Mohanad Jeahze scouted: The Celtic transfer linked Iraqi left-back with 'heightened athleticism' and eye for a pass

Background and player profile

Jeahze is a Sweden-born Iraq international currently playing for Hammarby IF in the Allsvenskan. The 5ft 10in, 25-year-old left-back has worked his way up from the Norrkoping youth academy to one of the top teams in Swedish football, developing into one of the league's best full-backs along the way.

He gained valuable experience as a youngster in the second tier through various loans at clubs such as Degerfors and Syrianska. The toughest part of his career came when he moved away from Norrkoping permanently to newly-promoted Brommapojkarna in 2018. Despite having potential, he couldn’t claim a starting place and played just 10 times as his side were relegated.

Even though he had a four-year contract, Jeahze terminated his deal after just one season as he prioritised game-time. From here he would join Mjallby AIF in the second tier where his career would start to take off.

He played a pivotal role in leading his side to promotion and into the Allsvenskan. After an injury-hit start to the campaign, Jeahze began impressing in the top flight and, come August, one of the top sides picked him up for an undisclosed fee. After this move to Hammarby, he has gone from strength to strength, developing technically and defensively to become one of the league’s best talents.

During this rise, despite representing Sweden at youth level, he chose to represent Iraq where he is now a full international. His biggest achievement to date was helping his side win the Swedish Cup. This was nearly eclipsed recently as his side fell just short of achieving European group stage football for the first time as they fell to Basel in the conference playoffs on penalties.

With all of his success in Sweden so far, it’s no surprise to see a club like Celtic now linked to the Iraqi left-back as they look to bolster their defensive options for next season.

Historic data

Jeahze since moving to Hammarby has continuously improved his creative output. His strong acceleration and crossing ability have made him one of his side's most effective weapons for creating chances. This has led to him also becoming one of the team's set-piece takers where his side, similar to Celtic deploy many short corner routines. He is able to get himself to the byline and often prioritises low cutback crosses which help increase his success rate. This wide play is also accompanied with very direct central passing into half-spaces and into the opposition box.

Compared to Celtic’s current starting left-back Greg Taylor, who was also extremely creative for a full-back under Neil Lennon, we can see that the burden of output has been taken away from him. This has been as Ange Postecoglou redirects full-backs into the inverted role to help with build-up play and get his more attacking players on the ball in forward positions. With good technical ability on the ball, Jeahze should be capable of adapting to this role as long as he can be positionally aware.

Heatmaps

Below are Jeahze’s and Taylor’s heatmaps for the current season. The difference is stark with Taylor, as expected with a dominant Celtic side, getting on the ball a lot. We can also see Postecoglou’s tactics at work with Taylor getting on the ball a lot centrally specifically.

Jeahze, however, has played as a more natural left-back, hugging the touchline and trying to hit the byline when he gets forward. If brought in, it would be good for Celtic to get this deal done quickly to give him as much time as possible to adapt to the new system he would be playing.

Hammarby are currently top of the Swedish league and averaging 55 per cent possession per game, which is the most dominant they have been since he arrived. This period of dominance might give Celtic their best look at how he may adapt to a side that sees even more of the ball.

Defensive radar

Using WyScout data, these radars can give a strong visualisation of how Jeahze compares to Taylor.

Taylor is one of Scotland’s best ground duellers, with a success rate of over 70 per cent. He has also been effective at adopting Postecoglou's aggressive system of trying to win the ball back as quickly as possible as shown by his 6.83 possession-adjusted interceptions.

Jeahze is an average dueller and his side's system isn’t as aggressive off the ball. His big advantage over Taylor is easy to see, being more aerially dominant and winning over 60 per cent of his aerial duels. Another area of strength he has over Taylor is acceleration and recovery speed as he is more athletic. This can be seen with more possession-adjusted sliding tackles as he uses this to recover the ball when out of position.

On the ball radar

On the ball, Taylor shows his key attributes and is one of the most secure players in the league. This can be seen as he tops - or nearly tops - passing, forward passing and short/medium passing accuracy.

Despite Taylor’s dominance, Jeahze is no slouch providing a lot of verticality in his passing even though he is on the ball less often than Taylor. His crossing and creativity strengths are reflected with 0.24 xA, more than double what Taylor provides. His heightened athleticism allows him to beat opposition players and progress the ball at a better rate than Taylor as well.

The examples below give an indication of Jeahze’s vision and willingness to play the ball centrally to forwards into the half spaces.

These types of passes have become extremely common from full-backs in Postecoglou’s system as he looks to pull the opposition defence out of their shape. This is likely one of the main reasons Celtic are reportedly tracking the accomplished left-back.

Conclusions

Overall Jeahze would provide much needed competition and depth for Taylor’s position and role in the side.

Liam Scales doesn’t look to have the required profile and playing Josip Juranovic out of position would be impractical long-term.

With Jeahze's contract up in winter 2023, Celtic could look to bring him in for a minimal fee early in the window as they look towards a probable Champions League campaign.