Why you keep hearing about Mo Eisa
Mo Eisa is a name you’re going to start hearing a lot. If you haven’t already. Eisa currently turns out for Cheltenham Town in League 2, England’s fourth tier. He signed in the summer from eighth division Greenwich Borough. He scored 57 goals in two seasons, so Cheltenham brought in the 22 year old. He was expected to be a backup striker to a side aiming for League 2 playoffs.
As soon as he joined, he began scoring goals in preseason for fun. Due to injuries and impressive performances he earned his starting spot and hasn’t looked back since. He has now scored 22 league goals in his first professional season. The most goals scored in League 2 by a Cheltenham player in a season. There is a tight race for League 2 top scorer, with Eisa two goals behind Accrington’s Billy Kee and two ahead of Luton’s Danny Hylton. Eisa also made the three man shortlist for League 2 Player of the Season. As well as just receiving League 2 Player of the Month for March.
A 23 year old scoring 23 league goals in his first professional season catches the attention of bigger clubs. Cheltenham quickly signed him to a new contract lasting until 2020 when they realised the calibre of player they had unearthed. Championship and some Premier League clubs will be queueing up in summer to sign him. Here is what you need to know about Eisa, and why you should be calling for him at your club.
Goal Scoring and Movement
Eisa is a natural goal scorer and is the reason for this success. The Sudanese striker scores a variety of goals. Often scoring poacher’s goals, picking up loose balls in the box and exploiting defensive errors. He has good positioning in the box and awareness. Often anticipating where the ball will fall and the actions of defenders.
Eisa has good pace and acceleration. He possesses bursts of speed over short distances to beat men and get behind defensive lines.
In this example, Eisa hugs the offside line and stands in the gap between the full back and centre back. A long ball comes over the top directly to Eisa who gets behind the defence. Eisa then uses his strength to shrug off the right back before calmly finishing the ball over the out-rushing goalkeeper. Showing composure in a 3v1 and a great, calm finish.
Eisa possesses a great first touch and extreme composure in the box. In this goal against Coventry, the defender’s positioning is poor, he is too focused on the ball and lets Eisa get behind him, meaning that he doesn’t know where he is. The ball comes in and Eisa takes a brillinat touch, killing the ball. He waits patiently as the defender dives in, Eisa calmly moves the ball round him and sends the keeper the wrong way.
In this example, Eisa drops slightly deeper into midfield and lays the ball off to Morrell. The ball gets cycled wide Taylor Moore from right back. After laying off the ball Eisa is in space between the lines, me made a good run into the box unmarked, behind the back of the left back who doesn’t follow, and the centre back doesn’t come to meet his run. Leaving him open for a diving header.
The pacey striker often looks to get in behind. His touch can be very impressive but is inconsistent at times. However, his composure and balance allows him to regain control of the ball and score in difficult situations.
Receiving the Ball
In League 2, teams often play a lot of long balls. It’s traditional to have a large target man up front. Like Akinfenwa for Wycombe or Akinde for Barnet. Eisa is not built like these two and stands at just 5’10”. However, Eisa has proved to be very competent at receiving the ball up field from long balls. He has an inconsistent first touch which can be lethal.
Here, Cheltenham’s centre back plays the lofted ball to towards Eisa. Eisa displays a great touch to kill the ball. He then is able to hold up play, he uses a body feint to create space and causes the Stevenage defender to back off a bit. Eisa then gives a well-weighted throughball to Kevin Dawson who is running in behind.
His first touch allows Cheltenham to get up the pitch quickly. He can then hold up play effectively and wait for options as players arrive and play through his teammates such as the play above.
This allows Cheltenham are able to transition quickly from defence to attack. They win the ball back in their own third. The ball is often quickly switched diagonally to Eisa in space. It also makes Cheltenham more flexible as they are not forced to play a target man to carry out this role and chase long balls. Possibly Eisa’s time in non-league helped him a lot with this.
Despite his slight stature, he is able to hold off defenders and use his strength. He can hold up play and bring others into the game via layoffs. His layoffs aren’t always great and can often go wasted as long balls aren’t always easy to bring down under control and passes can often look lazy and poor. Eisa can sometimes look to lose focus and be quiet during periods of the game and his passing may suffer.
On the Ball
Eisa has really improved areas of his game this season and set up a lot of goals for teammates. Eisa has freedom of movement and drifts into wide or deep positions if he isn’t getting the ball up front. He has also been deployed on the left wing at times this season. When he drifts wide he tends to look for throughballs and dangerous crosses to the back post.
He has fast feet and is agile with the ball. Eisa completes very few dribbles and doesn’t use skill to beat his man. In a 1v1 he’ll either look to use a burst of pace to get past his man or look inside for a pass. He uses body feints to create space and has tight ball control and looks to exploit his pace. Eisa keeps the defender on the back foot and then will look to race past him.
He’s spoken in interviews recently and has talked about the improvements that he’s made to his game and I think it has been clear. He has stepped up really well in the professional football and has clearly had the drive needed to improve as a player and really benefitted from full time training and quality coaching.
Conclusion
Eisa is a natural, clinical goal scoring threat. He has good pace, tight ball control and a great first touch at times. He takes advantage of his surprising strength and runs riot on League 2 defences. The striker is always looking to receive the ball and often drops into midfield to get it. However, this leaves Cheltenham without presence up front since their change to a one striker system. Dropping into midfield often results in simple passes and layoffs and doesn’t actually help the attack much as it then leaves Cheltenham with no one in the box to finish the attack they’re building. He can often seem very quiet in games and disappear, or he can the star of the show. It’s possible that he goes missing due to poor service, much to the frustration of Cheltenham fans.
Mohamed Eisa has been a revelation for Cheltenham Town this season. He was brought in a backup from the depths of non-league and is now one of the best players in League 2. Cheltenham will be hoping to hold onto him for another season but I think they will struggle as Premier League and top Championship clubs start offering big money. Remember his name, as I’m sure you’ll be hearing it a lot more from now on.
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