Everything you NEED to know about Mor Talla Ndiaye as Liverpool set to complete transfer | OneFootball

Who is Mor Talla Ndiaye?

Like Ndukwe, Ndiaye caught the eye at the U17 World Cup in Qatar back in November. He plays for Senegal's national team and represents Amitie FC's first-team, who play in Senegal's second-tier.

So, Ndiaye will already be arriving with some senior experience under his belt.

In terms of his profile, what immediately stands out about him are the physical attributes that he has. Ndiaye is a towering defender with great long legs that aid him in defensive situations.

At 17-years-old he has everything to be an elite centre-back. Tall, quick and he reads the game really well. The thing that immediately stood out about him at the U17 World Cup was his composure and quality on the ball.

He averaged the most passes (83 per 90) out of centre-backs at the tournament. Impressively he completed 91% of his passes.

What makes this number even more eye catching is that he wasn't playing it safe with sideway passes, he was always looking to progress the ball.

He averaged the most forward passes per 90 (35.65) and 17 progressive passes per 90. With time and space he was able to break lines and look for those situations where he could instigate attacking situations for his team.

At times he was able to make long switches (7.6 long balls per 90) and generally preferred to play diagonal balls. Watching him, it's obvious that he is always aware of where his teammates are ahead of him.

In terms of his technical ability, there are areas that could be refined. But for his age, he already demonstrates an extreme level of maturity and the vision combined with his forward-thinking attitude are two exciting combinations that make him a centre-back very suited for modern football.

The potential in his passing ability is enormous because it’s already at such a high level for a player of his age. Being a left-footed centre-back just makes him all the more unique.

© IMAGO - Mor Talla Ndiaye Liverpool

We alluded to his defensive qualities above. He's an impressive player because of his height and build.

He defends the channels extremely well. Covers a lot of ground, and he is fast making recovery runs (11.1 per 90) and reacting to loose balls. He’s very good at pretty much dealing with any danger and snuffing it out before it can even amount to anything. This is thanks to his ability to anticipate danger.

In one vs one situations he’s extremely tough to beat. Won 83.33% of his 3.5 defensively duels per 90.

Sometimes, he could be a bit more explosive in short distances. This is normally something players with longer legs take time to learn. That explosiveness in short distances is a weakness that he needs to work on, maybe by adjusting his body positioning and his stance in reacting to certain situations.

He’s relatively strong in the air. What is impressive is that he has the innate knowledge of where the ball is going to drop. Not every player is capable of reading the game in this way, it's actually a very underrated trait.

Maybe there's some room for improvement in the way he handles physical aerial battles. I think he needs to be a little bit stronger to win challenges against more physically developed players. There's a tendency for him to sometimes be a little bit over eager and dive into challenges in those sort of situations which is again is an area where he could work on.

But overall, he is a very exciting prospect and played a key role in Senegal conceding just one goal at the entire World Cup in four games, keeping three clean-sheets in the process.