On the latest edition of the StatsBomb Transfers Podcast, football analytics experts Ted Knutson and James Yorke spent some time discussing Borussia Dortmund winger Jadon Sancho and players ‘similar’ to him. One of the names that was mentioned during this conversation was Mohamed Elyounoussi, who is currently on loan at Celtic from Southampton.
Sancho, who is currently valued at £105.3m according to Transfermarkt, enjoyed an impressive 2019/20 season domestically. He scored 17 goals and provided 16 assists in the Bundesliga, making him the third-highest goalscorer and second-highest assist provider in Germany’s top tier last season, helping Dortmund to secure a second-place finish.
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Meanwhile, Elyounoussi, who joined Celtic on loan from Southampton back in August 2019 and is remaining at Parkhead for the 2020/21 campaign, scored four goals and provided two assists in 10 Premiership appearances for Celtic last season.
The winger also missed 11 games due to a foot injury last season, as per Transfermarkt, which may have had a negative impact on his final goals and assists tally, however, Hoops fans may be excited by the fact that analytics expert Knutson named the Celtic loanee as a player who is ‘similar’ to the in-form Sancho during the latest edition of the StatsBomb Transfers Podcast.
Knutson said: “Jadon Sancho’s similar players – there’s two that I think are worth mentioning – one of them has played at Celtic this year, Mohamed Elyounoussi.
“We would say that Scotland is a fairly soft league and not super competitive so he’s putting up numbers [in] not a great league, but they’re very impressive numbers and they do not look that dissimilar to what Sancho produced over a whole season.”
Do you think that Elyounoussi will play an important role for Celtic in the 2020/21 season?YES
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TIF Thoughts…
The fact that Knutson named Elyounoussi as one of two players “worth mentioning” who are similar to Sancho may be exciting for Celtic fans. If Elyounoussi can turn this similarity in style into a similar output as the England international in terms of goals and assists over a full season in the Scottish Premiership, then Elyounoussi could potentially play a starring role for the Hoops in their hunt for what would be a 10th straight Premiership title next season.