A cosmopolitan may be a fancy foreign cocktail but it is also an apt word to describe the squad inherited by Oldham Athletic’s new manager Paul Scholes.

The former England international has stepped into his first managerial role since retiring joining a club that has been through one hell of a change over the last 18 months.

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Gone is the unpopular Simon Corney, who successfully stagnated the club in League One and, in his place, comes former football agent Abdallah Lemsagam. The Moroccan took charge in January 2018 and oversaw relegation to League Two – not the best start it has to be said.

This season has been another circus of unpaid wages, staff sackings, managerial dismissals and uncertainty yet that could now be a thing of the past.

In appointing Paul Scholes, Abdallah has a man with excellent footballing connections and a reputation that might just see the hands-on chairman take a step back so as to allow his new manager a chance to run the football side of things.

This was, apparently, a prerequisite of Scholes taking the job in the first place so if he is to have the success everybody wants then he must be left to pick the team and manage his players how he sees fit.

It is true that he may have to compromise when it comes to recruitment with Abdallah clearly looking to use his connections as a former agent but that may not be a bad thing.

With 10 different nationalities represented in the Oldham squad, there certainly is a diverse pool of talent and experience to call upon. In our pre-season preview, I must admit that I was pretty scathing of the Latic’s chances this season, largely because the foreign players had not impressed at all in the relegation campaign of the previous season.

Players like Quincy Menig, Wilfried Moimbe and Abdelhakim Omrani all failed to make an impact and Mohamed Maouche was also a slow starter. This season has been very different. The ‘foreign legion’ have all stepped up their game or at least made massive improvements, even from the start of this campaign.

Here, using data from InStat Football, is my assessment of those that have impressed the most:

Gevaro Nepomuceno

The Curacao international is clearly one of the Latic’s most dangerous threats from wide positions, specifically as an attacker down the left side. He has been used in the deeper role as a left a full-back since the game against Notts County but how has that affected his game?

Nepomuceno’s last 16 games for Oldham Athletic

Looking at the table above you can see that in the eight games the winger has played at left-back he has created six chances, exactly the same number as in the previous eight playing as a left-winger. He has put in 30 crosses from left-back whereas, playing further forward, he put in 41 crosses which is certainly a drop-off but not enough to be concerned about.

Also, I would argue, using him as a left-back who can make overlapping runs will make Oldham one of the most difficult sides to stop even if it might mean compromising on a certain amount of defensive solidity. The other thing playing Nepomuceno as a left-back offers is a place in the side for Johan Branger.

Johan Branger

It is fair to say I have not always been an admirer of Mr Branger. The Gabonese international was distinctly average in his early displays at Boundary Park yet just recently something has changed. Perhaps Pete Wild deserves the credit here because Branger’s performances have seen the winger improve almost every game since the youth coach took temporary charge.

Since Wild took over the winger has created 10 chances, six more than he has managed all season before this run. He has contributed with five assists and scored with a sumptuous free-kick at Crawley since the sacking of Frankie Bunn whereas he only had one goal and one assist before the Boxing Day mauling at Carlisle.

If he continues to develop the relationship down the flank with Nepomuceno it could be an interesting end to the season for the Latics.

Christopher Missilou

This guy is the bomb. He dictates the tempo of Oldham’s game while offering a disciplined performance in the centre of the park almost every game. If anyone wants to see what a complete midfielder Missilou really is, just watch his performance in the FA Cup upset of Premier League Fulham.

He has won more challenges (313) than any other midfield player, in fact, only Peter Clarke (339) and George Edmundson (369) have won more in the squad. He has also completed more tackles (93) than any Oldham player with Rob Hunt second with 65. Only three players in League Two have completed more tackles than the Congolese midfielder making a key player in the heart of the team.

He doesn’t, perhaps, contribute enough going forward with just one goal to his name, the recent pile driver against Yeovil but he allows others the freedom to get forward which makes Oldham a very interesting attacking prospect for the rest of the season.

Mohamed Maouche

The Frenchman of Algerian descent came to Oldham with a big reputation and a fairly big wage packet if rumours are to be believed yet he started very slowly. His early appearances suggested the player didn’t have the fight to succeed in the English lower leagues yet this is clearly not the case.

Maouche has adapted his game to become a very effective play-maker for Oldham making him both a danger going forward while offering himself as a player who can sit deeper and pick up second balls.

He has scored three times this season and, like Branger, appears to be improving all the time making some of his doubters, myself included, re-evaluate their initial ideas about the midfielder.

The rest…

The other players that deserve a mention here are the pair that joined the club during the January transfer window.

Spanish forward Urko Vera is certainly a player that has had goalscoring pedigree in the past, notching on a regular basis while with Hercules and CD Mirandes in Spain.

Most of his goals came from headers and this could be a useful dimension to add something different to the Latics attack as we come into the run-in. It may take him a while to get used to the physical style of League Two but Vera could just be a useful addition for the club.

Mohamed Sylla, a player that reminds me of Patrick Viera if only in build, was the other addition during January that comes in as an unknown quantity. The midfielder looks good in the air winning 50% of all his aerial duals so far while creating a couple of chances with his physical presence unnerving defenders.

It will be interesting to see how this Oldham side do as we approach the final months of the season but Paul Scholes will not be lacking for options, something he will be only too glad about.

words James Richards, D3D4 Football