FEATURE | Is St. Pauli’s Abdoulie Ceesay the 2. Bundesliga’s most efficient striker?

FEATURE | Is St. Pauli’s Abdoulie Ceesay the 2. Bundesliga’s most efficient striker? St. Pauli’s Abdoulie Ceesay is a unique player to watch. While some of his actions may appear sporadic, it is clear that his talent is still raw, but he is developing into a very efficient striker. In St. Pauli’s 2. Bundesliga victory over Karlsruhe, the 22-year-old only registered one shot, but it was enough to get his name on the scoreboard. His goal helped St. Pauli win the game, marking their second consecutive victory at the Millerntor Stadium this season. For Ceesay, that goal was his third of the campaign, and interestingly, those three goals came from only five shots on target, showing his efficiency. Of the players who have scored at least three non-penalty goals in the 2. Bundesliga this season, only two have taken fewer shots than Ceesay, and none of them are strikers. While having fewer shots can be a bad sign for a striker, in Ceesay’s case this is not necessarily the case. Firstly, he was injured at the start of the season, and when he returned, he did not immediately become a regular starter. So far, he has only started three games, playing 300 minutes in total. For context, none of the players who have scored at least three goals in the 2. Bundesliga have played fewer minutes than him. So, what is the key to his efficiency? After the game against Karlsruhe, I asked Ceesay, who had a simple answer: “It’s just working hard every day, to be better every day. You keep practicing, keep trying, every day you wake up. So for me, this is what I do every day, and now it’s paying off.” Well, it was indeed his development that helped him become a better striker and a better scorer. In the past season, he had to wait a long time not only to score his first competitive goal for St. Pauli, but also to play some competitive minutes.  Ceesay is still young at 22 years old. Before playing with St. Pauli, he only played in the Estonian First League. It was a big step up for him and he needed to adapt to German football, which is way more challenging than what he had experienced before. During his development, he has learned how to maximise his strengths to fit into German football along the way. This means playing fast: He makes runs into space against defenders, and this is how he scored against Karlsruhe. “I just want to run and hurt the defenders. For me, that’s the best way to kill the chances and then score. I always like running into that space behind the defensive line,” he explained. Ceesay’s strengths also align with St. Pauli’s playing style, and context matters in this case too. Last season under Alexander Blessin, the Kiezkicker rebuilt their squad to play a more passive transitional attack that emphasises off-the-ball runs. Their forwards’ profiles are exactly what they need to thrive within this style, and Ceesay is no exception. Sadly for them, the results were not what they wanted, as they were relegated last season. This one-dimensional attack is one of the reasons why—they don‘t really have another option to make them more dangerous in attack. However, it seems like the 2. Bundesliga is a different story. Even though new coach Marcel Rapp seemed to try to tweak the offensive part of the team by playing a more possession-based, short-passing style of football at the beginning of this season, the St. Pauli squad seem to have reverted to the old way. When forced to play more transitional games (such as against top teams like Wolfsburg or in a winning state), St. Pauli are more threatening. This style seems to give most players, especially Ceesay, the opportunity to thrive. The goal against Karlsruhe also came from a transitional attack. In recent games, St. Pauli have been more patient and have created situations in which they can trap their opponents with pressing or duels, turning them into counterattacks or transitional attacks. They don’t try to catch the opponent off guard, but rather wait for the right moment while maintaining numerical superiority in the second or last line of their pressing block. They were behind in terms of ball possession in the games against both Karlsruhe and Wolfsburg, yet they won both of those games and kept a clean sheet. They have a strong attack and defence by playing less proactively. However, focusing on Ceesay does not mean that the Gambian international is only capable of playing transitional football. At least not in the eyes of his coach, Rapp. “We had possession phases where Ceesay was involved too, where he got the ball and switched play. So I don’t think Ceesay is purely a transition player. When we want to play football with the ball, he can contribute too—he’s someone who can get involved,” Rapp stated after the game against Karlsruhe. At the same time, the former Holstein Kiel coach also explained the other things Ceesay is good at. “With Ceesay, something always happens. There’s no duel where he’s involved and the opponent just clears the ball. It falls for us, it falls for them; the ball drops loose. That’s already a big quality and then there’s his finishing,” he added. Well, aside from scoring, Ceesay is indeed doing something: He is the team’s first defender. Among strikers in the 2. Bundesliga, he ranks third in terms of defensive contributions per 90 minutes. He works hard, chasing the ball in every phase: Whether St. Pauli have possession or are defending. The key to this lies in Ceesay’s initial response: hard work and daily practice. This is exactly what Rapp pointed out about his young striker: he is eager to learn not only how to score more goals, which is beneficial for him as a striker, but also how to improve his performance without the ball. “If I’m honest, he was good from day one. I haven’t seen a better Ceesay than in the very first pre-season friendly. He does things well and wants to learn. In fact, he came to me, which is perhaps unusual, to ask exactly how the pressing works because he always has questions. That surprised me a little, but it shows he’s fully engaged. He was a good player from the start, and he’s proving it week after week,” Rapp explained. The season is still very long, and Ceesay needs to work on his consistency and fitness. However, it is fair to say that he is currently on the right trajectory. If Rapp continues to create a platform that can maximise the potential of his number nine, St. Pauli might get more than just an efficient striker that they pulled from Estonia. Something bigger might happen. GGFN | Bergas