Jhon Durán Can’t Stop Putting Goals On Film

Such is the strength of the hellish vortex Manchester City is presently trapped in—Saturday's loss at Aston Villa gives the Mancs just one win from their last 12—that you almost have to start taking performances against them with a pinch of salt. City has shat the bed so regularly, keeping just one clean sheet over this stretch of misery, that it's risky to read too much into what otherwise might appear to be a statement win against the Citizens. For proof of this notion, look no further than Tottenham.

With that in mind, when you look at the scoresheet from that 2-1 Villa win and see Jhon Durán's name there, you may be tempted to discount what the goal says about the forward's talent. This would be a mistake, because Durán is scoring all the time, against everyone.

The strike, which gave Villa the lead after just over 16 minutes of play and demonstrated that City's long nightmare has not yet ended, looked like a simple one, but only deceptively so. It's true that we're talking about an uncontested first-time finish to cap a 2-v-1 break, but a lot of what makes Durán so deadly can be seen in it: the intelligence to widen the at-first narrow angle between his and Morgan Rogers's runs, in doing so maximizing the chances of success for both potential shooters; the watchmaker's precision of his long gait, body shape, foot placement, and shooting technique as he approached and then dispatched Rogers's pass; the power and wolfish intent behind the run itself. Like with seemingly can't-miss open-netters, it takes a lot of skill to consistently get in position for and then put away "easy" chances like Durán's against City. And you could argue that, at present, nobody in England is better at putting away chances of any kind than Durán.

The 21-year-old Colombian's strike against City gives him seven Premier League goals for the season, tying him with teammate Ollie Watkins for 11th-most in the league. That stat by itself would be impressive enough, before you remember that, of Durán's 17 league appearances, only three have been starts—all of them coming in Villa's last three matches, the young center forward scoring in each one. Factoring in playing time, Durán's 80 minutes-per-goal is the Prem's best mark, with Mohamed Salah's 94 minutes-per-goal coming second. Chip in his three goals in the Champions League and two more in the League Cup, and Durán is hitting the back of the net once every 78 minutes.

There's nothing fluky about this, either. Talent-wise, Durán is already in the elite. His speed and power on the run are formidable. His stamina is freaky, as is his insatiable desire to hunt for spaces around and behind defenses, which sees him string together full-tilt sprint after sprint after sprint in search of weak points from which to receive the ball and rip off shots. His footwork is impeccable, which is what makes his dead-eyed finishing more than just a series of coin flips coming up tails several times in a row. If his feet are those of a tap dancer, then the rest of his body is that of a street brawler; he's constantly slamming hands and forearms and hips into defenders, always jostling for those couple extra inches that separate goals from clearances. He anticipates crosses and nicks them just ahead of defenders like the best penalty-box poachers. His head is just about as fearsome a weapon as his left foot.

To opposing center backs, Durán is as scary as he is annoying to play against, in the proud mold of fellow shithouse king Diego Costa. His chaotic approach to shooting resembles Steph Curry's—utterly devoid of conscience and thoroughly disdainful of stuffy notions like probability, empathy, or even sanity. He doesn't carry or dribble the ball much, and he considers passing as at best a secondary option useful only insofar as it might lead to his next shot attempt. But what he is is an unleashed tiger, prowling with the single-minded intent to run defenses ragged and thereby score goals. This makes him something of a throwback to an earlier era of goal-obsessed strikers, and makes him all the more effective and unique for being so.

Even in terms of pure production, Durán has done enough to support the idea that his current form is more signal than noise. In last season's 37 appearances in all competitions, just 10 of them starts, Durán nabbed eight goals at a rate of one every 138 minutes. In the calendar year he has scored against Man City twice, Liverpool twice, and Bayern Munich once. Lest you think we're dealing with a tap-in merchant, take a look at some of the screamers this guy has smashed in:

That a team like Aston Villa can start games with Watkins, himself an elite goal-hound, and then bring on Durán to terrorize tired defenses in the second half, is a stroke of fortune of preposterous magnitude. It feels like only a matter of time before one of Europe's giants drops some £90 million off at the Birmingham club's offices in exchange for the Colombian's services. When that happens, if a friend asks if there's something they should know about Jhon Durán, you can tell them that he is, indeed, the real deal.