I first saw him at the U20 World Cup for Brazil, when I wanted to see how Andreas Pereira was getting on. He showed flashes of brilliance, and I admittedly forgot about him until I noticed Adam Ounas wasn't being picked anymore for Bordeaux. The player being prioritised over him was Malcom. I watched some games last season to understand what he offered that Ounas couldn't, and it became increasingly apparent that Malcom had maturity beyond his years. This season, his progress continues to be on an upwards trajectory.
His best qualities are his vision, passing, decision making in the final third, and his footballing intelligence. Malcom's weight of pass is brilliant, as he regularly switches play to the opposite winger, and carves up defences with his passes, he has the awareness and link up play to bring Sabaly into the game. He can really test the goal keeper from distance, an excellent dribbler, and very good at set pieces. I think he has the potential to be one of the best wide playmakers in Europe.
I just love watching him play. Malcom had a period in the first half against Toulouse, where he almost put his good work in the first half hour to waste, and it looked like it would be one of those games where if he wasn't going to pull something out of the bag, Bordeaux were going to suffer, as not only did they have their backs against the wall to Toulouse, any opportunities to break failed to materialise due to a lack of quality in the final third. Despite struggling, he was the one player that looked like he had something a bit about him. In the second half, he continued to be the player Boredeaux turned too, when they needed to surrender possession to someone reliable, and he used his core strength to hold the ball with his back to goal, before releasing it to a player about to bypass him. My favourite moment of the match being when Bordeaux made crisp one touch passes and the ball came to Malcom in a 1v1 situation, he just skipped past his man as if he was a training cone, and then played a pass which took three others out of the game.
