Here, Philipp gives his thoughts on what Palace fans can expect from new signing Naououri Ahamada, who transferred to Palace from VfB Stuttgart earlier this week…
Eagle Eye: What to expect from Naououri Ahamada
Philipp Maisel has reported on VfB Stuttgart for over a decade, and currently writes for daily publications Stuttgarter Nachrichten and Stuttgarter Zeitung, as well as hosting podcast MeinVfB.
"A young and very talented player"
“Crystal Palace fans can expect a young and very talented player in Naououri Ahamada.
“He is not finished in terms of his footballing ability and skill, but he is on the best path.
“The last one-and-a-half-years at Stuttgart, Naououri has developed more and more. Every three to four months, you could see clear development in his style of play, and his statistics as well. In the last six months, he has been a clear starter for Stuttgart.
“He’s begun to score goals and provide assists, and right now in Bundesliga, he’s the second-best player when it comes to pre-assists (the pass before an assist). He’s done that five times – only Mario Götze [of Eintracht Frankfurt] has done it more often [six times] – so he’s been an initiator, and very good at creating opportunities with his passing game.”
"A good skillset for... Premier League football"
“Naououri acts very fast and thinks very fast, which I think is a good skillset for fitting into Premier League football, which is very fast compared to the other top five European leagues.
"He is good at one-v-one duels on the pitch with opponents, too. He’s a good box-to-box player. He’s certainly fast enough, and tackles hard enough, for the Premier League.
"He has good 180-degree and 360-degree vision in terms of his passing game, and plays this kind of role in Stuttgart’s team, with a lot of action at both ends of the pitch."
"He plays with huge heart"
“Naouorui is only 20-years-old, and like every young player, he might make mistakes now and then. He came to Stuttgart as an unfinished player, a raw talent, from Juventus’ youth academy, but right now, I’d say he’s in the middle of his development in terms of what he could achieve in his footballing career.
“Some people think he’s not quite finished yet, but everybody in Germany has seen how much he has developed in the last 18 months, and the Stuttgart fans have wished him luck and know that he will be missed because of his quality and character.
“He plays with huge heart. He’s a player the Palace fans will love, because he always gives 100 per cent on the pitch. I hope he adapts himself to the different kind of football in England very quickly.”
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