When Bristol City manager Lee Johnson targeted five new signings after the 3-1 opening weekend defeat to Leeds United, I imagine there were likely more than a few fans of the club who thought it would never happen.

But the Robins have worked fast since then to make that number seem entirely plausible, adding French teenage talent Han-Noah Massengo and Benfica full-back Pedro Pereira, while reportedly coming close to a deal for defensive midfielder Adam Nagy and battling for Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah.

The arrival of Massengo is a really exciting and intriguing one. City have long-referenced their “leave no stone unturned” recruitment process and the arrival of the Monaco youngster appears to be in that ilk.

The 18-year-old arrived at Ashton Gate on Tuesday for a reported fee in the region of £7.3 million and signed a four-year deal with the club.

The central midfielder made seven senior appearances for Monaco in total and became the first player born after the year 2000 to play in the UEFA Champions League last season, but what will he bring to the Robins squad and is he worth the money?

We put his performances from last season under the spotlight to investigate just that.

According to Wyscout, the 18-year-old played just 464 minutes last season, but while he did not feature often for Monaco, he was trusted in the UEFA Champions League against Club Brugge, Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund–evidence of how highly considered he was at the French club.

Johnson has is outlined the role he sees Massengo fulfilling for the Robins this season. According to the Bristol Post, the City coaching staff have been concerned by the side’s inability to see kill games and hold onto leads. 

They're understood to believe that the French teenager can be the ideal player to help to kill games and his performances from last season would indicate why.

Despite seeing reduced action, Massengo made a total of 17 interceptions, showing that he reads the game well defensively. While his 4.85 average recoveries per game, with 44% coming in the opposition half, and 59% of his defensive duel success rate indicate he is solid defensively who is a really useful asset in the press.

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In addition to his defensive attributes, the high-energy box-to-box midfielder also has a good range of passing and is useful in possession–as evidenced by his outstanding pass accuracy of 91.2%.

Massengo also appears to be a player capable of pushing his sides forward. The Frenchman had an exceptional 95.5% pass accuracy to the final third and also averaged 4.27 dribbles per game last season.

The teenager’s statistics from the 2018/19 campaign show he is an exciting all-round talent but at just 18 he is raw and is a player that will need to be developed.

That fits with the club’s current philosophy and Johnson seems an ideal coach to do just that, given the faith he has put in youth while at Ashton Gate.

However, in the short-term, it looks like he has a more defined role to play.

In the absence of Korey Smith, the Robins were screaming out for a high-energy midfielder who can look after possession to help them see out games last season and Massengo seems to be the man to provide that in the 2019/20 campaign–which may be key with Smith likely out until 2020.