View: Stunning 19/20 display from reported West Brom target proves he is worth chasing
West Brom could be on the trail of a major coup.
According to reliable West Ham source ExWHUemployee, the Baggies are hot on the heels of wantaway full-back Jeremy Ngakia, and see him as a potential replacement for Nathan Ferguson, who is set to leave the club in the coming weeks.
With that in mind, could a like-for-like switch be beneficial for Albion? We certainly believe so.
This is a 19-year-old who has established himself as a first team regular in a Premier League side this season, and who averaged more dribbles and more defensive duels won per game than Ferguson in 2019/20, as per Wyscout.
In fact, he has been so good that Sky Sports pundit Carlton Cole has hailed him as an “immense” talent – with one game in particular in mind.
Ngakia really burst onto the scene with his performance against Liverpool back in February.
In that game he won 16 of his 19 defensive duels, made six clearances, and had a 100% slide tackle success rate, as per Wyscout.
And he really did look superb throughout that match.
Take, for example, the incident above.
With Liverpool on the attack and Sadio Mane looking to make the overlap out wide, Ngakia has to show great pace and awareness to track the run and to make an intervention.
If he gets his challenge wrong by even the smallest of margins he’s looking at a penalty and a potential red card.
But he nails it, and to make such a tackle in front of The Kop against one of the best players in England is a real testament to his courage as well as his ability.
A quick look at Ngakia’s defensive duel map for the game really hammers home the point too.
He was dominant down that right-hand side, and his tally of 16 successes has never been matched by Ferguson in a senior match.
Similarly, his completion rate of 84% has only been eclipsed twice by the Baggies man, who has played substantially more matches in his fledgling career.
In short, this was a superb display from Ngakia, and one that suggests he could have a huge future ahead of him.
Hopefully, that future is at West Brom.
In other West Brom news, fans have said it’s “Berahino all over again” after this player update was announced.
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