Эвертон багийн жигүүрийн довтлогч Илиман Ндиайе нь Манчестер Сити багийн бүрэлдэхүүнд дутагдаж буй олон талт хувилбарыг санал болгох боломжтой тоглогч юм.
Манчестер Сити Премьер лигийн аварга цолоо буцаан авахын тулд жигүүрийн бүсэд хүч нэмэх шаардлагатай байгаа бөгөөд Савио, Омар Мармуш нар Тоттенхэм Хотспур руу явсны дараа тус багийн сонголт хязгаарлагдмал болоод байна. Эдүгээ багийн үндсэн жигүүрээр Антуан Семенё, Жереми Доку нар тоглож байгаа ч Ндиайег эгнээндээ нэгтгэснээр Энцо Марескагийн удирдлагад илүү өргөн сонголт бий болно. Өдгөө 26 настай Сенегалын шигшээ багийн тоглогч нь хоёр хөлөөрөө жигд тоглодог онцлогтой бөгөөд өнгөрсөн улиралд Эвертоны төлөө оруулсан 11 гоолын тавыг нь сул хөлөөрөө буюу зүүн хөлөөрөө бүртгүүлжээ.
Марескагийн тактикийн хувьд жигүүрийн довтлогчид нь ганцаарчилсан тоглолт гаргаж, хамгаалалтыг нээх үүрэгтэй бөгөөд Ндиайегийн бөмбөг эзэмшилт, богино дамжуулалтаар тоглох чадвар нь энэ шаардлагад нийцэж байна. Тэрээр өнгөрсөн улиралд Премьер лигт хамгийн олон удаа бөмбөгтэй урагш ахисан үзүүлэлтээр тэргүүлж, довтолгооны бүсэд өндөр идэвхтэй байсны зэрэгцээ хамгаалалтад ч тусалдаг гэдгээ харуулсан. Гэсэн хэдий ч түүний гоол болон оновчтой дамжуулалтын тоо харьцангуй бага байгаа нь шинэ багтаа дасан зохицох явцад шийдвэр гаргах чадвараа сайжруулах шаардлагатайг харуулж байна.
Ндиайе нь Докуг бодвол илүү удаан хугацаанд бөмбөгтэй гүйх хэв маягтай бөгөөд хамгаалагчдын нягт бүслэлтэд ч өөрийн биеийн хүчийг ашиглан тоглолтыг үргэлжлүүлэх чадвартай. Түүнийг багтаа нэгтгэх нь Манчестер Ситигийн довтолгооны хувилбаруудыг илүү урьдчилан таашгүй болгох хэдий ч тоглогч өөрөө үндсэн бүрэлдэхүүнд багтахын тулд өрсөлдөөнд бэлэн байх шаардлагатай.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
If Manchester City are to wrestle the Premier League title back from Arsenal, signings such as Iliman Ndiaye are a necessity.
Even with their lavishly assembled squad, Enzo Maresca’s side look a little light in wide areas, particularly following the recent departures of Savio and Omar Marmoush to Tottenham Hotspur.
Arsenal’s triumph last season was underpinned by formidable squad depth across almost every position, giving them the resilience to compete on four fronts domestically and in Europe. City, by contrast, have Antoine Semenyo and Jeremy Doku as their only out-and-out wingers, since attacking midfielders Phil Foden and Jack Grealish regularly drift into more central areas when deployed from the flanks.
Signing Everton’s Ndiaye will immediately provide this depth, offering Maresca another exciting and versatile threat from out wide.
Like Semenyo, the 26-year-old French-born Senegal international is one of the Premier League’s more naturally two-footed attackers, with five of his 11 open-play goals for Everton being scored with his nominally weaker left foot.
It means Ndiaye is comfortable playing off either flank, a quality manager David Moyes took advantage of last season: he began that campaign playing on the right before switching sides following the season-ending injury suffered by the on-loan Grealish in January.
Adding him to the squad would give Maresca cover for both Doku — who is out with a calf injury — and Semenyo, but Ndiaye is unlikely to settle for life as an expensive backup and possesses enough talent to carve out a spot in City’s starting XI.
Ndiaye is a wonderfully talented dribbler — a non-negotiable for a winger in Maresca’s setup.
The Italian’s approach is rooted in methodical short passing, relying on his wide attackers to inject the unpredictability needed to prise open deep-lying, compact defences. “When we are looking for a winger, we are looking for someone who is good one-v-one and who can attack and create something,” Maresca said when in charge of Chelsea last season.
Ndiaye fits this bill.
The map below plots his take-on attempts from the 2025-26 season, illustrating his ability to beat a man across the width of the final third, but with a particular tendency to attack from the touchlines.
Of course, City are already stocked with the Premier League’s leading take-on specialist, with Doku completing 9.03 dribbles per 90 minutes in that same campaign — almost double the 4.75 Ndiaye managed.
Ndiaye’s lower volume partly stems from Everton’s more limited attack, with City averaging roughly 74 more touches in the attacking third per match than they did. He was responsible for 34.8 per cent of Everton’s completed take-ons, the highest individual share of any Premier League team’s total, suggesting his dribbling output would rise considerably in City’s more dominant setup.
Helped by his ability to beat defenders on either side, Ndiaye boasted a take-on completion rate of 49 per cent — a touch higher than Doku’s 46 per cent and sixth-highest among all Premier League players to complete at least 50 take-ons last season.
The 7 teams who have the most net spend on PL players
Tifo Football
Qualitatively, Ndiaye’s dribbling style is quite different to that of the Belgium international. Where Doku’s game is based on isolating individual defenders, slowing them down before bursting away, Ndiaye tends to embark on longer, more sustained carries. Data from SkillCorner lists him as the Premier League player to complete the most long carries last season, with 427.
Not blessed with Doku’s searing pace, Ndiaye has a more upright style built around unpredictable turns and jinking footwork. Having emerged from English non-League football, he learned his trade at Sheffield United, with almost all his game time for them coming in the Championship. He grew accustomed to more robust defending in the second tier and developed an ability to use his body well to shrug off nearby opponents.
In fact, Ndiaye appears to relish operating in close quarters.
According to SkillCorner, for every 30 minutes Everton were in possession last season, he received the ball 3.4 times in tight spaces under pressure, a rate surpassed only by Mohammed Kudus of Tottenham. Kudus is another winger who likes to get tight to defenders, using his blend of strength and footwork to pin them before wriggling free.
Another feather in Ndiaye’s cap, as far as City are concerned, is his preference for quick, short interplay rather than hopeful long passes. His playstyle wheel below shows that he ranks highly for link-up play, a metric that measures how often a player opts for shorter passes. He frequently looks for quick give-and-goes with team-mates — a pattern City regularly use to break down the low blocks they so often face.
For all his gifts, Moyes is not a manager who indulges luxury players, and Ndiaye is no different.
He pulls his weight defensively, making the third-most tackles (2.26) and the most recoveries (5.75) per 90 minutes among all forwards to appear in the Premier League last season.
A winger who boasts dazzling skill yet is willing to graft off the ball is a rare find, and helps explain why City are so keen to do this deal.
But a question mark remains over Ndiaye’s inconsistent output.
A return of four non-penalty goals and three assists last season feels meagre, given how threatening he so often looks. Everton’s more limited attacking setup partly explains those numbers but Ndiaye would still need to sharpen his decision-making and add a more clinical edge if he is to hit the ground running at City, in the event of this transfer happening.
He might not yet be the finished article, but few wingers in the division get fans on the edge of their seats quite like Ndiaye, with his repertoire of awe-inspiring footwork.
Yet for all his explosiveness, it still feels like there is another level to his game waiting to be unlocked.
Joining City would give him the platform to reach it; it would then be up to Ndiaye to prove he belongs there.
