, Leeds United: comparing Sacko and Barrow – flying wingers

Leeds United: comparing Sacko and Barrow – flying wingers

When Leeds United brought in Hadi Sacko on loan from Sporting Lisbon at the start of this season, there were gasps and hushed “Who? From where?” muttered by Whites fans.

He had a reported release clause of something daft around the €60 million mark, and he had a reputation as a bit of a flyer. Since signing him, Leeds United fans have seen the youngster score twice, assist three times and learn what the phrase ‘square it to Chris Wood’ means.

As for Modou Barrow, in truth Leeds fans would have known very little about the four-cap Gambian other than what they might have gleaned from watching Match of the Day on a Saturday evening.

He’s another flyer, a natural winger and he came in as Leeds’ second signing on transfer deadline day, 31 January. Seen as somewhat unpredictable by some observers, Barrow was wheeled in to parent club Swansea by none other than Garry Monk, who brought him in from Swedish Allsvenskan side Östersunds FK, where he scored 13 and made eight goals in just 22 appearances.

Comparing Barrow to Sacko
Sacko (red) vs Barrow (blue)
Sacko (red) vs Barrow (blue)
Sacko vs Barrow – pace against pace

One thing that Leeds fans can rest assured of over the run-in to the seasons end – they now have options in two natural wingers down each flank. On the left is Stuart Dallas and the exciting new signing Alfonso Pedraza, whilst on the right it is Hadi Sacko and Modou Barrow who will be tasked with running at the opposition and turning the left-back around.

One area where current Leeds right-winger Sacko stands out over his incoming teammate is his attacking threat as measured by completed dribbles and shots/shooting accuracy. Sacko has completed a team-leading 53 dribbles this season, which levels out at 2.6 completed dribbles per 90 typical minutes. Against this, for Swansea in the Premier League, Barrow has wheeled out 47 completed dribbles, 1.9 per 90 minutes.

Shot and shot accuracy wise current incumbent Sacko stands out above the incoming Barrow. The young Frenchman has taken 33 shots this season, at an average of 1.7 shots per 90 minutes and with 23.5% accuracy. On the other hand, Barrow has taken 15 shots, at an average of 1.2 per game and with 16.7% accuracy.

One area where Modou Barrow is a little tidier than Hadi Sacko is ball retention. The on-loan Swansea man only loses possession 4.4 times during a typical 90 minute period of time, Sacko losing the ball 6.2 times over the same period of 90 minutes.

Distribution wise, there is very little to separate the two; Barrow making 23.4 pass attempts per 90 minutes (17.6 accurate passes – 75.2%) with Sacko attempting 22.7 passes (17.9 accurate passes – 78.9%). The only real difference in their distribution is when it comes to key passes (passes leading to shots) and percentage of key passes from accurate passes. Barrow makes 1.6 key passes per 90 minutes (9.1% of successful passes lead to shots); Sacko makes 1.1 key passes per 90 minutes (4.9% of successful lead to shots).

Defensive duties see quite comparable returns in what would be expected for each player over the course of a typical 90 minutes this season. Tackle wise both players successfully complete 1.8 tackles per 90 minutes, but new boy Barrow shades the categories of interceptions (0.5 per 90 minutes) and blocks (1.2 per 90 minutes) over Sacko’s returns of 0.4 and 1 respectively.

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