After a poor start to their season in the EFL Championship, Sheffield United got their first win against Peterborough United on Saturday.
After scoring just one goal in their first five games, they scored six goals in their thrashing of Peterborough at home. 21-year-old Iliman Ndiaye had his first start of the season in the number 10 role and he put a brilliant performance. With two goals and an assist, the Frenchman was without a shadow of doubt the best player on the pitch.
We look at some stats to see how good actually the midfielder was against Peterborough.
Ndiaye took three shots in the match, all inside the box scoring twice. He was equally good with his head too, scoring a header as well.
He played the majority of his passes just outside the box in the opposition half. Playing through the centre he has distributed the ball really well to both the wings and also tried to play through balls in the box with xT sometimes as high as 0.720 from his passes. He had a passing accuracy of 81% from the 31 passes he played.
He received passes mostly at the middle of the pitch in the opposition half even three times inside the box, where he scored from two. His positioning shows how Sheffield United have dominated the game and he did not have to drop deep to receive the ball.
As we can see he has operated throughout the attacking third of the pitch drifting towards the right a lot of times. He has tried to create a lot of chances playing Billy Sharp inside the box.
Sheffield United have been really unlucky in the past games, creating a lot of chances yet failing to score goals. Iliman Ndiaye brings that eye for goal in the team and also a creative flair in the final third. He likes to make runs into the box and Sheffield United should look to take advantage of it. While Billy Sharp likes to drift outside, Ndiaye can be used as a false nine behind him.
Ndiaye is a really talented player and if he can keep on performing at an optimum level, Sheffield United can look for a finish higher up the table.
