Joe Sbarra - From Burton to Solihull and a bright future ahead
It is well known that the National League, encompassing the National League North and South divisions, are a goldmine of talent but this of course depends on having not only the right people to identify these talents that are in these leagues but also the correct structure in place to fully exploit these scouting opportunities. In the current climate this has never been more important and at The Yushu Group we believe we have the structure and tools in place to fully utilize a variety of areas within the scouting realm and to prove this point we have picked out a player who is a potential shining light in the National League so let’s take a look at him.
Solihull Moors- A Brief History
In the July of 2007 Solihull Borough and Moor Green FC merged and Solihull Moors FC was born and began playing in the Conference North, finishing in 17th position in their inaugural season. In the 2008-2009 season, despite making 8 new summer signings only a 16th place finish could be achieved and the following 2009-2010 season mirrored the 2007-2008 season with Solihull finishing once again in 17th position. Much of the following decade played out much the same in terms of league finishes with the most notable being a 7th place finish in the 2010-2011 season, 9th in 2012-2013 and a slight improvement in 2013-2014 finishing in 8th. But it was in the 2015-2016 season that the football at Damson Park really took off and Solihull were promoted to the National League when they were promoted as champions and have stayed in the league ever since. Current manager Jimmy Shan, formerly of West Bromwich Albion, was a month into the job before the pandemic hit and the season cancelled with Solihull looking a very good side and playing some superb, free flowing football and on the brink of the National League Play-Offs.
But we aren’t here to dwell on the past it’s the future of Solihull and more importantly the recruitment strategy they employ. Former Birmingham City players Adam Rooney and Stephen Gleeson were brought in to add experience to the squad with Northern Ireland international and former Nottingham Forest man Jamie Ward also brought in, but it is a player with a connection to Shan and The Baggies that we will be highlighting in this report.
Sbarra being unveiled as a Solihull player in August 2020
Joseph Christopher Sbarra, to give him his full title, is a product of the WBA academy and has made the majority of his senior appearances with Burton Albion playing in 49 games between 2017-20 before initially moving on loan to Solihull in the March of 2019 and then making a permanent switch on a free transfer, after being released by Burton, to play under Shan for the 2020-2021 season. All of this, before his 22nd birthday.
Sbarra is, at the time of writing, still just 21 years of age and has a bright future in front of him but things haven’t always gone so well and opportunities to gain a starting birth in the Burton side ahead of this season were obviously going to be very limited and when Burton manager Jake Buxton released his retained list ahead of this season, much to the surprise of a lot of people, including Burton supporters, Sbarra wasn’t on it. Sbarra wanted guaranteed first team football but Buxton simply couldn’t confirm that this would be the case instead maintaining that he would like to keep Sbarra on as a squad player or alternatively, and on Buxton’s advice, he would be free to seek first team football elsewhere. Sbarra is a League One player, no question about it so he deserves to be applauded for taking the risk, given the current economic climate at football clubs nowadays, and leaving the security of Burton Albion and deciding to ply his trade in the National League taking the advice of Buxton in the process.
An interesting set of circumstances for such a young player, not uncommon of course, but let us take a look at Sbarra’s numbers and see what we can find out.
Sbarra was quoted as saying he is “raring to go to reignite his career with Solihull” on signing and has so far featured in 9 of Solihull’s 11 National League games this season making two of those as a substitute as well as playing two games in the FA Cup and scoring two goals thus far.
The sample size used for Sbarra’s 20/21 season in the National League is relatively small and possibly won’t give us a full enough picture of his numbers but it will be enough for us to get a good idea of how he has performed do far.
For the most part Sbarra has played on the right of a front three in a 3-4-3 formation at Solihull. His xG per 90 of 0.16 is relatively good for his position and we must consider just the 13 games played so far when assessing that metric but he could do with attempting a few more shots for sure given his current rate of 1.21. His creative side is slightly more concerning as he has not registered an assist so far this season and with his xA at 0.06 this does suggest that this creative side of his game does need to be worked on. Sbarra currently completes 1.41 per 90 minutes so although this could be interpreted as fairly low there is no doubt he will improve on this as it is an asset he possesses so there is scope for improvement.
Another strong skill Sbarra possesses is his crossing ability and with nearly at least 1 cross finding its target per 90 minutes, again although seemingly low, isn’t a bad ratio again considering he has appeared, and not always started, in just the 13 appearances.
As we have already mentioned Jimmy Shan has used a 3-4-3 formation at Solihull this season and below we have a graphic that shows us the positions in which Sbarra has been operating in so far this season and where his passes are mainly starting and ending on the pitch and this correlates precisely with his right sided position in that front three. Noticeably Sbarra is on average spending a great deal of time on the right side of the middle third (denoted by the yellow area) and one could possible say that this is a bit too deep and although the lighter yellowish shades do tell us he is still operating in the final.