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Brian Brobbey is the latest Ajax player to be the subject of longing eyes from Old Trafford.
The Dutchman has been linked to Manchester United recently and is said to be keen on a move to England, albeit in the summer.
The Athletic have subsequently responded with an analysis of what type of player United may be getting if Ten Hag gets his way and the 21 year old makes the switch to Manchester.
“Blessed with a low centre of gravity and powerful thighs, he is a potent physical threat in the penalty area. Strong and pacy (but not lightning quick), he can be a powerful ball of muscle when barrelling through on goal. When he was 14, he was found to have a higher vertical leap than Cristiano Ronaldo”.
However, his physical dominance over Eredivisie defenders can come at a price according to the American outlet. “He knows how much stronger he is than the defenders he faces every week, meaning he has a tendency to ‘cheat’ himself in more frantic moments, relying on that strength to bail him out of
situations he wasn’t adequately focused on”.
This strategy is unlikely to work in England against stronger, faster and savvier defenders. The fact he lacks the sheer pace of Marcus Rashford, Rasmus Hojlund and Alejandro Garnacho means he will need to reinvent himself to be a threat.
Statistics demonstrate he is a “useful focal point” for his side’s attack and likes to exchange simple passes with team-mates as he scores highly in link-up play and ball retention. “His back-to-goal game is impressive (again, when facing defenders in the Dutch league) and he has deceptively good hold-up play for his 5ft 10in (180cm) frame”.
“Brobbey can look like a goalscoring marvel. He’s a volume shooter: taking many attempts and — eventually — scoring a decent number of goals. He likes to do most of his work inside the penalty area”. This can be seen where he ranks incredibly highly statistically in both receptions in opposition box and shot volume.
The problem is, United don’t currently create a lot of shots. If they did, Rasmus Hojlund would most likely be on many more goals.
Furthermore, “his shot map for last season illustrates a clever penalty-area mover who can get into the six-yard box with pleasing regularity. How well he’ll do in front of goal when playing for a team who don’t dominate possession as well as Ajax remains to be seen”. United currently sit 7th in teams with the most possession in England.
Another potential weakness for Brobbey is the fact he is a “streaky” scorer. When on form he can seem one of the elite young attacking talents in Europe but when he is off the boil, he can be incredibly frustrating. United already have plenty of players who fit this particular bill.
The Athletic notes that this “inconsistency” and a proneness to pick up “niggly muscular injuries” has led several managers to discount him as a consistent starter.
There are also serious question marks over the striker’s ability and desire to press, which is in theory, a supposed hallmark of Ten Hag’s style as he aims for his side to be the best “transition team in Europe”.
The Athletic warns that while Brobbey has done well individually in a struggling Ajax team, where he has found the net 15 times in 26 games, you should treat these numbers cautiously. They note that seven of his fourteen goals have come in five recent games against bottom half opposition.
A series of Dutch legends such as Ronald Koeman and Marco van Basten have flagged up some serious concerns about the striker’s natural goal scoring instincts.
Brobbey is seen as a “talent to be an effective cog in an already well-oiled machine, capable of generating goalscoring chaos in a way few other players in the Netherlands can. It is harder to predict whether he can be a sparkplug in a malfunctioning engine, or whether it’s even reasonable to ask him to take on such a role”, The Athletic continues.
“Physically and technically, Brobbey is capable of the jump to a Premier League club”. However, if he were to be given the chance at Old Trafford to prove himself in England, “the onus would fall on him to show suitors he is more Kudus than Antony”.
With United already gambling on one expensive youth project in Rasmus Hojlund, it is far from certain that another in Brobbey is the answer Ten Hag is looking for.
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