Omar Marmoush Scout Report At St. Pauli 2020/2021: Tracking The Egyptian’s Bundesliga Journey – Player Analysis

A couple of months ago, I analysed Rodrigo Zalazar of St. Pauli, an exciting, young, and dynamic central-midfielder on loan from Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt.

Now, I am looking at his teammate, also on loan from a Bundesliga club, this time a player vying from north Germany rather than the south.

Omar Marmoush has had some journey from Egypt to Germany, but now, in the second tier of German football, he is proving to people why VfL Wolfsburg purchased him in the first place and the talent they saw within him from his time in the African country.

This analysis will examine the player he might become.

In this Omar Marmoush scout report, we will cover his role at St. Pauli, his pros and cons as a player, and the level he could reach in the future.

Omar Marmoush Player profile

Born in a small town in Cairo, Egypt, Marmoush was only ever a stones throw away from an Egyptian club named Wadi Degla SC, which he joined at a very young age.

At the time, they had yet to reach the highest tier of Egyptian football.

Going through his childhood and teenage years with them, it was in 2017, when Marmoush was 18 years old, would he impress enough to be poached by Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga.

In Egypt, to garner the attention of a European club at that age was, and still is, incredibly indicative of his superb talent.

For a fee of just under £100k, Marmoush joined Wolfsburg when they were building a great young team.

There were chances galore for youth players to train with the first team and prove their worth.

Victor Osimhen (now at Napoli), Maximilian Arnold, and Yannick Gerhardt, to name just a few, have been given chances.

In the case of Osimhen, extenuating circumstances meant he did not thrive at the German club but has experienced success since.

Marmoush has not had an easy ride at Wolfsburg so far, but with time, he could prove his worth.

Standing at 5’10” / 177cm, Marmoush is a dynamic, albeit raw centre-forward who spent time as a youth operating as a winger.

When you watch him play today, that is clear to see.

He is direct with the ball at his feet, constantly engaging in 1v1s, cleverly manipulating his body from one side to the other to glide past his opponents, alongside a cheeky flair skill move in the process.

In front of the goal, he relies heavily on his stronger right foot to score goals, which we will discuss later.

Omar Marmoush Data Profile

Omar Marmoushs player profile was created by the wonderful Sathish Prasad (@SathishPrasadVT on Twitter).

Omar Marmoush Clever movement and finishing

In a 4-1-2-1-2/4-3-1-2 formation, Marmoush has been paired up front with former Schalke striker Guido Burgstaller, which has been relatively successful.

Burgstaller—who was injured for much of the first half of the season—has proved to be a brilliant player that Marmoush could play off of and combine with.

Through Burgstaller’s industry and physical presence and Marmoush’s irritating directness with the ball at his feet, defenders have a difficult time contending with the pair of them.

xG Per 90 Vs Goals Per 90  2.Bundesliga Strikers

Scatter plot of 2.Bundesliga strikers xG per 90 compared with goals per 90.

Despite his success since joining St. Pauli, his goalscoring rate has been above expected values.

After viewing his footage extensively, I can conclude that this is for several reasons, mainly because he is on a hot scoring streak, scoring from unlikely angles.

Given Timo Schultzs systems lack of natural wingers, he spends a good portion of his time on the pitch in wide zones.

As a result, many of his shots come from locations where he has carried the ball into the penalty area from a wide area.

However, we will discuss Omar Marmoushs ball-carrying later.

For now, let’s examine his movement.

The Egyptian possesses a decent pace that he utilises wisely in the final third for the most part (similar to his national counterpart at Liverpool, Mo Salah), but this is undoubtedly a part of his game that could be improved.

He typically releases the ball at the latest moment possible, so much of his movement is limited to completing a one-two that he has orchestrated.

Further afield, Marmoush keeps the ball in a tight area and offloads to a supporting player before running into his own space to receive the ball again.

Although it may be a hot streak in terms of finishing, it has demonstrated some fantastic technical fundamentals.

Marmoush prefers to shoot from the right, where he can strike the ball across his body into the left-hand side of the goal.

This is usually at the climax of a dribble into the box, but he does well to slow down his running pace, arch his body over the ball, and strike the ball cleanly with the inside of his boot.

Marmoush leaves his opponent backpedalling, enabling him to enter the penalty area.

Omar Marmoush completes the stepover, shifting from left to right, creates half a yard of space, and expertly finishes into the bottom left with utter composure.

The 22-year-old is not limited to right-footed finishes, as all seven of his goals thus far have come from his stronger foot.

Marmoushs dribbling ability has ensured his passage into the penalty area from the left side, where he has also demonstrated his ability to shoot with his left foot ably.

Having said that, you hope the talented Egyptian can show more conviction or variation in the future to add to his unpredictability, making him such a threat.

Inside the penalty area, the keeper shifts to his left, and Marmoush does strike to his right, but the keeper puts a leg to it, to get in the way.

Omar Marmoush Dribbling prowess

If one were to look at Marmoush’s heatmap, one would see a concerningly small period of time spent inside the penalty area, much deeper and wider than you might expect from a #9.

The 22-year-old enjoys receiving the ball to feet so he can drive at the oppositions defence and disrupt their structure.

He could have stayed higher up the pitch occasionally, but his dribbling ability is a significant benefit to his team overall.

Dribbles Per 90 Vs Progressive Runs Per 90  2.Bundesliga Strikers

Scatter plot of 2.Bundesliga striker’s dribbles per 90 with progressive runs per 90.

As we can see from the visual data above, Marmoush excels at ball-carrying.

He attempts an extraordinarily high number of dribbles for a centre-forward, and he completes them at a decent rate (41.38%), considering the challenging conditions under which some of these dribbles are attempted and their sheer volume.

These, by virtue, translate into progressive runs too, indicative of his attacking intent in the final third to destabilise the opposition.

Mentioned further up the piece was the fact that much of Marmoush’s time on a pitch is spent in wide areas rather than inside the penalty area.

He tends to drop deeper, collect the ball to feet, turn, and off he goes.

At 5’10”, Marmoush has a nice balance between good upper-body strength whilst remaining agile enough to complete neat little touches to bring the ball past his opponent.

Thanks to a great leap, Marmoush outreaches the defender to head on the ball towards a teammate.

The Egyptian is all for flair skills to get past his opponents as well.

It is not uncommon to see him approach a defender with the ball at his feet, leave a couple of feet’s distance between the two, and produce something like a stepover, a flip-flap, a ‘Ronaldo’ chop, or otherwise.

Shifting from left to right is his usual port to call an