Wilfried Zaha: Scout Report

Wilfried Zaha of Manchester United during the friendly vs. Kitchee FC at Hong Kong Stadium on July 29, 2013 in So Kon Po, Hong Kong. (Getty Images)

At just 20 years of age, he is one of the hottest properties in English football. Crazy ball-control skills, amazing agility, fierce dribbling skills are some of the adjectives which best define this youngster.

And he has lived up to every inch of hype that the media endowed upon him from his time at the Championship. He has also lived up to those expectations with scintillating performances during Manchester United’s pre-season tour, gradually justifying the price tag.

In this edition of the scout report we present to United’s new-boy: Wilfried Zaha.

Brief overview:

Having secured the services of the winger in January, United have had the opportunity to put Zaha’s amazing talent to test in the pre-season tour to the Far East. And the results have been most extraordinary.

Zaha is an out-and-out winger but can adapt to a second striker position too. He might not have a stocky build but has the three key ingredients of a winger: strength, pace and balance embodied into his very core.

He caught Sir Alex Ferguson’s eye when he stared in Crystal’s Palace surprise victory over United in the 2011 League One quarterfinals and fearlessly drove at their defence time and again.

Detailed scout report:

Name: Wilfried Zaha		Age: 20 Years			Primary Position: RW
Secondary Position: CAM/LW/STRIKER		Foot: Right			Country: England
Scout Report Based on:
Vs Singha All Stars XI			Vs AIK
Vs A-League All Stars			Vs Cerezo Osaka
Player Bio Information
Height: 1.80 M	Weight: 66 kg				Build: Lean and muscular
Past Clubs: Crystal Palace				Injuries: None
Additional Information:				2011-12 Football League’s Young Player of the Year
Physical Attributes
Strength: Good		Reaction: Good
Power: Excellent		Endurance: Can last 90 minutes.
Jumping: Needs Improvement		Body Movement: Excellent
Speed: Lightening fast		Work Rate: i) Attacking: Highii) Defensive: Low
Technical Ability
First Touch: Needs Improvement		Heading: Needs Improvement
Weaker Foot: Good		Dribbling: Excellent
Long Passing: Excellent		Short Passing: Fair
Tackling: Good		Decision Making: Fair
Ball Control: Excellent		Possession: Calm
Tactical Ability
Attacking: Excellent and busy on the wings
Defending: Needs work falling back to defend
Corners and Crosses: Good and improving every outing.
Free Kicks (att & def): N/A
Psychological Analysis
Courage: Good		Motivation: Good
Confidence: Very High		Concentration: Needs significant improvement
Communication: Good, Links up well with teammates.		Temperament: Attacking and low aggression

Strengths:

Zaha’s confidence on the ball is exceptional and his lightning pace makes him impossible to close down. Even if someone closes him down he has tricks up his sleeve to fool him and get a pass down to his awaiting teammate.

He has indeed excelled in his talent of drawing a defender out to drift out into the space open. His teamwork his good too, as most of his present colleagues at United communicate well and he can get his one-twos and deft touches away without losing possession cheaply.

Zaha has exceptional positional awareness, something that is rare of players his age. As seen in most pre-season matches, it has been seen that he likes to drift infield to intercept opponent’s passes but at the same time he keeps himself in a position to dart back to the full-back making runs on the flanks.

Weakness:

However Zaha has still a great deal of work to do. He maybe the loved child of the media, but the hype does not make one miss out on some of his poor decision making. He often passes to an unaware teammate rather than the one creating space around him. His crosses from the flank are also not tailor made for strikers to devour.

When closed down by multiple opponents gets frustrated and loses the ball rather cheaply. All one needs is to congest his free space to bother him and teammates often have to help him out in such situations.

He also has to get more clinical in front of goal and improve his finishing, besides working hard on his woeful aerial ability.

Scout Rating:

Based on his performances Zaha has been rated as below:

Shooting: 8/10 (Can take a shot at goal from nearly anywhere with both feet)

Passing/Crossing: 7/10 (Can make telling passes but needs to work on his crosses) | Tackling: 7/10 (Lunges in cleanly besides possessing ability to trick players to snatch the ball, needs improvement though)

Pace: 9/10 (Agile and extremely difficult to mark, has got that sudden burst to pace to beat defenders too) | Consistency: 9/10 (Zaha is improving exponentially with every performance)

Total: 40/50

Zaha would have been better off had he gone to another Premier League club to get more playing time or perhaps opted to return to Selhurst Park on loan to get acquainted to the rigours of the top division.

However, Zaha does have all the essentials to succeed at Old Trafford. Apart from late goals, United are characterised by their line of flying wingers from George Best, Andrei Kanchelskis, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham to Cristiano Ronaldo. Only time will tell if he can be the next in line for fabled number 7 jersey.