Arsenal signed England winger Maduaike from Chelsea. With the absolute core Saka, why did Arsenal sign this left-footed winger? Maduaike played 32 Premier League games for Chelsea last season, of which 84% of the game were played as the right winger...
Arsenal signed England winger Maduaike from Chelsea. With the absolute core Saka, why did Arsenal sign this left-footed winger?
Maduaike played 32 Premier League games for Chelsea last season, of which 84% of the game were played as the right winger and only 14% of the game was played as the left winger.
If Maduaike is used as the substitute for Arsenal's main right winger Saka, he should become a powerful backup surprise, but this is certainly not the only reason why Arsenal signed him.
Although Saka missed for three months after suffering a hamstring injury in December last year, there were great problems with Arsenal's offense due to the lack of a suitable substitute. But in the long run, Saka's attendance rate should not be a problem.
From the 2021/22 season to the 2023/24 season, Saka's playing time accounted for more than 80% of the team's total game time for three consecutive seasons, but it dropped to 50% last season. Last season was also the first time in Saka's career that he missed more than five consecutive games due to injury.
Therefore, from the perspective of Maduaike, after leaving Chelsea who started last season and played 27 Premier League games, it would not make much sense to come to Arsenal if he just served as Saka's substitute.
Maduaike is more likely to get playing time on the left, competing with Brazilian winger Martineli, who did not play best in the 2024/25 season.
Although Maduaike has not played as a left winger at Chelsea for a long time, judging from his technical characteristics, he is fully capable of being the left winger position of Arsenal.
First, Maduaike has good ability to reverse the foot. Maduaike completed 73 non-header shots last season, including 48 left foot (65.8%) and 25 right foot (34.2%).
Among the players who are used to have left-footed feet, Maduaike's reverse shots account for only about the second most recent Bournemouth winger's goal (53.8% left-footed shots, 46.2% right-footed shots).
Secondly, Maduaike has the ability to threaten the goal whether on the left or right. Maduaike shot 3.5 times per 90 minutes last season, ranking fifth among players who played at least 1,500 minutes.
Interestingly, despite the small sample size, Maduaike did not significantly reduce his goal threat when playing on the left. Maduaike averaged 8.8 times in the opponent's penalty area last season, second only to Salah among at least 25 starts (10.5 times per game). When Maduaike played on the left, the figure also had 7.8 times.
Madouaike shot 3.7 times per 90 minutes while playing on the right. Although he dropped to 2.4 times when playing on the left, his expected goal count per 90 minutes remained unchanged at 0.42 goals.
Finally, Maduaike's ability to run without the ball is also excellent. Last season, Maduaike ran 7.7 times in the opponent's penalty area every 90 minutes, ranking 6th among players who played at least 1,500 minutes. in. Second only to Louis Dias (8.6 times) among non-center players.
Maduaike made a total of 544 runs without the ball last season, 78 of which allowed Chelsea players to finally complete the goal, accounting for as high as 14.3%. Among the players who have completed at least 200 runs without the ball, Maduaike's figure is second only to Salah (15.8%) and McAllister (14.5%).
In short, Maduaike is a very good Premier League winger and has proven himself in the Premier League. At the age of 23, he has not reached the peak of his career, and he still has plenty of time to improve his level.
As long as Maduaike can adapt to playing on Arsenal's left and can seamlessly switch back to the right when Saka is absent, then Maduaike will be a very worthwhile signing.
(Premier League)
