With Sean Dyche understood to be prioritising fresh attacking talent this summer, Iliman Ndiaye is the latest name linked with a potential move to Everton but just what might he offer the Blues?
Everton netted just 34 goals in 38 Premier League games during the 2022/23 season, narrowly avoiding a first relegation in 72 years after Abdoulaye Doucoure’s goal against Bournemouth gave them the victory they required in their final game to stay up despite posting the lowest equivalent points total in the club’s 135-year history in the Football League/Premier League.
With Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s fitness remaining an issue – the Blues' first choice striker played in just 17 of their 38 Premier League matches and scored just once from open play – and the 5ft 8in Neal Maupay unable to be anything resembling a like-for-like replacement, bagging a solitary strike in 29 outings in all competitions after a £15million move from Brighton & Hove Albion last August, Dyche was forced to use out-of-favour winger Demarai Gray as a ‘false’ number nine in their survival showdown at home to the Cherries despite no goals from open play from him either this calendar year.
Born in Rouen in Normandy, Ndiaye moved to the UK as teenager with his Senegalese father – he has subsequently been capped seven times for the West African nation including in the 3-0 World Cup quarter-final loss to England last December, scoring one international goal to date – and started playing lower down the football pyramid. Penning his first contract with Boreham Wood – who went on to face Everton in an FA Cup fifth round tie at Goodison Park in 2022 – he also played Sunday League matches across London for a team called Rising Ballers.
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Spotted by Sheffield United in 2019, Ndiaye made his only Premier League appearance so far during the coronavirus-induced behind-closed-doors period, coming on as a late substitute in their 5-0 thumping at Leicester City on March 14, 2021. However, the following season with the South Yorkshire club back in the Championship, he established himself as a regular, making 35 appearances – mostly as a central attacking midfielder – and scoring seven goals.
Last term, Ndiaye played 51 games (28 as a centre-forward, 13 as a shadow striker and 10 as an attacking midfielder) scoring 15 goals as he helped Sheffield United win automatic promotion back to the top flight, finishing runners-up behind Burnley. Using Comparisonator’s Virtual Transfer tool, his playing statistics from the Championship in 2022/23 can be measured against strikers already plying their trade in the Premier League to ascertain the traits of his playing style.
Dyche loves a grafter – his motto is “the minimum requirement is maximum effort” – so it seems likely that a big part of his supposed attraction to Ndiaye could be through the player’s impressive off-the-ball work. The 23-year-old’s 6.3 successful defensive actions per 90 minute are higher than his leading Premier League contemporary Emiliano Buendia of Aston Villa on 5.72.
Ndiaye also averages 2.98 ball recoveries – where a player recovers the ball in a situation where neither team has possession or where the ball has been played directly to him by an opponent – in the opposition half which tops Premier League leader Cody Gakpo of Liverpool on 2.91. He seems to thrive in individual battles too given that his 1.3 defensive duels won is more than Arsenal’s Gabriel Jesus who is the Premier League’s best attacker in the field on 1.26 and a big part of this will be down to Ndiaye contesting 5.98 defensive duels per 90 minutes, a figure only the aforementioned Buendia can top with 6.02.
There is some silk as well as steel to this Blades’ man’s game though and his 23.22 passes per 90 minutes would place him sixth in the Premier League and he’d be in the same spot with his 19.12 successful passes, sections that are both topped by Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino on 37.46 and 30.4 respectively. Ndiaye would also make the top 10 for shot assists (9th with 0.85), a category Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez leads with 1.03 and he’s in the same position for successful key passes (0.51), a field in which Buendia represents the benchmark with 0.75 while it’s curious that only Everton play Gray (3.78) could improve upon his 3.62 successful dribbles per game.
Although there are some encouraging figures among all of that, with Financial Fair Play restrictions still biting after the excesses of Everton’s previous period of profligacy – last summer owner Farhad Moshiri admitted: “We have not always spent significant amounts of money wisely” when issuing an apology to supporters – it remains to be seen whether the Blues are prepared to splash out on a player with just 11 minutes of Premier League experience to date. Ndiaye still has another year left to run on his current contract at Bramall Lane and newly-promoted Sheffield United could face a conundrum over whether to hang on to one of their main men for their top flight return or cash in on him ahead of potentially losing him for nothing in 12 months’ time.
Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising over 100 different parameters. Click here for more details.
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