Southampton’s star player at just 18 years of age – the remarkable rise of winger Tyler Dibling

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Analysis 

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Southampton have had a dreadful start to the new Premier League season. After 12 games, the Saints have picked up just one win and four points, while sitting dead last in the English top-flight table. As such, fans of the recently-promoted club have had very little to celebrate this season, as they’ve struggled to match the lofty expectations that are often placed on clubs from the Championship. And unless something changes soon, it seems more than likely that the club will be heading back to the second tier in May. But at least before that comes to pass, Saints fans can take some solace from the remarkable performances of young winger Tyler Dibling. 

Last weekend was perhaps a perfect example of how this season has played out for Russell Martin’s team. In a spirited performance against league leaders Liverpool, the Saints played exciting football and even came from behind to briefly lead against Arne Slot’s side. And while Liverpool did eventually turn the match back in their favour, everything positive that happened in the final third came through Dibling’s impressive attacking talents. In the 41st minute, it was the young Englishman that jinked past Andy Robertson on the edge of the Liverpool box to draw the foul that eventually led to the penalty. If that wasn’t impressive enough, Dibling then set up Southampton’s second goal in the second half, when he brought down a long ball up the pitch, cut inside and switched the play with an excellent through ball, which allowed Adam Armstrong to play Mateus Fernandes through on goal. 

Having just turned 18 earlier this year, Dibling is still very much coming to terms with the demands of senior football in the most demanding league in European football. But there’s certainly a number of reasons why Southampton have fast-tracked him into their first team. Last season, the young winger shone in the club’s second team, bagging eight goals and six assists in 27 games across all competitions, as Dibling showcased a remarkable array of talents that included scoring, creating goals but most exciting of all of them was a tremendous ability to dribble by defenders. And, to the praise of many fans and pundits alike this season, Dibling has shown no interest in shying away from doing exactly that against top-class opponents in the Premier League in the past few months. 

According to stats website FBRef, Dibling is fourteenth among all players in the Premier League for attempted take ons this season, sitting just below Manchester City star Jérémy Doku and above established, top-class attackers like Luis Díaz, Cole Palmer and Gabriel Martinelli. And, to no great surprise, the 18-year-old talent leads Southampton’s own charts in this regard, averaging almost twice as many dribbles per 90 minutes (6.16) than the next best dribbler in the team in Kyle Walker-Peters (3.54). But what makes Dibling such a remarkable talent is his ability to couple his very direct dribbling with the finesse and technique needed to create goals either for himself or for his team mates at Southampton. 

Indeed, alongside his dribbling stats, Dibling is also Southampton’s leading source of passes into the opposing box this season with 10 from his first 12 league appearances. The 18-year-old star also comes third only to Flynn Downes and Yukinari Sugawara for passes that have led to a shot in the league for Southampton this season. So when we combined that with the fact that Dibling is also second in Southampton’s squad for total shots on target in their squad this season, it points to a young player that is already taking it upon himself to lead the line for this club and in many cases almost single-handedly win games for them in the Premier League. 

With a market value of €5 million, Dibling is currently the third most valuable forward in the Premier League aged 19 years of age or younger. However, due to his performances for Southampton, that figure is surely set to rise significantly in the coming months. And when we bear in mind that the Saints have a long and established record of selling players at remarkably high transfer fees to bigger Premier League clubs, it seems like it may only be a matter of time before this right winger is rubbing shoulders with some of Southampton’s most expensive departures. Whether or not that happens before the end of the season and due to Southampton either staying in the Premier League or facing the prospect of relegation, remains to be seen.