Hamza Choudhury rose through Leicester City’s ranks. He graduated from their academy and made his debut in 2015. The 25-year-old failed to impress the managers and wasn’t a regular in the Foxes’ squad. This season, they decided on loaning him out to Watford in the EFL Championship. The Hornets were looking to return to the English Premier League, and for that, they required a few players who had some experience. Hamza Choudhury plays in the centre of the midfield but has a more defensive mindset. He has been a regular for the Hornets since joining them. With Watford sitting fifth in the league table, we look at some of his stats for the Hornets this season.
Hamza Choudhury plays as a defensive midfielder for his side. He has featured more on the right side. The pizza chart above shows the percentile rank of the player in comparison to other defensive midfielders in the league. This shows that the player is ranked way behind in the attacking department. Choudhury has decent stats for winning his duels and maintaining his position on the pitch.
Guarding the defence
Hamza Choudhury’s role in the team is to guard his centre-backs. He covers a lot of areas in the defensive and middle third as shown in the above viz. The 25-year-old has won 64.9% of his defensive duels and 53.8% of his loose ball duels. He even makes 4.8 interceptions per 90 minutes. Most of the defensive actions have taken place in the middle of the field. Hamza Choudhury has to time his tackles properly because of his position on the field. If the player loses his tackles, then that puts pressure on his team’s defence. The midfielder has also made eight crucial blocks, with five coming inside the penalty box. He has been a tall figure in the midfield.
The Englishman is there to recover the ball for his side. Averaging 9.79 recoveries per 90 minutes, Choudhury has made 41.9 recoveries in the attacking half. These include 57 counter-pressing and five dangerous recoveries. The 25-year-old has made most of the recoveries just on the edge of the attacking half. Most of them have been made on the right side.
The creative side
Hamza Choudhury is not known for scoring and creating goals. He is a decent passer of the ball who likes to spread the ball to different ends of the field of play. The 25-year-old averages 39.64 passes per 90 minutes and has an 86.4% accuracy rate. These include 4.9 passes to the final third and 1.08 to the opposition penalty box. The progressive passes above show that these passes have been attempted to different parts of the field. This stretches the opposition’s defence and gives space to Watford players to run on the defence.
Betting Analysis
Hamza Choudhury is unlikely to have much of an effect on the 1×2 betting odds as well as on the over/under lines. His exclusion from the team will slightly raise the odds for Watford to win.
Hamza Choudhury is a tall figure in the midfield. He is looking to improve his stats and become a regular for Leicester City. As of now, his performances haven’t been outstanding. Watford might look to buy him at the end of the season if Leicester City wishes to sell him.
Visuals via TFA data viz engine
