Everton 'agree transfer' of Iliman Ndiaye who plays like £35m forward they missed out on

Everton are reportedly closing in on a transfer for Iliman Ndiaye but what might the former Sheffield United player potentially bring to Sean Dyche’s side?

On X (formerly Twitter), Fabrizio Romano claims Olympique Marseille have accepted terms and contracts are set to be signed on a move for a €18.5million fee (approximately £15.63m) plus €1.5m add ons with Ndiaye agreeing a five-year deal and despite there being interest from other Premier League clubs he only wanted Everton.

The 24-year-old, who was born in Rouen in Normandy but has been capped 22 times for Idrissa Gueye’s Senegal, netting twice at international level, can operate as an attacking midfielder or striker. Ndiaye struck just four times in 46 outings for Marseille last term including three in Ligue 1 but his 14 goals in the Championship the previous season helped Sheffield United to win promotion to the Premier League and he was linked with a possible switch to Goodison Park 12 months ago before returning to the country of his birth.

According to Comparisonator’s Similarity Comparison, there is already a Premier League footballer who is startling close to Ndiaye in his style of play and that is Matheus Cunha of Wolverhampton Wanderers - who has been on Everton's radar previously - who scores a 99% match. When it comes to other players who turned out in the division last season, Burnley’s Zeki Amdouni scores a 93% match with another Wolves man, Jean-Richer Bellegarde scoring 82% while curiously a couple of former Everton targets Mohamed Kudus of West Ham United (64%) and Morgan Gibbs-White of Nottingham Forest (41%) both make the list further down.

READ MORE: Everton takeover - Dan Friedkin deal takes step forward as major move confirmed

READ MORE: Everton supporters face major travel woes after new costs revealed

Comparisonator’s Virtual Transfer tool also enables us to correlate Ndiaye’s statistics from last season against those already playing in his position in the Premier League and the results make for some interesting reading. He clearly loves to run at opposition defences with the ball at his feet as his 5.11 dribbles per 90 minutes is higher than anyone in the English top flight with the aforementioned Cunha first on 5.08 followed by Joao Pedro of Brighton & Hove Albion (5.04) and then Newcastle United’s Everton old boy Anthony Gordon (4.62).

There is plenty of end product to these forays as well as Ndiaye’s average for successful dribbles (2.66) would place him third in the Premier League behind Arsenal’s Gabriel Jesus (2.8) and Pedro (2.71). Dyche likes to see his players working hard in all areas of the pitch and the Blues boss could be encouraged to see Ndiaye averaging 1.97 ball recoveries in his own half per 90 minutes which is better than anyone in the Premier League where Jesus (1.89); Pedrio (1.83) and West Ham United’s Jarrod Bowen (1.63) make up the top three.

Ndiaye’s distribution is also sound with an average of 20.75 successful passes per 90 minutes which would place him seventh in the Premier League in a category led by Manchester City’s Julian Alvarez on 27.79. When it comes to successful passes in the final third, only Cunha (2.06) and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah (1.82) can top Ndiaye’s figure of 1.67.

When it comes to winning duels, only Sheffield United’s Oli McBurnie (13.03) could top Beto (second on 11.11) while another existing Everton player Dominic Calvert-Lewin is fifth on 10.13 but although they are all more out-and-out centre-forwards, Ndiaye would still come in eighth on 9.34 while his 5.41 ground duels won is higher than anyone in the Premier League with leader Jesus on 5.03. Certainly there looks to be several elements Dyche could work with when it comes to finding additional support for Abdoulaye Doucoure in the task of knitting together his side’s midfield and attack.

*Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising over 100 different parameters. Click here for more details.