As Derby County's season was drawing to its dark conclusion, one shining light was the emergence of Malcolm Ebiowei.

Bursting onto the scene in February, the former Arsenal and West Ham United youth player excited fans at Pride Park in the closing months of the season.

In the end, the 18-year-old racked up 16 Championship appearances in the second half of the campaign, starting their last 11 matches.

The youngster's performances in these matches impressed, with boss Wayne Rooney offering some high praise after Derby's 1-1 draw with Coventry back in March.

"I thought he was excellent all game, the best player on the pitch. It was one of the best performances I have seen from a young player, consistently for 90 minutes, in a long time." Rooney said on the 18-year-old, via the Manchester Evening News.

High praise indeed from Rooney there, and he is not the only only one to have been impressed by the youngster.

With his contract expiring at Derby, Manchester United and Crystal Palace have been linked with a move for the winger this summer.

With that being said, here, we've taken a look at Ebiowei's season in numbers to see what sort of a player the two clubs could be getting.

All of these stats are courtesy of WyScout and only cover a small sample of 16 games due to Ebiowei breaking into the Derby team in the latter stages of the campaign.

Performance in numbers

When looking at Ebiowei's stats, the one thing that instantly stands out are his dribbling skills.

Ebiowei averaged 13.59 dribbles per 90 in the Championship in 21/22, with 48.1% of these being successful.

Similarly, the 18-year-old made 4.97 progressive runs per 90.

 

 

Whilst his success rate could do with a bit of work, the sheer volume of his willingness to run with the ball still results in over six successful dribbles per 90.

Another area to be positive about is his direct goal threat, with the youngster averaging 0.17 xG per 90, and 0.15 assists per 90.

Whilst these aren't the highest numbers, we have to remember that these 16 appearances are the first 16 of his senior career.

Ebiowei also wins a decent percentage of his offensive duels, for his age, with a 43.6% win rate on 20.56 offensive duels per 90.

To average those numbers now, just imagine what they could be in one, two, three years time.

Potential is the big thing you take away from examining Ebiowei's statistics for the campaign.

Whilst his passing accuracy was also a strength at %70.1, his crossing success (26.5%) and shot on target percentage (28.6%) suggest there is still some work to do in these areas.

That, though, is to be expected at 18-years-old.

One thing is for sure, Manchester United or Crystal Palace would be getting themselves a talented, exciting player with incredible potential were they to secure Ebiowei's signature this summer.