Anan Khelaili has played just five games for Crystal Palace but is already making noise in the Premier League.
After a summer of many changes, the Eagles are still trying to find their feet in the new campaign under Pierre Sage.
The Frenchman has given continuity to Oliver Glasner‘s 3-4-2-1 system. However, two of their three wins this term so far, across all competitions, have come against non-Premier League sides. They beat Lech Poznan 4-0 in the Europa League and Middlesbrough 3-0 in the Carabao Cup.
When facing fellow top-tier clubs, their fortunes haven’t been the same. Just one win over Fulham, in addition to one draw (Leeds United) and three losses (Everton, Manchester City, Ipswich Town). Though they were arguably unlucky not to win any points against the Toffees and the Tractor Boys.
Jean-Philippe Mateta and Eddie Nketiah missed a bunch of big chances before Everton opened the scoring, for example. And Palace were playing well against Ipswich before Axel Disasi‘s red card, which changed the whole outlook of the game.
So it’s fair to say things haven’t exactly gone well for the Eagles so far in the league. But one of their main – and perhaps only – bright sparks has been right-wing-back Anan Khalaili.
What makes Anan Khalaili’s start to life in the Premier League so impressive?
Combativeness
Khalaili absolutely does not shy away from any type of contact. In fact, numbers show there is no other player who gets as stuck in as him in the Premier League.
The Crystal Palace man leads the league in tackles, with a whopping 21 from just five games – despite coming off the bench once.
His main area of action has been the defending third. But this is because that’s where Crystal Palace spend most of their time. The Eagles average just 43% possession, the third lowest percentage of any side.
But that doesn’t mean Khalaili is a defensive full-back. For starters, while he ranks first in tackles, he is also the player who has been dribbled past the most (10) this season.
So despite not being a defensive stopper like prime Aaron Wan-Bissaka – who ironically made his name for the Eagles as well -, he is still first in true tackles attempted (33). And his success rate of 64% is the joint-highest of all players in the top-10, alongside Brentford‘s Mamadou Sangare and Nottingham Forest‘s Neco Williams.
But Khalaili also embraces attacking challenges, being the second defender with the most take-ons attempted in the Premier League so far (13). Only Newcastle United‘s Lewis Halls edges him in this regard (16).
Good connection with target men
All the contexts surrounding Crystal Palace don’t exactly allow Khalaili to showcase his attacking talent. Whether it’s Pierre Sage’s reactive nature as manager or in-game situations like Axel Disasi’s early red card.
The 22-year-old has created just three chances in five Premier League games, an average of 0.7 per 90 minutes. This is a considerable drop from the 1.8 he averaged last season for Royal Union Saint-Gillose in the Belgian Pro League.
While 1.8 isn’t necessarily other-worldly outstanding, he also created 14 big chances – the sixth most of any player. In the English top-flight, however, zero so far.
Khalaili also showed great ability to find target men inside the box last year. The players who were on the receiving end of his big chances created the most were 6’3” German striker Mateo Biondic (3) and 6’5” Promise David (3), now at Brighton and Hove Albion.
Similarly, two of Khalaili’s three chances created in the Premier League so far have been for Jorgen Strand Larsen. And they include Larsen’s biggest chance in terms of expected goals – a header worth 0.25 xG in stoppage time against Everton.
But despite the low attacking involvement, the Israeli full-back has already managed to score in the English top flight. It was a well-taken effort from outside the box to make it 1-0 against Ipswich.
Should he maintain his defensive production and get closer to his Saint-Gilloise form in the final third, Crystal Palace fans may not even miss Daniel Munoz.