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Fantasy Football Fantasy Bundesliga tips: 10 players to consider for Matchday Fantasy Bundesliga: Must-haves and differentials for Matchday Fantasy Bundesliga: Must-haves and differentials for Matchday 9.

Fantasy Bundesliga tips: 10 players to consider for Matchday 9. Bundesliga Tactics Talk: Round Nine. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Swiss footballer. Retrieved 24 November Berner Zeitung in German. Retrieved 9 June Retrieved 29 August Retrieved 10 October European Football.

Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 12 April However, Zakaria has also played as part of the back three in this season.

Zakaria is one of the best players in the Bundesliga when it comes to the defence. He makes on average As well as his ability to win one-on-one situations he has two other great strengths which help him to be such a hard opponent to play against: pace and stamina.

The Swiss international has good acceleration to keep up with his opponents on the first yards. On the other side, he is also incredibly fast for a player of his side and muscular physique.

These two factors help him to defend against players with high speed as wingers or full-backs have nowadays. His pace also allows him to even get into duels and try to win the ball for his team or clear it.

This can be perfectly seen in the example below. Firstly, Zakaria is in his typical position in front of the back four of Gladbach.

Marco Reus plays a great through pass to Throgan Hazard. The year-old defensive midfielder uses his pace to catch up with the Belgian and is able to get a touch on the ball to clear the situation.

On the other hand, he has quite a lot of stamina due to his muscular physique which helps him win defensive duels against other players with a similar physique.

He often wisely puts his body between the ball and the opponent to bring his team back in possession. However, many players in professional football have one of the two physical abilities.

They are either fast or physically strong. Anyways, Zakaria combines both aspects and the most important thing is that the Swiss player is able to exploit these qualities.

We can often see him using his pace to get into a one-on-one situation and then he gets on the ball with the aid of his stamina.

In the example below, we see exactly such a situation as the opponent wants to pass the ball past him on the one side and run on the other one.

However, Zakaria has the acceleration to be as quick as the opponent and then makes use of his physical strength to get on the ball in his own penalty box.

We can often see how his players almost hunt the opponents to win back the ball. To do so, the players need the necessary aggression and will to get on the ball and bring their team in possession.

It seems like Zakaria has got these two mental abilities, and knows what his German coach wants to see from him. He always seems to go with determination and will in every single duel since he wants to recover possession for his squad.

The image below is a perfect example of that. Because of this, the year-old surprises him and can win the ball.