Everything you need to know about Southampton’s Samuel Edozie
The 2023/24 Championship season began on Friday, 4th August with an entertaining meeting between newly-promoted Sheffield Wednesday and Premier League dropouts, Southampton. The opening night saw the Saints come away with a 2-1 win over their hosts, thanks to a late Che Adams goal. Amongst the standouts was electric young winger, Samuel Edozie. Here is everything you need to know about the Southampton starlet…
Who is Samuel Edozie?
Samuel Edozie arrived at Southampton at the start of the 2022/23 Premier League season for around £7 million. He started out at academy level for Millwall, before Manchester City paid a decent fee to bring him to the Etihad back in 2019. The winger developed at the club until his move, with his most significant moment coming in the form of a Community Shield appearance when he was picked in the starting lineup for the 2021 final. Edozie has also appeared for the England national side at under-18s (u18s), u19s, and u20s level, scoring 3 times in 13 games.
The youngster signed a 5 year deal at Southampton before making his Saints debut in a 1-0 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers, in what was a short cameo. At the age of only 20 years old, he has made 25 competitive senior appearances for Southampton, including an impressive 17 games in the Premier League. He is, however, yet to score at senior level. Something he will be eager to change this season.
Performance vs. Sheffield Wednesday
As Southampton secured a late victory on their opening night in the Championship, Samuel Edozie was one of the standouts of the game. With his direct style of play and eagerness to take on his opponent, he completed the most dribbles (6) of anyone in the match, as well as winning the most fouls (4) in the game. Playing 89 minutes of the game for Southampton, Edozie completed 82% of his passes, 55% of his dribbles, and 61% of his ground duels, as well as chipping in tactically by recovering the ball well in attacking areas.
Even without a goal or assist (not for lack of trying), Edozie was a prevalent attacking threat throughout the game, forcing Sheffield Wednesday right-back (RB) Callum Paterson to perform impressively to provide any sort of stiff opposition. The young star provided a direct source of flair in narrow spaces as well as out wide, where he attempted to drive the ball forward at every opportunity for shooting or crossing opportunities, as well as winning a number of dangerous free-kicks for his side. His performance led to Fotmob awarding him a very respectable 7.7 rating for the match.
Playstyle
Samuel Edozie is very much an out and out left-wing (LW) player. He is a very versatile ball dribbler due to the fact that he’s a right-footed left-winger, but he is also able to deliver crosses and shoot on his left foot. Because of this, he can effectively switch between dribbling into inside areas of the pitch for shooting opportunities or to win fouls, and shifting the ball quickly onto his left foot to break past opponents and attack wide spaces to cross the ball into the box. In fact, one thing he really excels at is being able to entice defenders to try and tackle him before performing a number of stepovers, and quickly shifting the ball onto his left foot to drive forward into open space out wide. Because he is able to use both feet, it is hard for defenders to truly contain him on the ball as he can quickly shift the ball inside and push into narrow spaces as well as driving past them out wide to cross the ball into the box.
In regards to goalscoring, Edozie possesses great attacking qualities. He can arrive late in the box in wide left positions, to pick up back post crosses, as well as being able to generate shots from distance after cutting inside onto his stronger right foot. In the box, he is able to generate different shooting actions due to the fact that he can use both feet very well, meaning he can create shooting space in multiple ways as he doesn’t need to rely on shifting the ball onto one foot. Creatively, his versatility when dribbling the ball and confidence when running directly toward opposition defenders allows him to create a number of chance types. He can supply overlapping runners by cutting inside and threading a well-weighted pass through the defensive line, he can switch the ball to the opposite wide area for crossing opportunities, or he himself can cross the ball into the box by creating space for himself out wide.
Summary
To conclude, Samuel Edozie is a very versatile, electric winger. His ability to carry the ball and shoot on both feet, his willingness to run directly at defenders when on the ball, and his fluid, yet raw dribbling technique make him a very unique and exciting prospect. While he can still improve in the goalscoring and creating departments, as well as improving his dribbling in terms of his close control of the ball, he is always capable of being a big threat to opposition defences. Over the course of this season, in the Championship, we could see Edozie really flourish for Southampton and excite fans and neutrals alike with his dribbling and skill on the ball. Arguably, it wouldn’t come as too big of a surprise to see him light up the Championship before moving onto a big club next season and netting Southampton a huge amount of profit, as has been the case with a number of Saints youngsters.
