Scout Report: Amadou Diawara
Aspects of the game such as technique, passing and movement are those that most of the players seem to possess in the Serie A, let alone the youngsters who hail from Italy. They are usually good on the ball and know how to dictate possession.
Be it Marco Verratti, Daniele Rugani or Domenico Berardi; all of them are blessed with the following qualities that have made them highly coveted players across the continent. But with now diversity coming into the Serie A, the nature of the league is gradually changing.
Players with different qualities and players blessed with skills like Felipe Anderson and Federico Bernardeschi, and pacey players Nikola Maksimovic.
One player who is young and strong, and different from the above-mentioned players is Amadou Diawara.
Diawara has officially signed for Napoli
Who is he?
Recently snapped up by Napoli for a fee in the region of €15 million, Diawara's story is a quick rise to prominence that saw him climb from his native Guinean club in 2014 to being a regular for Bologna in 2016.
The midfielder was only 18 when he was spotted by Bologna's director of football Pantaleo Corvino, following his impressive showings for the then relegated Serie C club San Marino. The Rossoblu had to shell out £420,000 in order to acquire the Guinean's services and little did anyone know that this cheap acquisition would prove to be one of the best deals Corvino would ever do.
The youngster's debut for Bologna came in August last year, as he came on as a late substitute at Lazio and went onto make 34 appearances in the heart of the park for Bologna, who sacked manager Delio Rossi in late October to bring in Roberto Donadoni.
Playing Style
Players like Diawara are a dying breed, not just in Italy but in the footballing world as a whole. The players in the mould of Patrick Viera and Roy Keane are those that are hardly seen nowadays and even if they exist, the amount of recognition they tend to get is comparatively low, as compared to the goal-scorers.
Diawara truly is a player who sits in the front of the back four and protects it to perfection. He tackles, intercepts and wins balls back and helps his side dominate games from midfield.
A vital part of his game is his impressive positioning and his ability to anticipate where to position himself in order to win the ball back from the opposition. The sturdy and strong way in which he carries himself and his spot on positioning compliments his tackling and ball recovery.
Last season, Diawara made 2.2 tackles per game, which is quite impressive for someone as young as him, and his position in midfield also allows him to dribble the ball out of crowded spaces, after recovering the ball from the opposition.
The midfielder also intercepts well, as Diawara also made 2.7 interceptions per game, which again is impressive.
He's someone who is blessed with an intelligent brain, supported by a pair of quick feet, which help him ameliorate his ability to play the ball out of crowded areas. The youngster has got a burst of pace in his armor, that allows him to help the team move forward after winning the ball back and keep the ball moving by supplying it to the forward players.
He made 0.6 key passes per game last season, suggestive of how his passing doesn't involve opening up the opposition's back four, but his 84 percent passing accuracy brings to the fore his passing attributes in the heart of the park.
He is someone who knows how to switch flanks from one side to the other, that helps in smooth transition for the side.
Diawara played 2.9 long balls per game, which is indicative of his ability to pick out passes from deep and also of his vision from deeper areas
What suggests Diawara's quality, despite his tender age of 19 is that the Guinean slotted in effortlessly into the systems of both Rossi and Donadoni and succeeded in performing equally well for both managers in Bologna's campaign, as they finished 14th in the Serie A.
In the 4-3-3 formation, Diawara featured as the sitting midfielder, flanked by the likes of Saphir Taider and Luca Rizzo, who did the attacking bit with the defensive assurance of Diawara behind them.
Diawara can sit in front of the defence or help the side form a back five by dropping into the space between the aging centre-half pairing of Daniele Gastaldello and Domenico Maietta.
One weakness in his play, barring the fact that he doesn't offer much tangible going forward, is that Diawara seems to lose discipline sometimes. He's overly rash in his challenges and can end up mistiming his tackles in a rather disappointing fashion.
The youngster received nine yellow cards and two red cards last season, clearly proving that he needs to curb his habit of getting his name into the referee's book every two games.
Future?
The move to Napoli would certainly be the stairway to something bigger for the youngster. Maurizio Sarri's side finished second last season, nine points adrift of Scudetto winners Juventus. Napoli were in fine form and tussling with Inter for the title, until Juve regained their lost momentum and stormed back to win their fifth consecutive Scudetto.
Sarri, who deploys a 4-3-3 formation, much like Donadoni at Bologna, has three defensive midfielders in the form of Mirko Valdifiori, new signing Alberto Grassi and Diawara himself, to play alongside Brazilian pairing Jorginho and Allan, who are vital cogs in the Napoli wheel.
But with Valdifiori being linked with moves to Pescara and AC Milan, Sarri could possibly be left with two proper holding midfielders in the form of Grassi and Diawara, who fall under the bracket of ones to watch out for. If Valdifiori does leave, which is a real possibility, Sarri would rotate between the duo with the Champions League knocking at the door too.
The future looks really bright and considering the horizons Diawara has reached at such a young age, he is set to take the world by storm one day.