Adam Idah
Ross Hall delves deep into the pros and cons of Idah inc comparison with Miovski
“I have an Idah”
“We have an Idah”
“He’s just arrived at Celtic Park; we have an Idah”
“We have an Idah”
“Do you want to see our Idah”
“I hope he’s a good one”
“So let’s see Adam Idah”
(I don’t see this catching on with the Ultras & If you haven’t worked it out yet YouTube: Molly and Mack idea song…. Sorry in advance)
Adam Idah……
January 2024, a New ayear and a transfer window that was so bad the board actually issued a letter of apology. Idah and Kuhn the only new faces to arrive and on the face of things there were questions over both, in part because it was apparent Rodgers wasn’t confident in what was being put on his desk by Mark Lawwell and team.
I remember sitting and looking at Adam’s video footage and data covering the few months before we signed him on loan, thrilled I was not. I’ll be honest and say I saw a player who had pace, power and was ok around the various technical elements but nothing special, could have just as easily been watching one of many strikers who have been brought to the SPFL by the likes of Kilmarnock. Very little to be seen that would say this guy was going to be the man we needed on the end of our attacking play. If anything, he played some of his last few Norwich games before his loan move in a manner that suggested he was going through the motions and so the evidence was not painting a pretty picture.
In that review of footage there was one game that stood out to me and that was a 2-2 draw in a derby game vs Ipswich. I opened up the video and thought he’s been pretty average in the other games I’ve watched but this is a derby game. Surely he’ll at least have a bit of gusto about him… nope, just more of the same. I felt this was a player who was playing like he really didn’t care if he played or not and if any of the games concerned me before his arrival it was this one, it put a big question mark on his mentality for me. If you don’t have a bit about you then you are going to be up against here because mental strength is as important as all the technical elements required to be a Celtic player.
Then the quotes about him being wasted talent were stacking up. Folk had written him off. Norwich fans were wondering how he was getting a move to us, was Scottish football really that bad was a comment on one fan forum. Chris Sutton said “Idah has had potential for years and is very much in the development category, a long way off the finished article” and the general feeling from most people was that was a more than fair assessment.
The only real positive at that time was that it was a loan, albeit without any option or obligation to buy which seemed odd. The upshot of any loan is there is always that feeling of what a change of environment might bring. Some players just keep going through the motions, others see it as a chance to be part of something and will give everything to get them back on track. If they don’t then you send them packing and hope the recruitment team have better options come the summer.
Fast forward 8 months and he’s been here on loan, left, and had a “transfer saga” that felt like it lasted longer than his loan deal with us. Eventually we found £8.5 million in change down the back of the sofa and here he is, and I don’t know anyone who supports us who is unhappy to see him back in the hoops. Although seeing him in that awful Norwich styled away strip gives me flashbacks to watching his Norwich footage, hopefully the strip doesn’t take him back to that form.
So, what happened….
I remember watching a test done on your average joe at a funfair on the BBC a few years ago talking about mindset, environment and adrenalin. The average bloke hit one of those punch pad machines at the funfair and scored around 450. They then popped the guy on a fast rollercoaster with a view to getting his heart rate and adrenalin up. He gets off the rollercoaster and they have him hit the punch pad again, this time he’s 800+. A simple change to get the blood flowing and you go from being bang average to a big hitter. It’s in you, you just need to find something to get you going.
No disrespect to Norwich but when you look at it from a football perspective, they are the tea cups of the funfair and we are the rollercoaster. They don’t come close to offering a player the sort of environment that we can. The proof, just listen to Idah’s press conference where he talks about what he felt in his 5 months here from Jan to May, and what he felt at Norwich in recent times. He’s feeling the love, thriving in the pressure and he had the look of a man who is just loving life.
This is where I give Brendan Rodgers huge credit. He pursued this signing, and had a belief that this person had the mentality to step into our club along with the skillset and player traits that would shine if he could get him up and running, happy and believing in himself. Didn’t take long and it paid big dividends at a crucial period of the season.
I would always say one of the most valuable things you can have when making a signing is a positive feeling about the person fitting into the environment. Knowing a player’s ability is relatively easy and you can do that from watching them and looking at the data available, but knowing the person and trusting they have what it takes to cope mentally is not something you will find in a video or on a statsbomb data report. The best route is just some good old fashioned relationship building.
That initial loan has also allowed us to build up evidence of how well he fitted in. We’ve likely all seen or heard the comments in social media posts and player interviews throughout the summer. Idah’s own media, and mentions from the likes of Forrest and Cal tells us he was missed. Pics of holidays with team mates, still being part of the Whatsapp group even after he left and generally just letting it be seen he really loved his time here are all great signs.
It also always helps to get off to a decent start. 59mins into the away game vs Aberdeen, 9 minutes after going 1-0 down. Warm up completed and Adam Idah makes his debut, 4 minutes later he sets up fellow sub Kuhn to make it 1-1. Sounds simple but a moment like that early on is so important when you arrive.
4 days later he gets his first start at Easter Road vs Hibs. 2 goals, both penalties. He’s getting numbers on the board.
Fast forward 18 days later and Motherwell away. 1-0 down at half time, being given the run around by Motherwell. Young Lennon Miller producing a lovely little touch, turn and pass to set up Blair Spittal on the 43rd minute. Half Time and things looked pretty grim. A stale, timid, eye sore of a performance and a hope that at half time Rodgers would find the words and changes to get this team to wake up… Idah on for Kyogo. Then 6 minutes later 1-1. 1 point at that time would have been a disaster. Then Idah really late in the game makes it 2-1, 3 points; and it was sealed by Palma to make it 3-1. MOTM Adam Idah, now we are seeing a player. A player who was up to speed and was entering the pitch and looking like he was loving it, wanting to be part of it and more important than anything performing to a good level.
That feeling we had, when he was first linked and signed, of having been landed with another development player who is miles off it was quickly being discarded and we are cooking with gas. He might have been behind Kyogo in the pecking order but he had cemented himself in the backup role ahead of Oh who had pretty much disappeared and he was starting to make an argument for himself to be the main man.
The true test of who our main men are domestically usually comes down to games against Rangers…..
First game against them, Ibrox, no away fans (a Rangers problem, just in case you need a reminder), a bizarre game that we should have had dead and buried by half time but we let them back in. This moment for me was the one that really said we should look to sign him. He had shown up well in previous games, but this was a real moment in the toughest environment we face domestically.
87 minutes, we beat the press and Bernardo shows brains that the opposition midfield could only dream of having, drifts wide and picks up the ball in acres of space. He then rolls in behind Dowell and Lundstrum while they are still stood wondering what’s going on. The pass to Idah, perfect but he still has work to do with defenders in close proximity. His touch is on point, tight to him and watches as Sterling goes shooting past him and into Goldsons path, Goldsons then has to push Sterling over towards Idah to try and get him in front of the shot. Idah has quickly shifted the ball to his right away from Sterling and fires a low shot through his legs and past that England GK nominee (as voted for by Rangers Blind Supporters Club) at his near post. That moment was everything Adam Idah should be as a striker. Quick to get into the danger zone, technically able to take a pass under pressure and sharp enough to ensure he can execute a finish. That there was an £8.5 million striker.
Now he wasn’t great in every game he played, this isn’t a romantic novel where every move he makes was like poetry and looked beautiful. He has areas to work on including his press and how to make more use of his size, but to finish off his season he bossed a Killie team at Rugby Park and he should look at that game as a marker of what he should be aiming to do in every game because he dominated that central area for 60+minutes in a place where we have had our struggles, and his overall play went a long way to setting us on our way to the 3 points that sealed the title.
Then to put some sprinkles on his loan he just popped up to score the winner in the Scottish Cup Final. A decent 5 months’ work from Idah. 2 competitions and 2 winners medals with some vital goals along the way. He has played 3 games against them and has 2 goals. That’s 1 less than the man once heralded as a £25 million striker, a man who played against us 19 times. A larger-than-life man who now plays for Atletico Nacional in Colombia and who inspired Paddy Pimbetts weight gain program for when he’s got some down time (BBC verify will not verify, but we all know it's true).
We miss you Fredo.
Now for the breakdown of the one key thing that really stood out for me and it was something that just wasn’t on show at Norwich.
Idah in the league scored 8 goals and got 2 assists from 5 starts (15 games overall / average of 41 minutes per game). All 10 of his goal contributions happened inside the 18 yard box, and 4 of those (open play) were within the width of the posts. This provides us with clear evidence that he’s getting into the most valuable zone any striker can get into and that when he was in there, he was converting chances. 27% conversion rate is a good number and while he does need to work on his finishing it’s at a good level.
The good thing now that he is back is that he is on the right path because the first part is giving the creative players a good option by getting in between the posts, ideally in that 6 to 12 yard zone because that is where most goals are scored from. Then it’s end product and again the signs based on last season are positive.
Miovski or Idah:
I’ve listened to and read some people say they would have taken Miovski over Idah, but having looked at both players in detail and taking the obvious bias out of it I’d still have taken Idah for a few key reasons. In the setup we have we want the wide players to be wide, and then come inside or drive the line depending on the setup we face. Our system now needs a central figure, not someone who constantly drifts wide and into the space we want Kuhn, Daizen and co playing in.
Heatmap: Idah (15 games / avg 41mins per game):
We can see he moves around but his main markers are all in the middle which means our wide players and midfield know they have a central figure to play to or off of.
Heatmap: Miovski (38 games / avg 83mins per game):
Bojan Miovski has good heat in the penalty box, but when you watched him for Aberdeen he liked to drift into that right side (as shown on the map) and then look to link with the likes of Clarkson, McGrath and Polvara before running into that central area which is easier to engineer for Aberdeen as they don’t face as many packed defences as we do.
Counter attacks or attacks built up from controlled possession see them have more space in behind and more opportunities for players to go 1vs1. Miovski enjoyed playing in those spaces and got a lot of joy from it in the way the Dons setup.
I think with the way Rodgers wants to play right now we needed that alternative to Kyogo as an option, someone who you can almost draw a 15 to 20 yard box around in the central area of the final third. That player needed to have a bit of pace and the power to be able to go against defences who want to make games about strength and who try to force us to play more direct or to use high crosses into the box.
Overall, it's in those areas for me Idah is the better option if we were looking at these 2 players. If we were looking to play with a striker who did drift a little more and wanted him playing with a view from coming from outside to in on his stronger foot then Miovski would have been a good shout. His ability to drift and link play from wide areas, along with a really good left foot would have been of great value in that role. When you look at his goal breakdown from last season it was 14 left footed finishes, 1 right footed and 1 header in the league. Compared to 4 right foot, 2 left foot and 3 headed goals from Idah.
In the end it’s personal preference and I say it as someone who really likes Miovski and am happy he got a good move to Girona. It reflects well on our league and hopefully the finances help Aberdeen improve, but Idah for me right now was the move that made sense.
We have clear evidence he fits both on and off the pitch and having been here for 5 months he will know what is expected and I’m sure Rodgers will have outlined a clear plan for how we continue from where he left off and how to continue his development. At 23 he has plenty of improvement in him and hopefully over the course of his deal we will get to enjoy watching him improve.
Lastly what does his future look like… He comes in with good favour behind him, the support are with him before he kicks a ball as a permanent member of the team because he has shown he wants to be here, has shown he can score in the big moments and that he’s a winner. The rest is up to him but I’d be looking for him to being targeting 20 goal contributions as a minimum this season, and to improve his game in terms of pressing early in a transition and winning a few more duels high up the pitch to help him achieve that target. Then next season you look for a little more and get to the point where like Matt O’Riley he is standing out because he’s hit a level of performance and consistency that just cannot be ignored.
So, Molly, Mack, McKay & Nicholson….. I have an idea, do you want to hear my idea, it’s a ruddy good one, as good as the Adam Idea…….
Sign a few more good players, that’s my idea and I suspect I’m not alone in thinking it’s a good one.
As always I’ve popped a little stat pack below for those who like them. Just click and expand.
