00:00Okay, so we're going to look a little bit as well at Noah Siddiqui, who of course was signed last week from Saint-Gilois.
00:08My pronunciation is if I've got any Gilois Ultras.
00:12My apologies, sorry, if any Gilois Ultras watching this who aren't too impressed with that pronunciation.
00:17Please let me know if I've got it wrong.
00:20So Siddiqui, there are some similarities with the signing of Habib Diara and some key differences as well.
00:28So Siddiqui, first and foremost, as I've said all the time, some of them love hybrid midfielders.
00:33They don't like signing midfielders who are kind of consigned to one role.
00:36They like players who can fit in different roles, different positions, have that tactical understanding so that you can have, you know, you can move players quickly within games if you get injuries from game to game.
00:47Siddiqui is definitely a part of that.
00:48Now, I watched a lot of, and it was interesting actually that in the club interview, which I would recommend going and having a read, when Regis Labris discussed his signing, he kind of made clear about Siddiqui's versatility.
01:00Said that he could absolutely operate as a holder midfielder, which I thought was interesting because that's probably not something he's done a huge amount in his career so far.
01:06But also that he can play in a pivot, so it's kind of two sixes with a 10 in front and can also play a little bit further forward.
01:15So, yeah, I think that tells you that some of the signing versatile players like Diara we're going to see in playing in a few different positions over the course of the season.
01:24I think that Siddiqui, I'm not surprised that Labris kind of mentioned about the fact that he can play as a holder midfielder because Siddiqui's defensive statistics are definitely better than Diara's in terms of the amount of defensive actions he's making per game.
01:41He isn't quite as strong.
01:42We talked a lot in the previous video about how much Diara gets involved in the final third, especially on the right-hand side and how he links up.
01:49We've seen a little bit less of that from Siddiqui in his career so far.
01:53But actually, as I'll go into, he still ranks quite highly in some of his attacking statistics for midfielders.
01:58So he's clearly, in his current team at Gilwars, who won the title last year, clearly had a lot of license to break forward and get involved.
02:05I think that was something that was very, very clear.
02:08Siddiqui, just out of interest, again, very, very versatile in the way that Diara operates in a number of positions, predominantly plays on the right of midfield.
02:16So far, Siddiqui has played predominantly on the left of midfield, which, of course, is where mostly Joe Bellingham played last season.
02:22So I thought that was interesting to note.
02:24Watching a lot of Siddiqui's clips, the thing that really stood out to me was energy, particularly in his pressing.
02:30And I think you can totally see why someone really liked him because of that.
02:33Turned a look at some of his statistics from FB Ref, again, a website that I'd really recommend.
02:39And he ranks really highly for passes blocked and also for the number of tackles he makes in the opposition's third.
02:46And I think that was really obvious watching his clips.
02:48A lot of his best work was jumping out to apply a lot of pressure, whether it's on the opposition midfielder, whether it was on the opposition defender, whether that was from open play,
02:56whether it was from restarts, goalkeepers playing out, throw-ins, free kicks.
03:00Really, really likes to get up the pitch, apply pressure, try and steal the ball back and then make something happen in the final third from there.
03:07A really, really dynamic player.
03:08And as I said, there are some similarities with Diario because a lot of his attacking statistics are really, really good for a centre midfielder and ranked really, really highly.
03:17So I'll just take you through some of them here.
03:19So in terms of his carrying the ball in the final third, he was in the top 3%.
03:24In terms of his other centre midfielders, players who play in his position across FB Ref sample and into the penalty area, he was in the top 6%.
03:36Progressive passes received, which is basically him receiving the ball in a really high area of the pitch.
03:40Again, top 6% across other centre midfielders.
03:46That tells you he's playing higher than a lot of centre midfielders, getting involved higher up the pitch than a lot of other centre midfielders.
03:51Expected assists, top 12%.
03:53And progressive carries, more generally, top 14%.
03:56So I think, again, no surprise.
03:59We know what kind of football something they're going to try and play.
04:02They're going to try and counter-press.
04:03They're going to try and play a lot of transition, fast transition football.
04:06And I think it's clear that Siddiqui's going to really, really fit on that.
04:09He loves to carry the ball forward.
04:11He loves to apply pressure on the opposition.
04:13But there's obviously a versatile skill set.
04:15And that's going to be a theme when we talk about some of them's players this summer.
04:18They want to sign players who can do a lot of different roles, can play in a lot of different positions and who they can kind of develop.
04:24And as the briefs mentioned, Siddiqui is definitely someone who they feel can bring a lot in that kind of defensive side of the game.
04:30And that might be something that we see develop more than probably it did in the Shield Wars team,
04:34who obviously won the league last year, so dominating the ball.
04:38A lot more emphasis on the centre midfielders to get involved in that kind of construction part of the game.
04:44Maybe a little bit less so on the defensive side.
04:46So that might be something that we see change a little bit.
04:48But I think first and foremost, you know, Siddiqui is a really, really dynamic, aggressive midfielder.
04:53He wants to cause problems for the opposition.
04:55And as I've mentioned with some of those statistics as well, really, really good in terms of his expected assists,
05:01in terms of his key passes where he's in the top 20% of players.
05:05Someone who can really make things happen in possession as well.
05:07So a really versatile, broad skill set, I would say.
05:11I'm really excited to see how he's going.
05:13So, yeah, I've been rambling on for a bit now, so I'm going to bring the video to it.
05:16And there will be some more video content later in the week, because I know for a fact there's going to be loads happening.
05:22So I'll maybe do a little bit of a discussion around that, heading into, obviously, the first pre-season friendly on Saturday.
05:28So, yeah, head over to the Sun Decker website where there'll be lots and lots of stuff going on.
05:33And keep your eyes peeled, I'll be back soon.
