Rami Al Hajj: What to Expect?
The final signing of the summer and the final assessment from Adam Price. What can we expect of the Swede?
As the summer transfer window reached its dying embers, it became clear that Plymouth Argyle were still trying to act. As we’ve come to expect, the Greens were linked with a number of new arrivals, some more seriously than others. Significant rumblings surrounded Michael Baidoo, but in the end Argyle opted for another midfielder playing in Scandinavia. Rami Al Hajj joined from Danish side Odense BK for a fee of around £850,000.
A signing like Al Hajj was desperately necessary, and in all honesty has been for a while. Argyle have been crying out for a ‘number 10’ ever since the loans of Finn Azaz and Luke Cundle were truncated back in January. Their absence (particularly in the case of Azaz) has been felt ever since, and has continued on to this season, with Argyle remaining the only side in the Championship not to have had a single Opta-defined big chance in their four league games. One wonders what sort of difference Azaz could have made in the agonising 1-0 defeat to Stoke City.
With Al Hajj the first player of such a profile to join in the eight intervening months, could he prove to be the vital final piece of Wayne Rooney’s jigsaw? Will he finally be the Azaz replacement we’ve longed for?
Creative encouragement
Whether you see Al Hajj as the Azaz replacement, or simply a different style of player to what Argyle have on their books to implement a new system (both positions are reasonable), looking at creativity is the natural place to start. Because clearly, it’s what Argyle have been sorely lacking all season. As I’ve mentioned they are the only team in the league not to have had a single big chance this season, and the Greens rather predictably find themselves bottom of the Championship’s xG table.
Looking at last season’s numbers, I can find some cautious encouragement that Al Hajj does possess a good level of creative ability. Perhaps not to an extreme extent, but enough to suggest he’ll certainly fill a void in the side.
In the Danish top flight last season, Al Hajj notched a total of seven assists, with Morgan Whittaker (eight) the only Argyle player to create more league goals. The figure also compares well when looking at assists per 90 minutes, as Al Hajj’s figure also ranked in second when compared with Argyle’s players behind only Luke Cundle.
We can delve deeper. Due to their scarcity, as well as the fact that another player needs to score for one to be registered, assist figures can be skewed quite easily by several factors. So how about key passes, which register the passes just before a shot whether or not they result in a goal?
Again, Al Hajj scrubs up well. He completed a total of 50 key passes last season; compared to Argyle’s crop that’s only behind Whittaker (64) and Azaz (63). As with assists, Al Hajj ranks in second place when we consider key passes per 90, if you don’t count the incredibly small sample size from Freddie Issaka who made one key pass in his 42 minutes of league action. Him aside, only Azaz (this may become somewhat of a theme) topped Al Hajj’s figure of 1.98.
Of course, not all shots are of the same quality, so we can look at how many Opta-defined big chances a player creates. Last season, Al Hajj, Whittaker and Azaz all created 10 big chances, jointly topping the Argyle charts. And when considering big chances created per 90, Al Hajj once more slots into second place, with an unsurprising name taking top spot.
As well as the numbers, I’ll just present to you a highlights package that was put out on the Argyle Life Twitter account on Thursday – though due to some online nonsense you may need to click the tweet link itself to view. Now, the obvious caveat is that everyone should look like a world beater based on their highlights packages, but there is a lot to like, and combined with the numbers above it’s more than enough to whet the appetite.
https://x.com/ArgyleLife1886/status/1829275554450645204
Pleasingly, there are many Azaz-like moments in that video. Several passes remind me of Azaz’ assist against Rotherham United last season, as he played a delicate ball over the top of the defence to set up Whittaker’s injury time winner.
Al Hajj’s creativity is a major strength. Given Argyle’s dearth of creativity in recent months, it’s possible they’ve found exactly what they needed.
Additional key skills
Creating chances isn’t the only thing Al Hajj has in his locker. As well as his ability to pick out a pass, I’ve been struck by a few more numbers that could give us indication into his further strengths, as well as his general style of play.
Perhaps an obvious place to look is his goal contributions. It perhaps says a lot that, whilst Al Hajj only scored three league goals last season, that figure would still have placed him joint-fourth in Argyle’s ranks last year. So many goals were concentrated in the familiar three of Whittaker, Azaz and Ryan Hardie. Those three are also the only players to top Al Hajj’s total goal contributions figure of ten. I’d like that to improve during his spell in Devon, but it’s a solid enough start.
Even better is his dribbling. Last season Al Hajj completed 73 dribbles, which was comfortably more than anyone in Argyle’s ranks – Whittaker completed the highest number in Argyle’s side with 57, ranking lower despite having played over 1500 minutes more than Al Hajj. Per 90, Al Hajj both attempted (4.82) and completed (2.89) more dribbles than any Argyle player.
That gives us a couple of insights. His presence in the side could give the Greens the ability to carry the ball through the middle of the pitch, rather than only being able to rely on the wide players to beat a man. In that sense, Al Hajj could provide a Danny Mayor-like presence in Argyle’s midfield. Additionally, whilst he may be more comfortable as a number 10, Al Hajj’s numbers suggest he could be effective in a 4-3-3, starting in a deeper position and driving into space. Whether Rooney will change shape to accommodate this remains to be seen.
Furthermore, I’ve been particularly impressed by Al Hajj’s total pass success. Given he’s a creative player, whose job will be to pick out difficult “high-risk” passes to get his teammates in behind, one may expect that his total pass success would be lower than average. Not so. In fact, only Adam Forshaw posted a higher pass success figure last season than Al Hajj’s 85%. Forshaw is a player who attempts far fewer risky passes, and his sample size was significantly lower.
Combine those numbers with the fact that Al Hajj posted a long pass success figure of 69%, this time the third-highest figure in Argyle’s ranks, and a picture emerges of a player who is a supremely dynamic passer. He has the ability to play a killer pass, but will also slow play down and keep things neat and tidy in the centre when required.
In short, the stats are superb. If Argyle can ensure they get the intangibles right with this transfer, they’ll have quite the player on their hands.
The long-awaited replacement?
With everything we’ve covered, I imagine the question on everyone’s lips will be “can he replace Azaz?” As the first genuine attacking midfielder to sign since Azaz departed, Al Hajj will go a long way to winning plenty of supporters if he can fill a void that has been in place at Argyle for so long. So, can he?
Well, using last season’s numbers we can compare the two directly. The charts you’ll see below rates each player by the ranking they achieved for certain stats against Championship midfielders last season, filtered for players who played 200+ minutes. The obvious caveat is that, when we include Al Hajj, the players didn’t play in the same league, but the simple comparison is encouraging. In several metrics key to the success of a midfielder, Al Hajj compares favourably.
Azaz does have the edge in the creative side of the game, beating Al Hajj for goal contributions and chance creation. Those differences are only slight though, and Al Hajj does show some encouraging signs for his general play, such as with his standard pass and long pass success. He also shows an encouraging, surprising spike in his ground duel success, which I hadn’t spotted in my first look at his numbers.
Replacing Azaz will of course be tough. Either way though, I think there is significant evidence that Al Hajj is at the very least a competent replacement for Cundle. Of the ten stats we’ve looked at, Cundle comes out on top for only two, one of which (tackles) isn’t particularly relevant for an attacking midfielder.
These charts shouldn’t be taken in isolation. As with every stat, it’s worth considering them in context with any potential caveats applying (and there are a few I’ll come onto in a moment). Still, you’d much rather have a player looking to build on some good numbers in a new league, rather than one coming over and having to work on some deficiencies. In Al Hajj, Argyle have made the right kind of signing.
Expectation management
Sorry, it’s now time for me to be incredibly annoying. Having spent much of the last 1,500 words outlining the excitement Al Hajj brings, and how his stats provide indications that he’s exactly what Argyle have been missing, I’m now going to bring everyone down to Earth with a few caveats we all need to consider when assessing his arrival.
First of all, the obvious thing to note is that Al Hajj is changing league. Not only that, he’s changing countries. That brings with it a whole host of small issues that need ironing out.
Most obviously, his stats were collated in what many would argue is a weaker league. The Danish top flight may have sides like Copenhagen, who of course beat Manchester United last season, but Odense themselves were relegated from the league. That’s not an issue per se, as plenty of players can shine in relegated sides and prove they’re too good for the level below, but I think it’s evidence enough that Argyle marks a step up in quality.
Moving to a new country also has the potential for difficulties, particularly because Al Hajj is joining a team with plenty of international additions across the transfer window. As somebody who was born in Lebanon, has been signed from Denmark and is a Swedish international, I trust Al Hajj to be somebody who can adapt quickly to a new environment. Still, he will need to take a little time to integrate into the team, and it perhaps wouldn’t be fair to expect fireworks straight away.
That leads nicely onto my next point: Al Hajj isn’t a silver bullet who will fix every issue in Argyle’s side.
Obviously, he won’t be able to play every minute of every game. He’ll first need to build up match fitness having not featured in any of Odense’s first seven games in the Danish second tier (supposedly to force this move), and there’s always the possibility that he’ll get injured at some stage. Argyle will have to ensure that they can create chances even when Al Hajj isn’t on the field.
But there’s a wider issue at play: Argyle’s issues are so notable, so ingrained, that it’d be unfair to expect one man to fix them in time, let alone immediately.
Al Hajj is one player; a very good player, yes, but one player. I’ll mention again though that Argyle haven’t had a single big goalscoring chance all season – every team in the league had created at least one by the end of matchday two. Expecting one player to change that not only puts a great deal of pressure on said player, it also means that opponents who have done their homework will know they’ll go a long way to blunting Argyle if they can mark him out of the game.
Ultimately, I’m encouraged by Al Hajj. He’s the sort of player the Pilgrims desperately needed, and if he can adapt well to the Championship he’ll give a significant boost to Argyle’s attack. To truly be successful with him in the side though, Rooney will need to develop a system that allows several players to be involved in dangerous attacks, not just one.