[SIGNED perm] Jeremy Ngakia

Adam Leventhal
@AdamLeventhal

Understand that an 11th hour approach from Bournemouth has thrown the transfer of Jeremy Ngakia to Watford into doubt. Further info on @TheAthleticUK

 

I don’t know much about the kid but the bitterness from Hammers fans on twitter is a great sign.

 

He was quite highly rated at West Ham and supposedly had some good sides interests a little while back.

 

That Richard Hughes is some scout!

 

Watch out, Villas-Boas is about!

 

Indeed. Why can we not invest in that sort of infrastructure ?

 

Below is the only highlights vid I could find of him. It's taken from his debut and was in a tough game vs Liverpool which they lost 2-0, but he actually looks a bit rubbish there. Has a poor first touch a few times and misplaces a lot of passes.

Most West Ham fans still seem to rate him at a decent level though and claim he did fairly well in his 5 PL starts for them.

After his second match for them vs Liverpool (Away, 3-2 loss), some Spam comments included:

"Yep, he looked every inch a PL player tonight. He clearly has a big future, I just hope some of it is with us."
"The lad was superb tonight. Early days but he looks much more composed on the ball than Fredricks, both in defence and on the few times he got forward tonight. I’d be for happy for him to carry on as first choice."
"starts for me. has pace can driblle past a few and cross the ball. Plus a rarity for our fullbacks he can tackle !"

There have been a few naysayers though:

"Ngakia is incredibly raw, he wasn't horrendous in his appearances, but he showed no skill at all, he was all physical attributes."
"If any club can guarantee Ngakia first team football then they must be in a worst state than we are!"

And after their game vs Wolves in June:

"It must of just been me, but I thought he was abysmal yesterday. Easily his worst game for us. Yes Wolves were clearly targeting him down that side and yes Wolves arguably didn't create a lot of chances down his side in the first half especially, but my God how bad at passing is he! [...] The passing was up there with probably the worst I have seen all season. I am hopeful that'll improve over time. Otherwise he won't be playing at this level for us, or any other Premier League team."
"Going forward an obvious threat. Defensively not smart enough for the premier league - yet."
"I thought he had a poor game, he was out of his depth and Wolves were exploiting it. But we have learnt nothing from it, he is a good prospect, nothing more. He may turn out to be a great player, he may not."
"I thought he did ok yesterday. Not great, but ok. He’s strong in the tackle and puts himself about well. "

Looking at his stats his pass completion percentage for his 5 PL games was 54%, which is absolutely atrocious. Really, really bad. Our only players close to that low are Prodl (also on 54% for his one performance this season, and we know how aimless his passing is), and Deeney (also 54%), who does misplace a lot of passes, but also whose percentage is so low because he's often having to deal with balls punted at his head with little support. Our current full-backs were all at 73-78% pass completion for the season.

I've also now watched brief highlights of all the 5 West Ham matches he played in, and I honestly reckon he'd fallen asleep/completely switched off for about half the goals they conceded while he was on the pitch. Not that he was always the only player at fault for the goals, but it was noticeable that he often just seemed to literally stop in his penalty box and ball watch while letting opposition players run off him to get on the end of crosses.

So he's a prospect, but actually I'm not expecting him to be an immediate panacea. Worth remembering that he's still just 19 and from what I've seen he definitely plays like it. He has a lot to work on in his game and I suspect he'll cost us a few goals even in the Championship from switching off or giving the ball away in dangerous areas.



Span Forum thread on him here:
https://www.kumb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=177219&start=580

 

Reported in the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...o-link-up-with-watford-after-leaving-west-ham

 

Mapps had 73% pass completion for us last season vs Ngakia's 54%.

That was with both having the sane number of passes per game and both trying a similar number of long-balls and crosses per game.

Based on the stats and that highlights vid above it really seems a glaring weakness in his game and likely indeed worse than Mariappa's (though with time to improve)! Those numbers really aren't good enough to be a regular in the PL right now.

https://www.whoscored.com/Players/390700/Show/Jeremy-Ngakia
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/13805/Show/Adrian-Mariappa

 

The difference being Ngakia has the potential to improve.

 

To elaborate, I just did a bit more digging and Ngakia has the lowest pass completion rate out of any outfield player to have played more than 20 minutes in the PL last season.

 

Obviously not exactly great passing stats, but context? Ngakia roams forward a lot more than Mariappa, maybe he tries more ambitious passes? From the bits I've seen of him since the restart, he seems decent defensively for his age, got a bit of pace about him, although lacks that final ball

 

He has age on his side but there's no cast-iron guarantee it will do so dramatically. See above, it's really not a good starting point.

For comparison, West Ham's other young English right-back, Ben Johnson, just a year older at 20, already had a pass completion rate of 73% in his 3 matches for them (pretty standard for a PL full-back).

 

Maybe, but from the stats he doesn't try more long balls or crosses than Mariappa. He also had 0 assists, and even 0 key passes, across all his 6 starts, meaning that even if he is attempting more ambitious passes they're failing. Looking at the Pool vid he seems to overhit a lot of balls.

Supposedly he's a decent dribbler, which should elevate him above Doyley at least, but his final ball definitely seems lacking right now.

I'd already concluded that about his passing just from briefly watching his highlights and seeing his stats even before I'd looked on the West Ham forum, where I was then amused to see the quote taken from after the Wolves game:

" but my God how bad at passing is he! [...] The passing was up there with probably the worst I have seen all season. I am hopeful that'll improve over time. Otherwise he won't be playing at this level for us, or any other Premier League team."

 

The main thing is whether he can defend, something very few of our defenders can do.

 

On the plus side, while he may have faults, the West Ham fans seem to state something in common. Good tackler, fast, good dribbler and is physical.

For a promotion push in the championship I will take a RB that can tackle, dribble, is fast and is physical.

Passing and crossing can easily be coached.

 

That he's set to sign not that he has. I will only believe it when the guy says so himself given the club doesn't always get it right.

 

@El distraído 's tweet link was fake.

 

Yeah, not perfect by any means, but hopefully he can develop. Let's be real here, if we got someone like him in, but who actually did have a decent final ball, he wouldn't be interested in us, would he!

 

Found I was already one of those 471.

Didn't realise that.

Must be credible.

 

Yeah he looks pretty ***** in that Liverpool video, all
pace and strength, little skill or composure

Hopefully just needs games to sharpen up, Champo will provide that

 

Must have been taken down!

 

Surely he can't be any worse than Kiko?

 

Think he was just messing, nothing on Twitter about Ngakia to Bournemouth

 

He’d definitely improve us.

 

That isn't very difficult at the moment.

 

Please don't spoil this thread with informed opinion.

*Fingers in ears*

A new RB, woo hoo!

 

https://totalfootballanalysis.com/p...201920-scout-report-tactical-analysis-tactics
Some analysis here of him here. Largely to be expected, but there were some interesting points in there. Looks like he can spot a pass, although the execution is off, so hopefully it's something that he's working hard on. Interesting point that he's not been the kind of player to burst a lung to get up the field early, that he joins attacks late which means opposition defences are already set by the time he makes a cross (though it could be a tactical thing given that at West Ham under Moyes, there'd be much less emphasis on attack).

Bloke mentions that he looks to be a good option for teams with a more attacking left-back, Estupinan would fit that bill excellently of course, Masina, well, I think he was supposed to be more of a wing-back when we signed him, but he looks more like a defensive full-back now

 

Let's be honest, at 19 it's impossible to know quite how well he'll develop.

Pace and decent defensive abilities are a solid base to build from though, and from what I've seen it's not like he's Lloyd Doyley who had those things but zero technique.

We'll just have to wait and see. If he does sign at all, that is.