Ascending Amine Adli: Revealing five vital features of Les Violets’ versatile VIP

Toulouse, who were relegated from Ligue 1 last season, are challenging for promotion back to France’s top-flight and one key contributor to the Occitanie-based club’s promotion push is 20-year-old attacker Amine Adli.

Adli, who stands at 174cm (5’9”) and weighs 60kg (132lbs) is a product of Les Violets’ academy. Before the 2020/21 season, he’d made just seven senior appearances for Toulouse but now, he’s a regular under Patrice Garande, playing in 28 of his side’s 30 Ligue 2 games this season and making 12 goal contributions (seven goals and five assists)  more league goal contributions than any other Toulouse player and fewer goal contributions than only 10 other Ligue 2 players. Additionally, Adli has made more goal contributions than any other U21 player in France’s second-tier this season.

His performances have been so impressive of late, that he reportedly drew interest from Ligue 1s Olympique de Marseille in January but he remains at Stadium TFC for now.

This tactical analysis, in the form of a scout report, provides analysis of how Adli has been used within Garande’s tactics this season. Our scout report examines the key strengths and weaknesses of the young attacker’s game and we’ll determine how he’s played such a pivotal role for the promotion-chasing side this term.

Adli’s position and role at Toulouse

Adli is versatile in terms of the positions and roles he’s played for his side. Thus far in his young career, Adli’s played several different roles for Toulouse, playing on either wing, as a ‘number 8’, as a ‘number 10’ and as a centre-forward.

Most often this season, the left-footed attacker has played as a right-sided centre-forward, with Toulouse mostly lining up in a 3-5-2 shape. He’s also played as a right-winger frequently, while he’s played as a ‘10’, an ‘8’ and a left-winger less frequently but still on some occasions.

Figure 1 shows Adli’s heatmap for the 2020/21 season. Here, we see that the attacker has spent the majority of his time on the right-wing and in the right half-space. Despite mostly playing as a right centre-forward, he actually doesn’t spend a lot of time inside the penalty area.

While we see some colour high up on the right-wing, it’s clear from observing Adli’s performances this term for Toulouse and from this heatmap that he prefers to play in deeper areas on the right side of the pitch and he rarely carries the ball out wide, along the sideline.

Adli is