It’s safe to say Southampton have had a sorry season. They are relegated to the championship and the way back to the Premier League may be difficult for the Saints. There have been a number of changes off the pitch in terms of staff leaving and there will be more changes as the club prepares for the season in the Championship.
A number of players are expected to leave the club during the summer. The squad has some highly-rated youngsters who will now be approached by the top-tier clubs of Europe. One among those is Armel Bella-Kotchap.
The 21-year-old, signed from German club VfL Bochum in the summer of 2022, has already made it to the German senior national team having been part of the Germany World Cup squad. But the centre-back was a regular part of the German youth setup especially the U21s before making the step up to the senior team. Still only 21 years old, Armel Bella-Kotchap is expected to be a part of this summer’s U21 European Championships.
The below visualisation shows the numbers of Bella-Kotchap this season for Southampton in the Premier League.
Bella-Kotchap is used to playing on either side of the central defence, but he mostly plays as a left-sided centre-back for his club. With the right height for a central defender, Bella-Kotchap possesses a strong ability to defend 1v1 duels and a strong aerial ability — rightly so, he ranks above average for both of these metrics.
He is also not afraid to carry the ball forward from the deep almost like a box-to-box defender and hence he ranks quite high for dribbles per 90 minutes. His ability to anticipate danger constantly and be at the right place at the right time makes him better than most defenders of his age and that ability of his means he ranks above average for positioning as well.
There was a lot of hype surrounding Bella-Kotchap’s move to Southampton in the summer and it is fair to say, the defender has somewhat lived up to the expectations despite the Saints’ overall poor campaign. Now, he is surely ready to make the step up to the bigger clubs but before that, he will want to play a part to help his team defend the U21 Euros title in the summer.
