The first step out of their home country is always a difficult and crucial one for a young player, especially when they come from countries with relatively weak leagues and they’re forced to move to develop and play at a significantly higher level. That’s the case of Emmanuel Essiam (December 19, 2003) who, having turned 18 just a month ago, has decided to accept the offer of FC Basel and move to the Swiss Super League from the Ghanaian Premier League to continue his progression.
Essiam had a fantastic 2021 which saw him feature in every game of the Africa U20 Cup of Nations despite being aged just 17 years 01 month 28 days at the beginning of the tournament. Ghana won the tournament, and Essiam was an important part of the team. After the tournament, he was ready to play professional football and started featuring for Berekum Chelsea in the Ghanaian top tier.
Since his first-team debut in April 2021, Essiam has played 16 games for Berekum Chelsea and also made his debut for Ghana U23. Basel, who have a history of developing African talents (they were the first club in Europe for Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, Arsenal’s Mohamed Elneny or former Ligue 1 and Bundesliga forward Jacques Zoua, among others), decided to take a chance on the young Ghanaian midfielder and put him directly in the first team with a contract until 2026.
In this tactical analysis piece, we’ll provide a scout report on Essiam to understand what Basel saw in the young defensive midfielder to offer him a long contract at the club. We’ll also assess some of his weak points and how he could improve them.
Player profile
Essiam is a right-footed defensive midfielder with good size and excellent physical conditions. Standing at 1.83m / 6’0’’, he possesses a big frame and is very strong in duels. In his games for Ghana U20, he managed to overpower rivals who were up to three years older than him, which is a great difference at such a young age. On top of that, Essiam is a fast player who’s very mobile and explosive over shorter distances too, which allows him to tackle and intercept passes with ease.
Primarily a defensive-minded midfielder, Essiam usually stays in front of the back-four. His positioning is very good and he makes sure there’s no space for rivals to receive between the lines or play at the edge of the box. In his heatmap below, we can see his deep and central positioning.
Unfortunately, there aren’t enough games from the Ghanaian Premier League to have a relevant statistical analysis of Essiam but we can still have a look at some of his stats from the 2021 Africa U20 Cup of Nations he played and won with Ghana.
We have selected some stats from Essiam’s performance in the final of the 2021 Africa U20 Cup of Nations against Uganda. This was the most important game of his career so far and he stepped up to the challenge with a fantastic performance.
In defence, Essiam recovered 16 balls (38% in the opposition half). He won 67% of his aerial duels (4/6) and 81% of his defensive duels (13/16). He also achieved 6 interceptions to complete an excellent defensive performance.
On the ball, the new Basel midfielder was very mature and almost didn’t lose possession. He completed 87% of his passes (41/47) but still tried to play forward 10 times (80% accuracy) and completed the 4 final third passes he attempted. His physicality allowed him to win 86% of his offensive duels too (6/7).
Of course, the stats from one game aren’t enough to have a complete picture of a player but being a final and considering he was competing against more experienced and developed players, they give us a good starting point to understand Essiam’s strengths.
In the next sections of the scout report, we’ll delve deeper into the different aspects of the Ghanaian defensive midfielder.
Protecting the defensive line: anticipation & tackling
As mentioned before, Essiam excels at protecting the defensive line. He’s usually well-positioned in front of the centre-backs and uses his size, speed and anticipation to prevent any rival from entering his zone. As soon as a rival looks to receive near him, he rushes to press him and prevent him from turning and progressing through the centre.
Essiam is always on his toes and reacts very quickly to passes around him. He’s very agile to jump to the left and right and intercept passes and chooses good angles to mark rivals so he usually has the chance to anticipate and recover the ball cleanly.
The next map shows Essiam’s defensive actions against Uganda in the 2021 Africa U20 Cup of Nations final. The dots represent tackles, defensive duels and aerial duels (blue if successful and red if not) while the yellow triangles represent interceptions and blocked shots.
We see Essiam is very solid in front of the defensive line and doesn’t let anyone play between the lines. He acts as a wall that forces rivals to play wide or far from him as it’s almost impossible to progress through the zone he protects. It’s also interesting to see how good he is when pressing high, as his seven actions in the opposition half were successful in this game.
As soon as rivals play balls to the centre, Essiam is very quick to anticipate and press aggressively. His awareness, quick reactions and acceleration make it very difficult for rivals to receive passes around him. Let’s see some examples.
In the first one, Essiam is positioned a couple of metres away from the rival at the moment the pass is made. An instant later, he has reacted and covered that distance to intercept the pass, showing how focused he is in the game and also his speed over short distances.
In the next one, the ball is again played from the touchline to the zone Essiam is covering. The Ghanaian midfielder is tracking the Ugandan runner in the first part of the sequence but reacts very quickly to change directions and anticipate despite having a disadvantage. He ends up intercepting the pass and winning the duel thanks to his acceleration and strength.
The next two examples also show his good positioning to be able to anticipate from good angles. In both plays, instead of marking the rivals tightly before the pass is played, Essiam leaves some space so he can block the pass instead of just pressing the rival upon its reception. He uses this defensive technique very well both in a low block and when pressing high.
Essiam’s anticipation is excellent and rare in a teenager like him. But it’s impossible to always anticipate so we need to have a look at how competent he is in defensive duels and tackles. We know he has the physicality to win duels against older and more mature players but let’s have a closer look at his individual challenges.
Despite his size and strength, Essiam stands out as a surprisingly mobile and agile player. His strong lower limbs allow him to quickly shift his weight from one leg to the other and react to rival’s dribbles and changes of direction quickly. He’s also very coordinated and capable of tackling with either foot so he doesn’t have weak spots that can be exploited in 1v1.
Once he engages in tackles and defensive duels, Essiam is strong and tough. He rarely loses 50/50 duels, times his interventions very well to recover the ball and immediately initiate the counterattack.
In the next example, we see a player running at Essiam through the centre. The man on the ball can go left or right, making it difficult for Essiam to decide and forcing him to be reactive. The screenshot shows the moment the forward decides to go left and how Essiam immediately stretches his left leg to block the run and recover the ball. Given his initial body shape, other players would have turned all their bodies to tackle with their strong foot but Essiam feels comfortable defending with either foot, saving him that extra instant.
In a similar play, Essiam is against facing a rival who’s running at him and with options to dribble left or right. This time, Essiam is running towards the rival too but when the rival decides to go left, Essiam still has the mobility and flexibility to slow down his run and turn in time to intervene with his right foot. This defensive action can seem simple but it requires great timing, coordination and reaction to turn and explosiveness to reach the ball.
Usually waiting for rivals standing on his toes, Essiam is a very agile defender who doesn’t struggle against quick and mobile forwards. His body shape, quickness and short reaction time are excellent to defend 1v1 situations and transitions. The next picture shows exactly that body shape we described, with Essiam lowering his centre of gravity to be able to move quickly to the sides as soon as the rival does.
In this section of the tactical analysis, we have seen Essiam is a very complete player in the defensive phase. His physical conditions are perfect for the position and despite his very tender age, he displays an excellent understanding of space to anticipate and tackle from good angles.
In the next section, we’ll see how Essiam contributes on the ball.
Safe distribution & potential improvements
Essiam is, above all, a defensive midfielder. His role in his team’s tactics consists of protecting the defence, recovering the ball and giving it quickly to a more creative teammate and he does that with great effectiveness.
He has a solid technique for a midfielder. He doesn’t need many touches to control and play and usually chooses riskless options to keep possession. His orientation is generally good to move the ball from side to side safely.
As in the previous section, we’ll have a look at Essiam’s passes in the 2021 Africa U20 Cup of Nations final to understand his contribution in possession.
First, we see Essiam usually plays from deep and central positions, making just 17% of his passes from the opposition half. Second, he plays mostly short passes and almost doesn’t miss any of them. Lastly, Essiam plays to the sides most of the time but can also advance when the opportunity arises. He’s not an excellent ball progressor but still helps to keep the attacks fluid, giving the ball quickly to a more creative teammate.
A key point in Essiam’s quick and accurate distribution is his scanning. Before receiving a pass, Essiam always looks at his surroundings. This way, he has all the information to make the best decision regarding how to orient himself and where to pass to.
The following two screenshots show Essiam scanning before receiving a pass. On both occasions, he times this scanning very well. He waits for the pass to be played and once he has that information, he turns his head to gather information about his surroundings so once the ball arrives, he knows what to do. Both times, he turns and plays forward in just two touches.
Essiam’s passes don’t have a lot of creativity though. He only plays forward when there’s a lot of space and he doesn’t contribute a lot in the ball progression. As a positive, he plays quickly so his more creative teammates have more time to advance and create things.
To keep improving his passing game, Essiam should work on his range and tendency to play forward. He doesn’t attempt to break lines too often and when he goes for longer passes, they lack accuracy and don’t help his team.
Let’s have a look at the map with Essiam’s long passes in the 2021 Africa U20 Cup of Nations. He missed most of them and two out of the three he completed were backwards so didn’t help a lot either. Even if Essiam’s passing decisions are usually spot on, they get much worse in long passes, especially because he doesn’t have the required passing range to complete the passes he attempts.
Finally, Essiam shows some potential to be a good ball carrier but, again, doesn’t attempt to break lines with the ball at his feet too often. His technique is fine and he has the power to leave players behind, being very difficult to stop once he starts running. If he can learn when it’s a good chance to dribble and progress with the ball at his feet, he can add a new dimension to his game and compensate for his lack of passing quality.
The sequence below shows a good run by Essiam that resulted in a good chance. First, he intercepts a clearance around the final third. With just two touches, he gets past the first Gambian defender and runs towards the goal. When the second defender steps out to mark him, Essiam changes the ball from his right to his left foot and leaves him behind too, getting in the box. Finally, he attracts the last rival and plays a simple short pass to a better-positioned teammate.
To summarise, Essiam does well when he plays short simple passes but still lacks the ability and willingness to break lines and play forward. He has a good overview of his surroundings and doesn’t risk the ball but lacks quality when he attempts long passes and despite having the necessary conditions, he rarely makes progressive runs.
Conclusion
In the last 12 months, Essiam impressed in the 2021 Africa U20 Cup of Nations and became a regular starter for Berekum Chelsea in the Ghanaian Premier League. Doing all that before turning 18 logically attracted the interest of many clubs and in the end, it was Basel who managed to sign the powerful midfielder once he was legally allowed to move abroad.
Basel have a strong record of recruiting young players from Africa and developing them into stars. With Essiam, they’ll have to work on his adaptation to higher-tempo football and his ability to play forward and progress, but they have a raw diamond with good technique, great physicality and an excellent defensive IQ.
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