPR’s "game model”, is being able to receive the ball from the defence, often in a tight space and under pressure, get on the half or full turn with that ball, and progress it forwards.
QPR’s best player is Ilias Chair, and much of the recruitment has been focused on Lucas Andersen, Karamoko Dembele and Koki Saito types who play in the next phase of that shape beyond the central midfielders – prioritised over and above out and out strikers where QPR’s options remain fairly rotten. For those exciting, tricky, dancy little ‘tens’ to excite, trick and dance they need to be given the ball quickly, accurately, and in space. Far, far too often QPR’s midfielders just bang the ball straight back to the centre half or goalkeeper who passed them it in the first place. This became depressingly chronic as the Warburton promotion push fell apart, and remains a niggling problem right up until last week. Sam Field is good enough to do it, but risk averse. Arms flailing from the front of the director’s box as Steve Cook and Jake Clarke-Salter work a low ball in midfield only to receive it straight back.
So here’s Nicolas Madsen, fitting completely into the model of this summer’s signings – an attempt to address a long term and well known problem in this team by putting that long term and well known problem into the data and analytics model and picking one from the top of the pile it sends back.
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