Why Erik ten Hag is pushing for Feyenoord’s Tyrell Malacia

Tyrell Malacia is edging towards becoming a Manchester United player, but what does Erik Ten Hag see in the Dutch international?

There’s been much excitement around Old Trafford recently with Erik ten Hag beginning his term as Manchester United manager.

Ten Hag has brought with him a style and clear philosophy that’s got Red Devils fans excited and after a long time, the mood around the club is upbeat heading into the new season.

Manchester United recently swooped in to agree a £12m fee for Tyrell Malacia and even though the deal has hit some technical complications, having agreed personal terms with the player, it is expected that Malacia will be the first signing of the Ten Hag era.

The 22-year-old left-back from Feyenoord seems a relatively known but smart analytics-driven signing, unusual from the recent trend at Old Trafford and a sign of how they’ll be looking to conduct future transfer activity.

Tyrell Malacia: Strengths, weaknesses and style of play

To understand why Erik ten Hag would want Malacia at Manchester United, let’s understand a little about his style of play.

Malacia is athletic, shows good work rate up and down his flank and is extremely rapid. His pace is an asset. He’s shown himself well in a passing system at Feyenoord last season averaging a passing success rate of 85.3% making a healthy 56.1 passes per 90 mins, as per Fbref’s database.

This quality in possession is a very important tenet of why he suits the style required of him at Manchester United given he has good technical ability on the ball and is fairly press-resistant.

This makes him comfortable in a passing-based system. He is equally comfortable using his pace on the overlap, delivering crosses and cutbacks with composed quality as he is on the underlap being more involved in the build-up play.

Is Tyrell Malacia up to the task defensively?

He’s an active defender making 1.1 interceptions and a high 2.7 tackles per 90. This number alone doesn’t mean anything but given his visibly good 1v1 defending, it helps showcase him as an active defender who knows when to be proactive to win the ball.

He makes a modest 1.1  key passes per 90 but on the eye test, his crosses tend to be well-intentioned and executed so the number could be reflective of his bigger role in the buildup on the underlap than to attack the touchline at Feyenoord.

At the young age of 22, he has his fair share of weaknesses in his game. His aggression to defend mean he’s sometimes caught out of position when defending a turnover.

He’s a decent dribbler but his touch can be suspect leading to giving the ball away cheaply from time to time. He contests few aerial balls and has a subpar 50% win-rate.

However, by and large, these are weaknesses that can be coached out of the game of a young defender and shouldn’t deter from the fact that he’s an exciting prospect with a high ceiling.

Why Erik Ten Hag wants Malacia at Man United

Erik ten Hag’s expansive, possession-based style have requirement of a wing-back of Malacia’s profile.

His attacking style and press engagement high up the pitch leave his teams susceptible to a counter-attack. Malacia’s electric pace, good engine and proactive defending make him a valuable recovery defender when facing counterattacks or a quick ball turnover.

Ten Hag likes to build up play in almost a 2-3-5 shape, similar to Pep Guardiola at City meaning that having a full-back that can underlap and join into the 3 to aid in buildup is an important asset, a role similar to that performed by Cancelo for Manchester City.

Tyrell Malacia’s ability to both underlap and overlap with comfort mean he has the versatility to give a manager like Ten Hag good options for different tactical approaches. In contrast, Alex Telles is more comfortable hugging the sideline and overlapping a winger to offer an out. Luke Shaw offers involvement in the buildup as well as overlapping, similar to Malacia.

Given how high up the pitch Ten Hag likes his teams to play and the confident passing to build up attacks, Malacia’s technical quality and press-resistance show up very well for the system.

Conclusion

Tyrell Malacia is by no means ready for the Manchester United first team, quite yet. Luke Shaw also has many stylistic similarities with what Ten Hag would want from his wing-back but his comfort on the ball and in a passing system remains to be seen.

However, in Malacia, United could have themselves a young defender with plenty of good attributes that fit the new manager’s style of play and has the potential to be coached into a first-team quality player. All this at a reasonable price, Manchester United could finally be showing some shrewdness in the transfer market.