Crystal Palace defender, Aaron Wan-Bissaka who only broke into first-team a year ago, has been highly sought-after this summer window, and he now looks set to become Ole Solskjaer’s second signing after a £50m agreement was reached for his services.
Naturally with any upcoming youngster there’s always an element of hype, however the numbers regarding Wan-Bissaka show a different story as he was ever-present in 2018/19, missing only three of Palace’s 38 league games.
Though Wan-Bissaka failed to score last campaign and provided just three assists – but rather, he was required to be an old-fashioned full-back whose major task was to make the opposing winger’s day a misery, And he did that in style.
A date with Zaha
To get an idea how difficult Wan-Bissaka can be, ask his teammate, Wilfried Zaha, During a practice game against the first team Wan-Bissaka, who started as a striker, was asked to play at right-back. “Wilf didn’t get past him once,” former first-team coach Kevin Keen later revealed.
Zaha realised what talent Palace had on their hands and said: “I was kind of shocked by how good he was,” he recalled. “I’ve played against a few decent right-backs and he’s one of them.”
It’s one thing being outstanding where there’s little pressure but Wan-Bissaka has translated that desire to keep Zaha out into the big leagues. If we take a look at defenders, he’s in the top ten when it comes to percentage of duels won this campaign.(100+)
Interestingly, Wan-Bissaka is one of only three full-backs in that group. The list includes the likes of Virgil van Dijk (76.32%), Harry Maguire (72.69%), Joel Matip (70.17%), Shane Duffy (70%), Jan Vertonghen (67.08%) and Wes Morgan (66.67%) – which are all physical defenders.
Wan-Bissaka won 249 of his 377 duels (66.05%) which caused a lot of problems for wingers last season. He also registered the most tackles won in 2018/19 of any defender (90).
A standout performance was against Southampton when he won six of his attempted six tackles. In terms of single match performances, there were only few who matched his perfect defensive display that game, with César Azpilicueta registering the highest against Manchester City with eight tackles won, but taking 13 attempts.
Wan-Bissaka made 35 league appearances last campaign but only nine players managed to get past him, while he also made more tackles (129) than any other defender in the league.
Crystal Palace manager Hodgson, speaking after Palace’s 2-0 victory over Fulham, was relieved to discover the 2121-year-old was human.
“He actually made a mistake in the 94th minute and I was relieved because I was starting to think he might be a robot,” he told reporters.
Such has been Wan-Bissaka’s amazing form, Definitely, He’ll still make mistakes here and there but every match is a learning experience for the defender.
He only committed 23 fouls last season and was one of only two defenders in the Premier League with 40+ tackles made (129), take-ons completed (61) and interceptions made (84) – alongside Ricardo Pereira.
We are definitely witnessing an emerging star after all these stats. Wan-Bissaka’s defensive style is impeccable – all he needs to add is creativity while going forward as he only created 0.4 chances per 90 minutes.
