The Vancouver Whitecaps have signed Senegal international Cheikh Sabaly from FC Metz in Ligue 1. Sabaly, who will turn 27 next month, has extensive experience in Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. He also has 6 caps for Senegal, including being part of the recent AFCON winning side.

Metz is a yo-yo club in France, so Sabaly has been back and forth between the top two French divisions quite a lot. He has generally struggled to have an impact in Ligue 1, but had an absolutely insane 24/25 season in Ligue 2. In many ways, it’s a career story that mirrors Emmanuel Sabbi’s. That 24/25 season actually got him on a spreadsheet for a previous edition of Sensible Whitecaps Transfers. So, what are we to make of Sabaly’s career so far?

Most Recent Ligue 1 Season:

Now, obviously this is not great. But it’s very hard to score on a relegation candidate in a top-5 league. The Whitecaps are much stronger relative to their competition than Metz, and MLS is an easier league to score in. So, we can pretty confidently predict that Sabaly will score at a higher rate than this. We also see some positive parts of Sabaly’s game that remain consistent no matter what level he is at. He wins a high percentage of the dribbles he attempts, and he (almost) always has a lot of defensive actions.

Most Recent Ligue 2 Season:

This is the season that’s got me excited. Playing as the little man in a big man/little man striker partnership, Sabaly had by far the most productive season of his career. He put up a very strong 0.48 xG+xA/90, the bulk of which was xG. He also had a lot of progressive actions for a striker, though less in terms of raw numbers than when he played on the wing. I have seen a lot of people talking about Sabaly as a replacement for Ali Ahmed. They do have some surface level similarities in that they are both small guys who dribble a lot. But I do think it’s notable that Sabaly is much more of a goals guy compared to Ahmed, who was more of a wide-playmaker. In fact, I think the biggest question mark around this signing is how the Whitecaps can get the best out of him. You might look at the two radars I have presented so far and conclude that Sabaly is a strong player at the Ligue 2 level who turns back into a pumpkin in Ligue 1. There have been a ton of players who weren’t quite good enough to have an impact in the top-5 European leagues who are beasts in MLS. But when we go back further in Sabaly’s career, things get a bit more complicated.

22/23 Ligue 2 Season:

In Sabaly’s age 24 season, he was still doing some good dribbling, still getting involved defensively, but his outputs can only be described as Venuto-esque. This was on a team that got promoted! Now, this was three years ago, so you can argue how relevant it is to his performance today. But one thing that stands out to me is that he was mostly playing on the wing this season. If we look at Sabaly’s highlights from his highly productive 24/25 season, we see that most of his goals are coming from him receiving the ball in central areas.

Of course, we’re just spitballing here based on stats and whatever highlights are uploaded to YouTube. I don’t have access to full Ligue 2 matches from 2023. But let’s say that playing centrally, or at least receiving the ball in the centre of the pitch, is vital to Sabaly’s productivity. That presents some tactical problems. Sabaly doesn’t really have the profile to play as a lone striker and, even if he did, that spot is locked down by Brian White. Similarly, I doubt he’s displacing Thomas Müller from the #10 role. The most likely solution is to play him nominally on the wing but have him pinch in centrally in possession. But, other than Bruno Caicedo, pretty much all of Vancouver’s wide players want to come centrally. Are you going to flood the central zone and rely on the fullbacks to provide width? Vanni Sartini did that to some success in 2023, but that was with a 4-3-2-1 rather than a 4-2-3-1. The current set-up might make you a bit open to counter-attacks if both fullbacks are pushed forward.

But overall, I think this question mark is a relatively minor one. Sabaly is a player with a strong pedigree, in his prime, who has a recent history of strong performances at a level roughly similar to MLS. The Whitecaps are reportedly getting him at a cut rate because Metz are choosing to cash in on him before his current contract expires. There is a ton to like about this deal.

By my count, the Whitecaps do have the international spots to make this happen, having loaned Joedrick Pupe and with a Giuseppe Bovalina loan seemingly imminent. However, they would still need to clear a senior roster spot. That may mean that the bell tolls for JC Ngando, who would start for a lot of MLS teams but doesn’t have a clear spot in the Whitecaps’ current set-up. That would also free up an international slot, which could be used for a patented Schuster mid-season splash. Anybody else on the senior roster who moved out would be a fairly major departure that would need to be replaced. I also think this move makes a Nelson Pierre loan quite likely, but that’s just speculation.