Tyrell Malacia has been signed as Erik ten Hag’s first new player of his ‘rebuild’ of Manchester United.
The 22-year-old player had a very good season with Feyenoord, playing a crucial role, especially in his team's UEFA Conference League campaign till the final.
Malacia's style of play and characteristics are a bit different from the standard old touchline holders. He spends a significant amount of his time on the pitch inverting in to help his team in the build-up thanks to his technical prowess.
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There are many reasons why these days managers such as Pep Guardiola and Erik ten Hag, who want to have most of the possession, invert their full-backs. One reason is to nullify the opposition's outlet and stop their counter-attack, limiting the space to defend very short and getting tight on them.
Most of the time inverted full-backs are technically sound, and the second reason those players become inverted is so they can help the team in facilitating the game with their incisive passes to distribute the ball, switch play, stabilise the team, and create chances.
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And Malacia is no different than those players such as Manchester City's Zinchenko and Cancelo in his creative display, creating chances from deep.
Most of the time you don't see full-backs with that role moving too often, especially higher up the pitch, with the reason being that they will vacate a space for the opposition to exploit, but in the Netherlands, coaches like Ten Hag and Slot will give those players freedom to attack.
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One of the many strengths of the 22-year-old full-back is his spatial occupation and positional intelligence with and without the ball.
In these pictures, you can see how he manages to make himself available for a pass, and the big thing to note here is either for his country, who uses him differently, or on the club level, he gives a positional and numerical superiority over the opposition in the left half-space.
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Manipulating space and making himself available for a pass is one thing, but what matters the most next is what he can do with the ball later on.
That's where Malacia came knocking.
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He makes clever underlapping runs in the blindside of the defenders, and after arriving in the 18-yard box he creates chances with low-driven crosses and cutbacks. Here it shows how he senses and attacks spaces at both club and country level from his inverted role, but if needed he can also play a more traditional fullback or wing-back role from out wide and create chances.
His personal trainer has recently detailed how hard he works, which screams about the player's top mentality, but there isn’t any person better than the manager himself to hear thoughts about the player, in his interview with Bleed Orange, Arne Slot has said this about Malacia:
“Tyrell is a fan of Marcelo and Alaba of Real Madrid, backs who can defend and attack. He is and has always been strong as a defender, but now you can see him make progress on the ball as well. I saw him play in the semi-finals vs Germany with Young Oranje and he played very strong.
“Even though they were beaten. he keeps on growing individually. I think as a defender he is amongst the best in the league already. This season, we have the ball more as a team, so he now needs to be prepared for any counter-attack.
“He’s doing this well. I also see him more and more as a driving player, when we’re behind he is typically the player to try and force the issue, or to ignite a spark with a run or a tackle. Our left wing with him, Sinistera, and Kokcu are pretty strong.''
He also talked about his weaknesses. explaining, “I do see him taunt opponents a bit too much. Almost showing too much of the ball, to get them to bite. At times, it’s too much. He looks a bit complacent, arrogant even, at times. I talk to him about that.”
Now let's see what his numbers tell us defensively and attacking-wise and compare them with the starting full-back, Luke Shaw.
Tyrell Malacia's dashboard of last season displaying his touch map, progressive passes, and progressive carries.
The comparison no doubt shows off the abilities of Malacia, however it should be taken into account that the club each player plays for, the league they are each in and their manager's style of play will all impact these numbers, so it is not necessarily fair to draw conclusions solely from these graphics.
According to a report from the reliable Samuel Luckhurst, Manchester United still recognise Luke Shaw as their first-choice left-back ahead of the arrival of Tyrell Malacia, however the hope will no doubt be that they will push each other to the absolute top, which raises that team's overall quality.
There is a big room for improvement for Malacia and he will get that under the management of Erik ten Hag, as his track record of developing young players is nothing but magnificent; but only time will tell if this trend continues at the Dutchman’s new club.
Topics: Manchester United, Tyrell Malacia, Erik Ten Hag, Netherlands, Football
Natnael Manaye