Championship Scout report: Eberechi Eze
The championship is one hell of a league with a lot of talent and experience playing in it. If you play well, the portal to the Premier League is open, but if you play bad, you might find yourself in League One. This was been the reality for players of Queen Park Rangers since their relegation from the Premier League in QPR has one big talent playing for the: Eberiche Eze.
Eze is an attacking midfielder who also plays as controlling midfielder as well. The 21-year old players started his career with Millwall’s academy before moving to the U23’s of QPR. Bar a loan spell at Wycombe Wanderers (2017/2018), he has been at the London club ever since.
Since he came back from his loan spell, he has played 42 games in the 2018/2019 season for QPR and his current season stands on 37 games for the rangers. Although he has played a lot last season, the current season is where his stats are becoming more impressive, as I will try to show in this report.
He is 1,73 meters and prefers his right foot, but his left one is well equipped to do the tasks. Considered as a great talent, it is inevitable he will move to the Premier League in the foreseeable future. Tottenham Hotspurs have made their interest in the young midfielder public, back in January. Eze has a contract with QPR until June 30th, 2021 and according to Transfermarkt.com, his market value is around €10 million.
Eze has two different roles in the system opted by QPR. He connects the defence to the midfield, by dropping down and collecting the ball. He will do this when he plays on the midfield. QPR’s manager Mark Warburton plays a formation with Eze play in front of the double pivot. He assists this double pivot in defensive duties but is really strong in the attacking midfield role. He favours playing just behind the striker and can move freely.
Because of his free role behind the striker, he can opt to play close to the striker — but he can also choose to occupy the right or left-wing. This gives him the opportunity to have an impact on the game.
As you can see in the radar above, he scores high in successful dribbles (3 successful dribbles per 90, 63%), goal conversion (31,6%) and passing accuracy (86%). A thing that Eze is not good at, is the amounts of dispossessed balls per game, which is 13,9 (!).
There is another thing that he is not good at and that is his presence in the air. Not very surprising his 1,73-meter length. He is no match for the big, tall, strong central defenders of the opponent, which means that he has to find alternative ways to get the ball to the attackers. He goes to the different wings and tries to give a through ball in doing so. He gives 1,9 key passes per game, which means that almost 2 passes per game, give a teammate the opportunity to have a shot on target.
He has 38 shots on target in 37 games of which 12 were converted into goals. Of those 12 goals, 4 goals came from the spot. He has also given 4 assists in this season, which ultimately leads to a G+A of 0.55. Per 90 minutes, he has a goal involvement of 0,55 goals — which is a pretty nice stat for an attacking midfielder.
If we look closer at his passing stats you can see the following. He has an overall pass accuracy of 86%, but he is really good on the ball when he is under pressure from the defence. He still manages to have a 77% pass accuracy on the opponent’s half, which is pretty good. If we look into the long ball's accuracy, we can see how good his technique is. Of all the long balls he plays in the 37 games this season, 63% were successful which is way above average in the league.
Conclusion
Eberiche Eze has been hyped a lot during this season because his playmaking ability is really good. He is strong on the ball, his composure is on point and with his passing, he knows to create chances for his teammates. Although he is dispossessed a lot and is bad in the air — his attacking stats are impressive with being evolved in a goal every two games. QPR might sell him in the summer and his new club will get an attacking midfielder who knows his defensive duties as well.
