Albion Analytics: Yankuba Minteh

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The numbers behind our new signing from Newcastle United.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2024-07-11T06:00:00Z

The winger joined Albion on a five-year deal from Newcastle United.

Yankuba Minteh became the first signing of the Fabian Hurzeler after a stellar season on loan at Feyenoord.

His route into the game, born in The Gambia and entering Europe via Denmark’s top tier, is an increasingly common one for talented African youngsters.

Albion winger Simon Adringa (from Ivory Coast to FC Nordsjaelland via the Right to Dream academy) and forward Ibrahim Osman (from Ghana then also to FC Nordsjaelland via the Right to Dream academy) have followed similar paths.

The Eredivisie might not be one of Europe’s top-five leagues but it should not diminish Minteh’s output last season. He was one of 20 players aged 19 or younger at the start of the season to record at least 1,000 Eredivisie minutes.

Among that group, Minteh had the most goals (10) and most assists (five), but importantly came out strongly in underlying numbers too. He recorded the highest expected goals (9.8, suggesting he got into good shooting positions and finished at an average rate) and the second-highest expected assists (4.3, only behind Kacper Kozlowski, on loan at Vitesse Arnhem from Albion).

Minteh’s final-third output is promising, especially for a dribble-heavy winger. He had the most progressive carries and most progressive dribbles among Eredivisie teenagers last season (with 1,000+ minutes) but also topped the Feyenoord tables in those metrics — across the entire league, his 119 dribbles ranked 9th, and 127 progressive carries put him third.

Recruiting a direct dribbler was important based on last season’s stats, especially with injuries to Solly March and Kaoru Mitoma. Albion had the lowest dribble completion rate in the Premier League (41.5%) and ranked in the bottom-half for dribble attempts and completion.

“It's a good club for young players and the way the young players have progressed here is important for me,” said Minteh on joining. Albion gave the most minutes to under-21s in the league last season.

It is not just Minteh’s dribble volume which is impressive, but his completion rate and consistency of producing something at the end of the carry. He was one of 15 Eredivisie players with 100+ dribbles attempted last season, and came out with the fourth-highest completion rate (49.6%).

Minteh dribbles on the outside particularly well and uses chops to get separation from defenders. He recorded 27 take-ons leading to shots and nine of those led to goals. The Eredivisie has not seen a winger with that kind of output from dribbles since Steven Bergwijn in 2018-19 (25 take-ons leading to shot, 9 take-ons leading to goal).

Minteh’s experience belies his age. He played in the Champions League and Europa League for Feyenoord last season, knocked out in the Europa League play-off round by Roma, who ironically then beat Albion in the following round. Away to Celtic in the Champions League, he became Feyenoord’s youngest Champions League goalscorer (aged 19 years, 4 months, 21 days vs Celtic).

He has six senior caps and three goals for The Gambia and played in all three Africa Cup of Nations games in January — they lost all three games in a stacked group (featuring Senegal, Cameroon and Guinea). Minteh is the third-youngest scorer in men’s national team history.

For a player who has moved clubs repeatedly in recent years, and has to mix club football in Europe with travel to/from Africa for international duty, there is a remarkable consistency to his game. Only twice in 39 appearances across the Eredivisie and European competitions last season did he failed to record a shot-creating action, while there were 13 games where he attempted at least five dribbles.

Minteh became the fifth Feyenoord teenager to score in three consecutive league games at the end of February/start of March, and had his performance of the season against Ajax in April — he scored twice and assisted once in a 6-0 win, completed five of six dribbles, recorded eight shot-creating actions and was successful with his four tackles.

He was the youngest player to score and assist in Die Klassiker (the Ajax-Feyenoord derby) since Leonardo in 2001. It was Feyenoord’s biggest derby win and the first time they had done the double over Ajax since 2005-06.