HABIB DIARRA: EXPERT VIEW

Now that Habib Diarra is officially a Sunderland player, we spoke to Ligue 1 journalist Luke Entwistle who watched Habib extensively last season...

Diarra was heavily linked with a move to Leeds as well as several other clubs. Why do you think he's chosen Sunderland? Surely Regis Le Bris and Florent Ghisolfi have played a big part in this one?

I think the deciding factor may have been the fact that Sunderland could reach an agreement with Strasbourg at a significantly higher price than Leeds were potentially willing to pay. Sunderland of course have the money from going up, as have Leeds, but they’ve also got the money from that Jobe Bellingham sale which may have proven decisive. For Strasbourg a reported fee of 37 million Euros is a huge sum. It’s a record for them, they’ve never sold a player at that price before. That, more than anything, is going to be the decisive factor in why he’s going to the Stadium of Light. It’s what Sunderland can offer Strasbourg, who actually told Diarra at the end of last summer that he would be able to leave this season. That was a promise made by club president Marc Keller when he signed his last contract extension. That has been honoured and Keller spoke about that promise quite frequently and the fact that they wouldn’t go back on that promise. I think those are probably the biggest factors.

Obviously Florent Ghisolfi is French and has experience in France through his time at Lens and then OGC Nice, where I spoke with him a few times, and of course Regis Le Bris is another French connection, but I think that link there can be potentially overstated. Especially since Diarra is a Senegalese international, born in Senegal. He remains Francophone but I’m not sure if it’s necessarily going to be that big of a pull. Maybe there’s more of a network that Ghisolfi can lean on, but Habib is a player that has been on the radar of lots of teams for quite a long time, and not just those in the UK. I think for lots of people watching Ligue 1 he was an obvious pick for lots of clubs and I did think he might have gone to a club slightly higher up the pyramid, but Sunderland are now a Premier League side and one that were clearly prepared to pull out all the stops to get the deal over the line. Really, it’s the financial means behind the deal that really made Strasbourg’s mind up for them.

People have compared him to Jobe Bellingham because they're both athletic box-to-box midfielders. Do you agree with that? What's Diarra's style of play?

I don’t mind that comparison. I’ve not seen too much of Jobe truthfully, just a couple of games. But Diarra has quite a languid style, really eye-catching when he is on the ball in terms of the way he moves. He really likes being on the ball, he’s not a midfielder who is going to lay it off at the first opportunity. He likes to drive from deep and arrive at the edge of the box. He can play deeper in the midfield but he’s best when he’s playing in more of a Bellingham/Lampard kind of role where he’s crashing into the box, overlapping at the last minute, pulling it back from the byline. That’s really a major facet of his game. I see the comparisons there, even though I’ve seen a lot more of Diarra than I have of Bellingham. Stylistically, there are potentially similarities that can be drawn between the two.

When outfield players come over from Ligue 1, there's always the worry that they won't adapt to English football. Do you think Diarra may struggle to acclimatise at all? Perhaps the French contingent at SAFC might help him in this sense?

I actually think recent history should dispel any notion that French league players struggle when coming to the Premier League. I think there are much bigger struggles when it comes to German players making the switch, at least attackers from the Bundesliga. But I think looking at the recent record of Ligue 1 exports, they are some of the players who have adapted and integrated quickest into their respective teams. That is because of the similarities in playstyle between the Premier League and Ligue 1. The French league’s image is maybe scorned a little bit by the UK but it is extremely physical and fast-paced. It’s a real transitional game where you come up against strong players, low blocks, lots of duals. These are the hallmarks of Ligue 1 football and this is very much its identity - especially in a team which really aims to create young players, these are really the profiles that are being pushed in French football by French academies. It’s what they’re looking for and it’s also what the Premier League is looking for. 

So, even though Diarra is quite a slight figure, I wouldn’t worry about him struggling with the physicality of the Premier League because Ligue 1 tends to be more physical, albeit less technical, than the Premier League. He won’t be getting outmuscled or be shrinking in games, he won’t struggle to have an influence in midfield. I think French players are very much built through the academy system to deal with these situations and this physicality which the Premier League is also renowned for.

We do have a large French contingent at Sunderland but how's his English?

Personally I’ve never heard him speak English but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t speak it! English is the language most spoken at Strasbourg since the BlueCo takeover and Liam Rosenior was appointed as manager. There was the arrival of lots of international players like Sebastian Nanasi and Emmanual Emegha, plus a mix of English and Irish players. You could really rattle through their squad and look at how internationalised it has become, whereas before it was very French-centric. So, given that English is the language of the club and has been since they were taken over by BlueCo, I imagine that at the very least Diarra’s understanding of the language is very strong. That’s an assumption I’m making.

He captained Strasbourg last season, do you think he's ready to step into Sunderland's side and quickly become a leadership figure this season?

Despite being the captain, he’s not someone who ever really speaks to the media. He’s someone who doesn’t tend to take the limelight and I think that’s probably natural given the huge characters who are in that Strasbourg dressing room. Those players do speak to the media a lot more than he does.

He was almost the captain by default because there has been so much turnover at that club. The squad is so ridiculously young which makes Diarra one of the more experienced heads. Just as another example, Andre Santos captained Strasbourg a lot too. So, Habib may have leadership qualities and I don’t know how he is within the dressing room but I wouldn’t read too much into that age as much as you would with other clubs, just because of the extremely low average age of this Strasbourg side and the fact that he’s come through the academy and was one of the more anchored elements of that side. That’s why he became quite an evident choice in that regard.

What are his key strengths and weaknesses?

In terms of his weaknesses, it depends what you’re going to be asking of him. When he goes forward there are certain things he does less but I think that is simply stylistic. I don’t think you’d really want to change his style, especially given how effective he has been for Strasbourg this year, chipping in with goals and assists. He doesn’t pass the ball as much as you’d expect for a player in his position, but I wouldn’t outline that as a weakness. As I say, it’s more just part of his profile and what he brings to the team. If he’s being asked to play slightly deeper I think he could do slightly better in terms of his anticipation and also his general combativeness, I suppose, off the ball from deep. He was often involved in a very high press with Strasbourg so, even though statistically he doesn’t fare too well in the defensive numbers, I think you can look beyond that and look at the wider context in terms of what he’s being asked to do. He’s good, he’s diligent, he does the hard running, but maybe if he’s being asked to play a bit deeper then that combativeness might be something to work on in the Premier League.

Finally, he's only 21 so there's plenty of room for development. These things are impossible to predict but where do you see Habib's ceiling being?

It’s always hard to predict, especially with a player like him because he is a bit of a hybrid profile. He’s not quite a number ten, probably more of an eight, not really a six. Different players in different positions peak at different ages and I think a player of his profile will probably peak around the age of 25-27. At that point, it’s all about your reading of the game, when to make the runs, when to hold back, when to play the perfect pass. He already has a pretty good understanding of when to do those kinds of things but I think his true level will be more easily exposed once he’s played for Sunderland. It’ll become quite evident quite quickly how high he can go, whereas at Strasbourg, especially last season which was his best season there, he’s been working in a side that has been functioning really well all year. In that situation, lots of players catch the eye. I do think Diarra is a player who needs the elements around him to be working as well, with runners, he needs players to pick out. He’s not someone who can do it all on his own, even though he is someone who likes to drive with the ball and reads the game well. I would be cautious to say exactly how high he can go, I wouldn’t want to oversell - or undersell!

Naturally there will be an adaptation period, as there is for any player joining a new club almost without exception, but I think by the middle of the season there could already be a lot of raving about him as a player and his incredible potential. I think it’s all going to be very much linked to how he fares in his opening few months in the Premier League, that will be really revealing as to how high he can go in the game.