Scouting Report - French Versatile Defender Evan N’Dicka

Can This Potential Free Signing From Germany Be The Next Joel Matip For Liverpool?

During the international break, we got an interesting update that Evan N’Dicka (or Ndicka) won’t be extending his stay at Eintracht Frankfurt and will be available for free in the summer. Dave Maddock subsequently reported about Liverpool’s interest in the Frenchman, who partnered Ibrahima Konaté in the French U21 back-line a few years ago (2019 to be exact).

Since then, while Konaté has gone on to make a senior appearance for his national side, N’Dicka is yet to open an account on that front. To be fair to the latter, the competition for places is tough in that position as the French do have some high-class centre-backs already.

The Frankfurt defender is one of the better young and upcoming defenders in Europe. He is a left-footed player who can operate either as a centre-back or a left-back.

After that introduction, it is only fair that we take an in-depth look at the 23-year-old, his playing style, numbers and how he would fit in at Liverpool, provided the Reds make a move in the summer.

Evan N’Dicka - Introduction and Player Profile

As briefly mentioned above, N’Dicka is a left-footed defender who can play both as a centre-back and a left-back. In terms of the systems deployed, Frankfurt boss Oliver Glasner prefers to play the 3-4-2-1 formation, with the Frenchman as his left-sided centre-back.

Out of the 26 league games, the German side have played in their primary system 21 times. On four occasions, the 4-2-3-1 system was deployed and N’Dicka played on the left of the two centre-backs (the Virgil van Dijk position at Liverpool if you want a reference).

The 23-year-old is a front-footed defender who is technically sound on the ball, is aerially very strong and has great recovery pace. There are parts of his game that can improve, but given his age and profile, the development of his game should happen in due course of time.

He has made 175 appearances for his current team since joining in 2018 - 159 of them as a centre-back and 16 as a left-back. Since his move to Germany, he has missed only eight games due to injuries, which is a good record, while averaging around 4,000 minutes per season.