Sunderland: Ba could be their Paul Pogba

Sunderland sporting director Kristjaan Speakman was a busy man all through the summer time switch window as he tried to enhance the squad forward of the Championship marketing campaign.

He introduced within the likes of Daniel Ballard, Ellis Simms, Edouard Michut, Jack Clarke, Leon Dajaku and Amad Diallo, amongst others, to bolster their choices throughout the pitch.

A few of the signings have been made for the right here and now, with Clarke and Simms turning into common starters nearly immediately, however others have been made with a view to them having a better impression sooner or later.

One of many gamers who fall into the latter class is central midfielder Abdoullah Ba, somebody the Black Cats snapped up from French aspect Le Havre in the summertime.

He had performed 27 first-team matches for his earlier membership, with 26 of these coming in Ligue 2, however may be very a lot a younger participant who continues to be adjusting to senior soccer on the age of 19.

Is Ba a future star?

The teen, who has been called up for France at 5 completely different age teams, shouldn’t be anticipated to return in and be a key participant for Sunderland within the Championship at his age as he lacks expertise at first-team degree.

As a substitute, he must be checked out as a participant who might grow to be an important expertise for Tony Mowbray and the previous Blackburn Rovers boss might flip him into his personal model of Paul Pogba.

The Black Cats head coach might work with the younger expertise to assist him develop into turning into a daily fixture at senior degree, with {the teenager} having the scope to turn into a key a part of the workforce sooner or later.

His former supervisor Paul Le Guen as soon as claimed that he has “similarities” with Pogba, who additionally got here via the Le Havre academy, and hailed the teen’s potential, saying: “After all, he nonetheless has a protracted strategy to go to succeed in the heights of those three, however I imagine he has the potential and energy to turn into a star on the pitch.”

In Ligue 2 final time period, Ba received 61% of his particular person duels and made 0.6 key passes per recreation, while Pogba created 0.7 possibilities per match and received 59% of his duels in six World Cup qualifiers for France. The now-Juventus expertise managed 1.2 key passes per outing and received 49% of his battles within the Premier League for Manchester United in 2021/22.

These statistics counsel that each gamers are combative in midfield and wish to get their head up as a way to pick a ahead go to start out assaults for his or her groups.

After all, Ba nonetheless has a protracted strategy to go earlier than matching Pogba’s achievements within the recreation, because the Frenchman has won the World Cup and performed over 100 matches in each the Premier League and Serie A.

The Sunderland prodigy could not find yourself being pretty much as good as his compatriot however, given the statistics and Le Guen’s feedback, he may very well be Mowbray’s personal model of the 29-year-old if he is ready to fulfil his potential and break into the Sunderland workforce.