My Little Project: Keeping Tabs on Ndicka
Alright, so this Evan Ndicka thing. It wasn’t some grand plan, like I woke up one day and decided, “Today, I will become an Ndicka expert!” Nah, it’s never like that with me. It usually starts with a flicker, something small that catches my eye when I’m just, you know, watching the game, minding my own business.
I remember first properly noticing him, I think it was one of those midweek European games, the kind that’s on when you’re trying to wind down but still need some background noise. He was playing for Frankfurt back then, if my memory serves me right. What struck me wasn’t some fancy footwork or a wonder goal. It was his presence. For a young guy, he seemed pretty composed, not easily rattled. That’s rare, you see. A lot of young defenders, they either try too hard, get all aggressive and pick up silly cards, or they look like they’re about to wet their pants under pressure.
So, I thought, “Hmm, this kid’s got something.” It wasn’t a “practice” in the formal sense, more like I just mentally bookmarked him. I started to specifically look out for him when Frankfurt was playing. Just little things:
- How did he handle fast attackers?
- Did he communicate well with his backline? (Hard to tell from TV, but you get a vibe.)
- What was his body language like after a mistake?
Then the whole transfer saga started. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the rumour mill was linking him everywhere. That’s when my “practice” kicked into higher gear. It’s funny how that works, isn’t it? A player you casually observe suddenly becomes this hot commodity, and you feel a bit smug, like, “Yeah, I saw that potential ages ago.” Even if “ages ago” was just a few months of half-arsed observation.
The move to Roma, that was interesting. A different league, different pressures. I was curious to see how he’d adapt. Serie A, it’s not the Bundesliga. It’s got its own brand of cunning, old-school defending mixed with some surprisingly attacking football these days. My “practice” then involved trying to catch Roma games whenever I could, which isn’t always easy with work and, well, life.
What I’ve seen so far? Well, he’s still got that calmness, most of the time. He’s big, he’s strong, good in the air. Standard stuff for a modern center-back, I guess. But there’s also that learning curve. You see moments where the pace or the trickery of Italian attackers catches him out a tiny bit. It’s all part of the game, part of settling in. No one walks into a new top league and just owns it from day one, unless you’re some kind of freak of nature, and even then, there are bumps.
This whole thing of “following” a player, it’s not about stats for me. Stats are fine, but they don’t tell you the whole story. They don’t tell you about the split-second decisions, the positioning that snuffs out an attack before it even shows up on the stat sheet, or the quiet leadership. That’s the stuff I try to pick up on. It’s more of an art than a science, my little “practice.” And with Ndicka, the picture is still being painted. It’s been an interesting watch so far, that’s for sure. Keeps the games a bit more engaging when you’ve got these little side-narratives running in your head.
And honestly, it beats just yelling at the TV, though I still do plenty of that too.
