Testing The Water

Notts County’s recruitment of 25 year old Emile Acquah has certainly divided opinion within the fanbase, but Colin Sisson suggests fans need to look a little deeper…

Bias is commonplace within scouting. There will always be players or positions that you naturally gravitate to or recoil in horror from. Recency bias is just one example, where weighing a player's most recent performances much more heavily than their long-term track record might lead to a scout overrating an average player who is simply on a temporary three-game scoring streak. Or the Halo Effect where scouts let one positive trait completely overshadow a player's severe technical or tactical deficiencies. A scout might view a winger as an elite prospect solely because they possess world-class sprint speed, while ignoring the fact they have the composure of a sugar-filled toddler. 

So before I come to the defence of Notts’ acquisition of Emile Acquah, it’s important to acknowledge my own bias as I’ve got prior and very positive experience of the player. 

Back in 2023, the Analysts Bar team were asked to support Paul Fairclough in selecting his England C side after a frustrating loss to Wales C the year before. The National League was not exactly short of quality strikers, with Macauley Langstaff and Paul Mullin seemingly going toe-to-toe and goal-for-goal in a promotion race that, by the 21st March, had still not resolved itself enough for either club to lose their talismanic striker. 

Coupled with the inevitable physicality of the game, it meant that striker selection needed to be someone able to pose a significant threat but also fulfill the requirement of working hard out of possession. Thoughts turned to Emile Acquah, who had scored two against Notts County some months before in 4:3 victory for the Magpies, but as impressively had utilised his strong frame to retain possession and link play under intense pressure. His thirteen goal return for Maidenhead may not have hit the headlines or been documentary-worthy like some, but an impressive haul that deserved recognition.

England 'C' Squad vs Wales 'C' 2023

Acquah performed well for England C, as he had for Maidenhead all season, and featured in a blog we wrote suggesting that Scotland might be the ideal next progressive step for some of the standout players in the National League that year. Two years at Barrow in League Two saw Acquah eventually make this transitional step north, to Dundee of the Scottish Premiership.

Fortune Favours the Brave 

But it is his form in Scotland that, for many Notts fans, does not hold water. Just one goal in seventeen games is a difficult sell for anyone, and the striker himself acknowledges how challenging he found the spell in Scotland. 

So what was it that Notts saw to justify signing Acquah?

For me, Acquah has had to make key adaptions to his game from the player making his mark at Maidenhead a few years ago. Dangerous though he was with the ball in front of him, Acquah’s time at Barrow and Dundee required him to develop his back-to-goal play - particularly when playing for two sides not renowned for having possessional dominance in games. And it is this that I feel Notts have invested in.   

But don’t just take my word for it. 

Here at Analysts Bar we have partnered with Twelve Football and their Earpiece platform that turns football data into clear decisions with AI analysts for scouting, opposition, match and season analysis. We asked about Acquah’s time at Dundee and, with the acknowledgement that the outcomes are judged on limited minutes, the results are pretty clear:

Emile Acquah Overall Performance | Scottish Prem 2025/26

Earpiece ranks Acquah’s holdup play to being 4th in the Scottish Premiership compared to other strikers who have played over 300 minutes, with similarly impressive outcomes for Aerial Threat - two features that have not been outstanding features of Notts’ attacking output in the previous season despite their success. 

With Notts now up a tier in League One and without the expectation to dominate teams in quite the same way their National League and League Two campaigns had done, its clear that preparations need to be made for a side that is effective without the ball or willing to do the most it can with the possession it can have.

When asking Earpiece’s AI analyst if the recruitment of Acquah was a shrewd move or a panicky flail in the choppy waters of the transfer market, its answer was both firm and contextually sound:

Earpiece from Twelve Football analysing Acquah's fit with Notts County

So while Acquah’s acquisition may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it is refreshing to see Notts addressing attacking deficiencies that could be costly in their League One campaign. Though he may not hit the dizzy goal ratios of a Langstaff or Didzy, Acquah’s ability to bring others into play could see the likes of Jodi Jones and Cal Roberts (another player enjoying his return to English football from a difficult spell north of the border) increasing their already impressive goal outputs while steadying the Notts County ship as it charters League One waters for the first time in eleven years.  

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As well as being an active Goalkeeper Coach Analysts Bar Co-Founder Colin is a Technical Scouting and Talent ID professional with experience in supporting clubs both in England and overseas, currently working as a First Team scout at National League level.

Away from football Colin is an Educational Consultant as a former Head of English as well as a regular guest on BBC Radio Nottingham's 'In The Game'.

Written by Colin Sisson | @Colin_Sisson

Editor: Richard Ogando | @notts_stats

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