As the squad begins to take shape, Adam Price takes look at Bradley Ibrahim and how he can perform in a Tom Cleverley system.
First of all, please accept my apologies for the delay in getting this analysis together. As well as being busy with the work I’m actually paid to do (no hint intended to the site owners), I also spent some time travelling to watch such classics as Andorra 0-1 England. I was even able to top that by attending England 1-3 Senegal a few days later. Envious? I didn’t think so.
Anyway, I accept the delay has slightly diminished the relevance of this piece. In recent days alone we’ve had the emergence of Tom Cleverley as the club’s new head coach, rumours surrounding “Plymouth Argyle’s Gareth Bale,” and Home Park becoming a Ryan Hardie-free zone. A signing made a fortnight ago isn’t exactly at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
Still, with the season kicking off in a matter of weeks, it’ll become relevant again soon enough. Bradley Ibrahim may not be the name on everyone’s lips right now, but we’ll soon see him take to the field in green, and his performances will matter. So, let’s take our customary look at the first fee-paying signing Argyle have made this summer.
Battling qualities again
We all knew Miron Muslic was on his way to Schalke when Jack MacKenzie signed for Argyle last month. That confirmation came a day later, technically making Ibrahim the first post-Muslic signing. However, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I was told it was the other way around; Ibrahim is yet another signing straight out of the Muslic playbook, and I have little doubt the now 2. Bundesliga manager was part of the discussions to bring him in.
In Ibrahim, I see another midfield battler who will probably more key out of possession than with the ball. He’s yet another fighter, eager to do the dirty work, and will be the sort of player whose main role will be to win back possession and start attacks.
Ground duels, naturally, are a good place to start. You may remember in our analysis of Caleb Watts that I praised Exeter’s best player on the 5.76 ground duels he won per 90 minutes. Ibrahim is cut from the same cloth. Amongst Argyle’s contingent last season, only near-namesake Ibrahim Cissoko, who built his up mainly through dribbling, posted a higher figure than Ibrahim managed at Crawley Town.
| Player | Ground duels won per 90 |
| Ibrahim Cissoko | 8.17 |
| Bradley Ibrahim* | 5.51 |
| Darko Gyabu | 5.32 |
| Caleb Roberts | 5.16 |
| Adam Forshaw | 4.98 |
| Joe Edwards | 4.92 |
However, Ibrahim’s physicality is better demonstrated by his tackling. He’s a player who clearly loves to put his body on the line to win back possession, and it’s no surprise Crawley’s fans loved him during his loan spell. With 87, Ibrahim made more tackles than any other Argyle player last season, and his figure per 90 is equally impressive.
| Player | Tackles per 90 |
| Bradley Ibrahim* | 3.52 |
| Caleb Roberts | 3.28 |
| Julio Pleguezuelo | 3.06 |
| Joe Edwards | 3.01 |
| Brendan Galloway | 2.93 |
| Nathanael Ogbeta | 2.87 |
I am admittedly comparing players in different leagues here, and I’ll touch on that again later in the piece, but I don’t think it’s as relevant a concern here. Crawley and Argyle were both relegated last season, and Ibrahim recovered possession more frequently than any player across either squad. I certainly wouldn’t have minded if the Greens had him available last year.
Winning duels
I’m already impressed by Ibrahim’s willingness to get himself involved in duels. I’m even more impressed that last season, invariably, he came out on top in those duels. Thinking back to our analysis on Watts, I was cautious that whilst he was a willing battler, he wasn’t necessary excellent at actually winning duels, and needed to improve his success rate to really shine. Ibrahim, thankfully, has no such issue.
Last season, Ibrahim won 136 of the 244 ground duels he contested. That amounts to a ground duel success rate of 56%; whilst not outstanding, that’s more than acceptable. It has him operating on a similar level to, for example, Bali Mumba, who tends to win his duels through dribbling rather than tackling. Admittedly, this is where the argument around comparing leagues does matter a little more, as it’s naturally easier to win duels against lower quality opponents.
However, there are two points here in Ibrahim’s favour. First of all, Argyle were one of the best teams in the Championship for ground duels last season, and it’s already impressive that he compared favourably to the team’s average. Secondly, it’s not as if Ibrahim has to replicate his numbers whilst stepping up his level – he’s already been playing in League One. Mumba’s figure may get even better next season if he remains at Home Park, but I’ll have no issues if Ibrahim’s stays at the same level.
I should also mention that the impressive success rate also extends to Ibrahim’s tackling. Having made his 87 tackles last term, and been dribbled past on 26 occasions, he has an implied tackle success rate of 77%. Again, that’s comfortably above Argyle’s average. Admittedly, this may be inflated by the fact he committed a significant number of fouls (36 in all), but it suggests that he’s generally good at winning the ball, and if not he’s almost certain to take the man before he sprints away.
Rightly or wrongly, Argyle fans seem to love a tough-tackling defensive midfielder. Ibrahim passes that test with flying colours.
More disciplinary question marks
As I mentioned, Ibrahim has no problem resorting to a foul when he’s unable to win the ball cleanly. It’s part of the game, and it isn’t a problem if it succeeds in preventing the opposition developing good goalscoring opportunities. Where does it become problematic? Two ways: if he’s giving away needless free kicks in dangerous areas, and if he’s picking up frequent bookings, meaning he can’t play to quite the same combative level for the remainder of the game.
In all fairness, I am perhaps overplaying the fouling issue slightly. Ibrahim made a high number of fouls last year, but per 90 his number isn’t actually terrible. It amounted to 1.46 fouls per 90 on average, with 11 Argyle players committing fouls more frequently last season, sample size notwithstanding. For some added context, Muhamed Tijani committed an average of 3.19 fouls per 90 last year, and was a nightmare for defences in more ways than one.
Ibrahim, however, struggled with the second problematic aspect: picking up bookings. Looking again to our analysis of Watts, you’ll recall I described him picking up 13 yellow cards last term as “perversely impressive.” Ibrahim finds himself in the book even more regularly, having received 15 cautions. Given his minutes add up to just under 25 full matches, he easily picks up a booking more frequently than once every two games. It’s somewhat astonishing.
I think we can pinpoint two reasons behind Ibrahim picking up so many bookings, despite not actually committing as many fouls as his teammates. First of all, he plays in a deeper position than the likes of Watts, and his fouls are therefore more likely to be in dangerous areas. He’s far likelier than others to pick up a yellow for stopping a dangerous attack, for example. Secondly, given he’s only 20, he’s perhaps not yet experienced enough, not yet clever enough, to master the dark art of tactical fouls.
Annoyingly, I feel Muslic would be able to fine tune this to perfection, and turn Ibrahim into the best possible controlled battler. Alas, it’s Cleverley’s problem now, and I hope he’s able to find a solution. We know the sort of player Ibrahim can be when he’s allowed to be himself, and I’d hate to see his style hamstrung too often by picking up some early yellow cards. And, given he’s almost certainly going to face a suspension at some point, thank goodness we have Watts on the books too.
Suitability to Cleverley
Finally, we’re able to assess how one of these signings will look in the head coach’s system. Muslic was gone before I even put pen to paper on Watts, Jamie Paterson and Jack MacKenzie, but we now know that Ibrahim will be playing under Cleverley next season, and it’s worth investigating how that could play out.
As things stand, we can’t be 100% of Cleverley’s preferred shape. He tended to favour either a 3-4-2-1 or a 4-2-3-1 during his stint at Watford, but either or both of those could have been a necessity of circumstance, rather than shapes he genuinely prefers. Regardless though, I think it’s clear that Ibrahim is at his best as a deep midfielder, and he’d be part of a midfield double pivot in either of those systems.
Why a deep role? Well, he hasn’t exactly shown an ability to be a constant threat going forward. His creativity numbers didn’t stand out during his time at Crawley, and he only scored two goals last year. One was an absolute screamer against Wrexham, and I’m going to take the opportunity to show it because why the hell not? Just don’t expect it to be a weekly occurrence.
Playing in a double pivot isn’t exactly straightforward, and being a good tackler doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be successful. I think back to Yann Songo’o, who was an incredibly strong tackler but totally ill-equipped to play in a midfield two, particularly alongside David Fox – or “Argyle head of football operations David Fox,” to use his full name.
However, I’m slightly less concerned when it comes to Ibrahim, again for a couple of reasons. I think, for example, Ibrahim is a very different profile of player to Songo’o. For one, he’s a fair bit younger than Songo’o ever was during his Argyle spell, and he should therefore have the mobility to make the defensive runs in transition that Songo’o couldn’t. Furthermore, he’s not playing there as a converted centre back, and should be more familiar already with the intricacies of a midfield role.
Perhaps even more importantly, Ibrahim looks to be the sort of player who is completely comfortable in possession. It can be easy to assume that a combative player will naturally lack a little with the ball at his feet, but I can see no evidence whatsoever that this is the case with Ibrahim.
Last season, he attempted 1,181 passes, completing 945. The resulting pass success rate of 80% is highly encouraging, and comfortably above average for Argyle’s midfield options. And it isn’t just the quality of passing; the frequency is also notable. Lewis Gibson was the only player in Argyle’s ranks to complete more passes per 90 than Ibrahim last term.
| Player | Passes Completed per 90 |
| Lewis Gibson | 55.61 |
| Bradley Ibrahim* | 38.26 |
| Adam Forshaw | 36.42 |
| Kornel Szucs | 35.80 |
| Adam Randell | 32.92 |
| Malachi Boateng | 32.65 |
I think back to our analysis of Jack MacKenzie, where we discussed how he too can be surprisingly good in possession despite his general profile. I think too many have been guilty of writing MacKenzie off too early, assuming he’s a “Muslic specialist” who can’t succeed under a different system. I don’t believe that’s true, and I certainly don’t believe it applies to Ibrahim either. It’s rarely simple, but he has the raw skills to be successful in whichever system Cleverley deploys.