What Nordi Mukiele will bring to Sunderland - #onthewhistle - video Dailymotion

Sunderland Echo

Phil Smith assesses Sunderland's move for PSG defender Nordi Mukiele

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00:00Mind if we're talking about Mukiele more generally, it's versatility.

00:03So, as you might remember from when we did the Granja Zaka video earlier this summer,

00:08Leverkusen predominantly played with a back three.

00:10And Mukiele has played either as a right wing back or a right-sided centre back,

00:15so the right of the back three.

00:16He's switched between the two with great ease and played a lot of minutes in both positions.

00:20This wasn't a fluke either.

00:22This is something that he did.

00:23So when he was at Leipzig for those years, which I mentioned before,

00:26they at the time were also playing with a back three.

00:28And again, he got loads of minutes as a right wing back

00:30and got loads of minutes as a right of the back three.

00:33To me, that is a massive tick because that tells you that he's an all-rounder.

00:37He's good enough going forward to play a wing back

00:39and he's good enough defensively to play a right-sided centre back.

00:42So I think that is a real tick for me and something that makes me excited

00:45about dropping him into this group of defenders,

00:47that he can play a lot of different roles.

00:49He's got a lot of different disciplines and he can play in a few positions.

00:53We're also glad that when he was at PSG,

00:55not only did he play it as a more traditional right-back on the right of a back four,

00:59sorry, bit of a tongue twister there,

01:01he did actually also play a left-back.

01:03Now, I'm not suggesting that that's something he'll do regularly for Sunderland.

01:06I think it's very unlikely given they've got Reanildo, Arthur Masivakiu,

01:10Dennis Serkin coming back to fitness.

01:11But it's just to give you a flavour.

01:13This is a guy who for a long period of time has been dropped into different roles

01:17and succeeded there without any problems at a high level.

01:19So when I'm looking at what he's going to bring to Sunderland,

01:22the first thing for me is that he's going to bring quality to a lot of different positions.

01:26And that could be absolutely huge over the course of the full season,

01:29especially as we've talked about with some players potentially going to the African Cup of Nations.

01:33So I'm going to look at some of his stats in a minute.

01:35I want to have a sip of coffee.

01:36It's been a long day, so apologies to those.

01:38I know it's annoying when I drink my coffee,

01:40but no coffee, no videos, I'm afraid.

01:44So looking into the stats at Leverkusen last season.

01:49Now this is a little bit tricky for the reason I've outlined before,

01:53because do you compare him to centre-backs or do you compare him to full-backs?

01:56Both are a little bit unfair,

01:57because he might not compare attacking-wise as favourably to a lot of other full-backs,

02:02because he obviously has played minutes at centre-back,

02:04and the same also applies.

02:06However, I think there's a few things that we can kind of tease out from his performances last season

02:10that give us a bit of a flavour about what his key strengths are.

02:12So if we look at Wisecout first and foremost for their Bundesliga data for last season,

02:18and we look at full-backs in the Bundesliga,

02:22yeah, we can see that Mukiele was fourth for dribbles,

02:27he was 12th for progressives' runs,

02:29he was fourth for deep-completed crosses,

02:32and he was third for offensive duels per 90 minutes.

02:35So this tells us that his attacking numbers whenever he played were really, really good.

02:39He was involved in a lot of attacking pieces of play,

02:42so really comfortable in the final third,

02:44really comfortable getting to the byline,

02:46he's got the pace and the quality to do that,

02:48putting crosses in, taking on his marker.

02:50Now, I would expect his attacking numbers to be pretty good

02:53when he's playing minutes at wing-back for a Leverkusen team who would dominate in most games,

02:57but even so, I think that tells you that he's got a real flavour for getting forward,

03:01and he's got the aptitude to do it.

03:02However, there were also some really strong defensive numbers,

03:06which kind of goes back to what I was talking about before,

03:08about this picture emerging of a bit of an all-around player.

03:11So he was in the top 5% for interceptions,

03:13the top 22% for clearances,

03:15and the top 4% for aerials won per 90 minutes.

03:18Now, that's also, again, compared to full-backs in the Bundesliga,

03:21not centre-backs.

03:22But that goes to show you, I think,

03:24that we are looking at a really solid player.

03:26And what was interesting was that when I thought it would be interesting to go back

03:31and look at the last time, his last season of Leipzig,

03:34where, of course, he really made his reputation as one of Europe's top young defenders.

03:38Really, really similar picture.

03:40So he was scoring really highly against full-backs in the Bundesliga at that time

03:43for combined goals and combined assists.

03:46So I think that's something that we can take a lot of encouragement for.

03:49Similarly, strong numbers in terms of his aerial duels now,

03:51which he was winning, which is definitely a positive,

03:53and some really strong interception and clearances numbers as well.

03:58So when I've been watching him, watching his clips on Wisecout,

04:02definitely get the impression of a player who has the quality in the final third,

04:05who likes to get to the byline, who likes to take players on.

04:08But he has pace and he has some strong defensive attributes as well.

04:11So as I said before, if I was to describe him from my research,

04:14I would describe him as a pretty solid all-rounder.

What Nordi Mukiele will bring to Sunderland - #onthewhistle

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