It’s become increasingly clear that Newcastle United are big admirers of Malick Thiaw. After the blog first revealed our interest in the AC Milan talent 13 months ago, there’s been a number of reports over the past month covering our pursuit of the 22-year-old talent.
After watching Thiaw on several occasions in Serie A or the UEFA Champions League, I have put together some thoughts on the key attributes he could bring to Eddie Howe’s back line, also covering a couple of his current weaknesses.
Athleticism and ball winning
Standing at just shy of 6ft 4′, Thiaw is a real presence and man mountain. That is great, but combine this with his long legs and powerful upper body makes him such an aggressive and effective front-footed defender. He stays so tight to his marker and hardly gives them a second to breathe, with this highlighted when he bullied Harry Kane out of the game when Milan met Spurs in the UEFA Champions League last year.
Thiaw likes to go to ground and often uses his long legs and huge stride to give him the upper hand. The German likes to wrap his leg round and poke the ball away from the attacker. He can tower over his opposition and also has acceleration to defend the channels. This makes him very difficult to beat in one vs one situations, meaning he could add some much-needed pace and athleticism to our pool of centre-backs.
🇩🇪 Malick Thiaw on his Champions League debut vs Spurs last year. #NUFC
pic.twitter.com/YiJjRoeR8S
— NUFCBlog.co.uk (@NUFCblogcouk) July 24, 2024
Technical quality
Thiaw is good technically. Growing up playing as a midfielder has allowed him to be very comfortable on the ball, however, I have noticed he much prefers to progress the ball laterally. He doesn’t seem to trust his ability as much when playing line breaking passes, but I have seen on occasions he’s more than capable of doing so. He would need to improve this part of his game if he was to replicate the midfield-breaking balls we often see…
Source link : https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2024/07/25/malick-thiaw-what-would-ac-milans-german-giant-bring-to-newcastle-united/
Author : Jake Armstrong
Publish date : 2024-07-25 13:07:39
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