Eighteen-year-old Malcolm Ebiowei has made the jump from Derby County to become Crystal Palace’s latest attacking signing.
In his first interview with the official Crystal Palace website, a nervous Ebiowei clutches his knees and rubs his hands. The step-up to the Premier League is never an easy feat, especially for someone who would have, in the recent past, completed his GCSEs.
However, Malcolm’s words and intent do not match his anxious exterior. “I like to win. I really, really like to win," he said. While all players like to win, there’s a certain element to Ebiowei that makes you believe him. Watching Ebiowei play, you can tell he is a quintessential ‘Crystal Palace’ type player – pacey, skilful, and direct like the regeneration of a prime Yannick Bolasie.
While still only within his first year of legal scratch card and Lotto ticket ownership, Ebiowei has had quite the youth career thus far, bouncing between the academies of Chelsea, Arsenal, and Rangers before settling into first-team action at Derby County in September 2021.
Although relatively unknown, for Ebiowei to jump from signing for a Championship club in financial disarray causing a 21-point deduction, playing only 16 games under an inexperienced manager, to then sign for a Premier League club shows the depth of his quality and his genuine potential.
What Does Ebiowei Bring?
At Derby, he displayed his best qualities to a high level. What will catch the eyes of Palace fans first would be his electric ability to beat his man. His ability to squeeze every millimetre out of the touchline shows his agility and control, as he did against Hull City last season – making a fool of the Tigers’ defence by working his way around two players and placing a teasing ball into the box.
Ebiowei is also much more direct in his dribbling, taking on players one v one and using his strength and skill to beat them, as he displayed with ease against league runners-up Bournemouth.
Ebiowei plays with the same attributes as a young Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester United. While understandably not the same era-defining quality of a CR7, Ebiowei is dripping with the similar flair, skill, and power that Ronaldo had when he burst into English football in 2003. This, on top of Ebiowei’s dangerous ability to quickly change direction and accelerate, as well as his rapid step-overs, set him up to fit very well into Patrick Vieira’s youth-focused rebuild at Selhurst Park.
Ebiowei also has an unfortunate attribute, with opposition defences likely to swipe at his ball carrying. In just 10.6 90s played last season in the Championship, Ebiowei drew 21 fouls. While incomparable to the likes of Wilfried Zaha, whose ‘Fouls Against’ statistic is the highest in the Premier League, he is comparable to a certain Michael Olise, who has drawn 33 fouls in 12.7 90s played at Palace last season. The potential is there for Ebiowei to draw fouls and generate more set-piece opportunities for the rest of the team.
Speaking of set-pieces, this is another area in which Malcolm thrives, he has shown at both youth and senior level his high level of free-kick taking, both into the box and when shooting.
Ebiowei’s crossing is also a highlight of his game. He pinged 60 crosses last season, averaging a cross every quarter of an hour or so. Even with Ebiowei’s significantly fewer minutes played, this is still significantly higher than Zaha, who made 49 crosses last season, averaging a cross every 56.3 minutes, and Palace’s former loan-star Conor Gallagher, who, while making 67 crosses last season, he had the benefit of playing nearly 2000 more minutes that Ebiowei, with Gallagher averaging a cross every 42.3 minutes last season.
Goal scoring is an element he can add to his game, however, with only a single senior goal in the Championship last season – this task will only be harder, now, considering the drastic improvement of the opposition in the Premier League.
Despite this, the potential is there, with Ebiowei having more Shots/90 than other Palace attackers Zaha, Olise, Gallagher and Jordan Ayew. He is making the shots, but his accuracy desires improvement, with Ebiowei having the lowest shots-on-target per 90 of the aforementioned players last season (All stats found at fbref.com).
While not ideal stats, Ebiowei has played just 16 games of senior football and is eighteen years old – to have stats comparable to established Premier League players is some feat, especially considering his fee was the same as an IKEA pencil.
Perhaps most impressively from a Palace fan’s perspective is that Ebiowei’s signing is again a statement of intent and direction from the club.
Gone are the days of signing ageing, high-salaried players like Gary Cahill and Mamadou Sakho, and into the era of signing relatively cheap, young, and promising players who can ball out and express themselves under an attacking-minded manager.
Malcolm recently made his pre-season debut for the club in the second half against Millwall, where Palace fans got to have a taste of many of the aforementioned attributes of the young starlet.
Malcolm Ebiowei fits the profile, has the stats to back it up, and has the potential to go a long way.