Who is Adam Maher? Probing Toon’s latest target
Posted on March 20th, 2012 | 37 Comments |
One thing which is certain is that the club have been scouting him quite closely, and if they were planning a “daring raid / swoop” on the player, the fee could be probably be in the area of around £3 – 5 million for this very promising youngster, who is the youngest player to score for any Dutch club in the Europa League (apparently). The bad news is that the club may face some fairly stiff competition from several other suitors, though this is hardly surprising with excellent young players like Maher.
Despite his young age, the Dutch-Morroccan teenager has been a regular in the AZ Alkmaar first team (who are currently topping the Dutch Eredivisie). He is a product of their youth academy, having been on the club’s books since the tender age of eleven.
Another mischief making making story in the execrable Daily Fail has been reporting that Newcastle have been looking at Maher as a replacement for Cheick Tiote. Though the players are both central midfielders with Maher also playing on the right, they are both different animals with Maher being more of the attacking and playmaking variety, and he certainly isn’t goal shy (see below).
Anyway, here are his stats for AZ Alkmaar so far (from ESPN).
Maher’s AZ Alkmaar stats (All competitions) | |||||||||
2011/12 | |||||||||
GS | SB | Gs | As | Sh | SG | YC | RC | FC | FS |
27 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 15 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 17 |
2010/11 | |||||||||
GS | SB | Gs | As | Sh | SG | YC | RC | FC | FS |
0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
GS: Games Started, SB: Substitute appearences, Gs: Goals, As: Assists, Sh: Shots, SG: Shots on goal, YC: Yellow Cards, RC: Red Cards, FC: Fouls Committed, FS: Fouls Suffered.
As you can see, he has a fairly remarkable return in terms of goals for a midfielder, but interestingly, nothing in the way of assists, although he is a playmaker with top notch passing skills.
Here’s what a scouting report has to say on the youngster:
“Technically excellent, comfortable with both feet and with a commanding confidence, he’s not afraid to seek possession anywhere on the pitch, and then uses his mature decision making to rarely give it away.
“Maher ‘s game is all about passing and movement. On the ball, he has exceptional vision, can pick instinctive long and short range passes and always keeps the ball moving, to help quicken the tempo. Off it, he has good timing with bursts into the box, has illusive movement and spots spaces incredibly well.
“He needs some work on his finishing, but with delightful close control, composure and a good range of power in both feet, it looks like being only a matter of time before he can find the number of goals Cesc Fàbregas does – a player Maher’s assistant coach Martin Haar compares him to. It’s easy to see why.
“The ground work may well be there though, but he’s not quite polished yet. At five foot seven inches, he’s not the biggest, and not the strongest. Maher’s physical work is improving, but he is still susceptible to being roughed up. On top of that, he’s still quite raw, which means he hasn’t held down a set role in central midfield yet.
“He’s at his best when given a licence to roam behind the strikers, where he can drift wide and create space, or deliver dangerous crosses. However, Maher has looked cultured and effective in a deeper play-maker role, so a future as a box-to-box player may well stand him in good stead. Finding the balance is important.
“Overall, Maher is a brilliant prospect. His exceptional range of passing, both in variation and accuracy, combined with close control, movement and intelligence, make him unlike many teenage sensations, in having hype that is genuinely warranted.”
And another one:
“Maher is technically top-class, as you would expect from a player coming through any youth system in Holland – but he is already a step above.
“His passing is top-class, comfortable in possession he very rarely gives away the ball.
“He is already attracting interest from Barcelona, AC Milan, Manchester City and Lyon – highlighting his progress in the last 12 months.
“Maher actually only made his debut for AZ in December 2010, but within that small period has already become a key member of Gertjan Verbeek’s squad.”
All of which seems to be fair enough from the little I have seen of him in Eredivisie games, so I can’t really add anything to that, especially so as I wasn’t “scouting” him, concentrating more on Ajax and the considerable talents of Jan Vertonghen, another Eredivisie star who will almost certainly be led to market in the summer, though with Arsenal being the team being currently most closely linked. But I digress. I will certainly be keeping more of an eye on Maher when I can, and you can judge a little bit for yourselves using the Dennis Wise scouting method.
Do you think that he would be a good Summer signing for the Magpies?
Adam Maher on video
There certainly seems to be no shortage here! (Once again, apologies for the generally awful music soundtracks)
Adam Maher – 2011-2012.
Adam Maher vs Feyenoord.
Adam Maher – August 2011.
Adam Maher: Goals, assists, skills.
Adam Maher skills.
Adam Maher I’m Star [sic].
Adam Maher Talent.
Adam Maher – AZ Alkmaar 2011.
Phew!
The amount of red cards the stats show scares me.. unless its a mistake