Tunisia will participate in their sixth FIFA World Cup following their qualification to this global tournament after beating Mali in a two-legged knockout fixture. Tunisia grabbed their qualification ticket and started preparing for the competition by participating in an international friendly tournament called Kirin Cup, hosted by Japan and including Ghana, Tunisia, Japan and Chile.
Tunisia lifted the Kirin Cup trophy after beating both Chile and Japan while putting on some solid performances, especially from a defensive and counter-attacking point of view. The team looked well-motivated and focused in both phases and efficiently exploited their opponent’s weaknesses.
They were also able to score beautiful goals and gain a lot of much-needed confidence ahead of their upcoming big games. Following this Kirin Cup, Tunisia played other two friendly games against Comoros and Brazil as final preparatory games for the tournament. They won 0-1 against Comoros and lost 5-1 against Brazil at Parc des Princes. In fact, this latest match against Brazil showed a lot of weaknesses in the Tunisian squad and perhaps the most impactful ones include the inability to defend well against quick players, the individual marking mistakes and the inability to react against well-organised teams after conceding goals.
Therefore, the coaching staff will have a lot of work to do ahead of the first match of the tournament and the aim will be to correct the defensive mistakes that occurred during Tunisia vs Brazil, implement a solid defensive organisation and work on attacking plans to use during the group stage games. But despite the mentioned weaknesses, Tunisia have a very promising squad that can play well against their opponents and at times they can even be very dangerous, especially when using counter-attacks. However, they often commit individual mistakes and fall into the trap of losing their concentration at key moments.
Tunisia will be playing in Group D alongside France, Denmark and Australia. It is definitely going to be a complicated group stage for Tunisia, who will start by facing Denmark and then aim to beat Australia before challenging the World Cup holders, France, in the last group stage match. Tunisia’s most difficult test in this World Cup will be the way with which they deal with their first match against Denmark. Playing well in this first game and getting a positive result against a tough Denmark team will change everything in the Tunisian players’ minds and make them very confident to win the second match which would mean guaranteeing the qualification.
However, we should bear in mind that Denmark are actually one of the best teams in the world in terms of results and playing style. They were able to win twice against France lately and are definitely a powerful team from all aspects. Therefore, Tunisia will have to prepare for this match very well before thinking of anything else. In reality, the encounter with France would mean nothing to Tunisia if they don’t approach the Denmark game in the necessary manner.
It is true that Tunisia will most likely adopt a defensive tactic against a team like Denmark, yet the players shouldn’t remain passive and give in to Denmark’s attacks. Having possession and attempting to attack without losing the defensive stability would make Tunisia’s goalscoring chances bigger and therefore they will be more likely to create problems for their opponent.
In this tactical analysis scout report, the focus will be oriented towards the analysis of Tunisia’s attacking and defensive tactics, their predicted starting line-up, their key player and a lot more information based on footage and data.
Predicted Starting XI
Tunisia will most likely start the tournament with Aymen Dahman as a goalkeeper as this Club Sfaxien goalkeeper is favoured in comparison with Bechir Ben Said and Sedki Debchi. Dahman participated in the national team’s latest games including the one against Brazil and will therefore have the advantage over his two teammates who are also solid goalkeepers and can surely be used during the group stage.
In defence, head coach Jalel Kadri has got some good options to choose from and he will more likely rely on Mohamed Drãger as a right-back and Hamza Mathlouthi as his backup. Drãger is actually playing at Luzern on loan from Nottingham Forest who have recently been promoted from the EFL Championship to the Premier League. It should be said that former Salernitana’s right-back is also worthy of a place at this World Cup, but he is unlikely to be called up. In fact, Wajdi Kechrida proved to be the second-best option for this role alongside Drãger. Nevertheless, he has often been avoided for undeclared reasons.
The central defensive duo will most likely include Lorient’s Montassar Talbi and Salernitana’s Dylan Bronn, knowing that both of these players have been consistent throughout this first part of the season with their respective clubs and have been putting on some solid defensive performances that favour them over the other Tunisian centre-backs. We should stress that both Bilel Ifa and Nader Ghandri have also proven their worth whenever they participated with the national team and are capable of doing very well should Talbi or Bronn encounter issues prior to or during the tournament, especially when bearing in mind that Bronn loses concentration quite often on certain occasions and the head coach might prefer to not use him in certain games.
On the left flank, Ali Maaloul proved during the last few years that he is the best actual left-back in Tunisia, especially from an offensive point of view. He has been consistent with Al Ahly and contributed to a lot of their successes during these last seasons.
Moreover, his chemistry with players like Youssef Msakni, Naim Sliti, Wahbi Khazri and others was obvious to everyone and helped Tunisia win numerous games previously. Therefore, it would be essential to preserve this kind of chemistry and work on improving it. Despite these offensive abilities, Maaloul can also be less efficient in defence especially against wingers with great pace such as the ones Tunisia will encounter during the group stage.
This might be the reason to rely on Ali Abdi on certain occasions over Maaloul as Abdi is a more balanced left-back who is more athletic than Maaloul, and that would make him better suited to defend against star wingers.
Jalel Kadri can also try to adapt his team to suit the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses by switching to the 3-4-3 as he did in last year’s Arab Cup where he used Talbi, Ifa and Meriah as centre-backs to secure the defensive line while relying on Drãger and Maaloul or Abdi as wing-backs.
This formation might be more balanced for the team against teams like Denmark and France, but the coaching staff will have to work a lot on positioning when using this formation in order to not leave gaps for the opponent. Midfield is the strongest area of this Tunisian side as the players existing in this area have excellent quality and are among the best in their respective teams. The team will certainly rely on Ellyes Skhiri, Aïssa Laïdouni and one of Ghaylène Chaalali or Ferjani Sassi since both of these players can replace each other and have quite similar characteristics.
Skhiri will most likely act as a regista in front of the defence and the two others will play as central midfielders, even though Laïdouni can also interpret the defensive midfielder role perfectly especially when the team needs to defend rather than advance. Another midfielder can help Tunisia a lot during this competition but he is unlikely to participate due to injury. We are talking about Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane.
In terms of attack, Tunisia doesn’t really have plenty of excellent options and will rely on Youssef Msakni’s magic on the left wing, one of Naïm Sliti or Anis Ben Slimane on the right wing, and an alternation between Wahbi Khazri and Seifeddine Jaziri for the striker role. Issam Jebali can also be useful for the striker or second striker role and he might participate as a sub in some of the games after he proved his worth and showed his finishing skills during the Kirin Cup lately.
When looking at the age profile of Tunisian players, one can immediately notice that the majority of their attacking players are past their 30s. The more experienced players of the team are mainly attacking players, including Wahbi Khazri, Youssef Msakni, Khenissi, Naïm Sliti and even Issam Jebali. This can be useful for Tunisia in certain circumstances when they need experience. However, they need to be careful in terms of attack because lacking the dynamism of youth in this part of the pitch can affect the team’s attacking performance.
At the same time, the Tunisian squad is full of players who are at their peaks, such as Talbi, Chaalali, Abdi, Ben Ouanes, Drãger, Laïdouni, Bronn, Skhiri, Jaziri, Dahmen, Ben Said and others. This means that the majority of the Tunisian players are actually at their peak. Indeed, this squad does not have plenty of young players, but names like Hannibal Mejbri, Ben Slimane, Omar Rekik, Yan Valery and Sedki Debchi can provide a great addition when needed knowing that they all have great potential.
Attacking phase
The above graphic shows detailed statistics on Tunisia’s attacking style, their weaknesses and strengths. In fact, what we can understand from this pizza plot is that Tunisia pass a lot inside the final third but don’t score a lot of goals despite shooting so often during games.
Therefore, they will have to improve their finishing accuracy in order to exploit the chances they create and more importantly, it would be important to try shooting more often on goal instead of passing the ball passively.
Moreover, working on the offensive duels would help Tunisia a lot during this World Cup in order to have more possession in their opponent’s half. The team should focus more on intercepting the ball in their opponent’s half by applying pressure intelligently and efficiently. They were able to do this very well against Japan when they obliged them to fall into committing mistakes in their own third.
Msakni was intelligent enough to time his pressing attempt well as soon as he knew that the Japanese defender could have trouble controlling a difficult ball. He believed in his ability to intercept the ball and did it while putting his body in front of the ball to protect it despite being surrounded by Japanese players, before passing to Sassi who was unmarked and scored the goal.
Tunisia can be excellent on the counter especially when their players are 100% focused and they have proved on several occasions that their xG in counterattacks is higher than their xG in open play. They do have some quick and skilful attacking players who often exploit the counterattacks in the best possible way, either by shooting from distance or by penetrating towards the box.
In the following picture, Jebali had a counterattacking opportunity in the last minutes of the match and had two teammates asking for the ball as you can see. These two players offered great passing options but at the same time made defenders hesitate. Jebali exploited this situation in the best possible way by showing that he intends to pass while shooting the ball with great power towards the top left angle to score a beautiful goal.
Defensive phase
When it comes to defending, Tunisia proved during the Arab Cup and the AFCON that they are solid in defence and that they are improving a lot from this aspect. The team make a lot of interceptions per match but they still do not win a lot of defensive duels. They need to improve their statistics in this regard in order to be more efficient in defence.
Moreover, the team plays a lot in the air despite not winning a lot of the aerial duels per match. And at the same time, Tunisia concede numerous shots per game, which can be very dangerous for them especially knowing that they will face teams with great shooting accuracy.
The Tunisian defence will have to be very careful when it comes to passes played at the back of this defensive line. Since their opponents will certainly include numerous technical midfield players, Tunisia’s defence will have to be attentive to possible penetrations throughout the 90 minutes to not let something like what happened against Brazil occur again.
In the following picture, we can see how Barcelona‘s Raphinha was penetrating through the back of Talbi while Ben Ouanes didn’t try to cover for his teammate. Both players should have defended better in this situation and more importantly, they had to react in a more effective way as soon as Chelsea‘s Thiago Silva crossed the ball. Such errors might lead to conceding goals, especially against France and Denmark and therefore, Tunisia should be alert to similar actions.
In addition, Tunisia will have to avoid conceding too much space to skilful attacking players inside the final third as such players are usually going to create danger if not score goals, like what Raphinha did in the next picture when Tunisia left too much space for him on the right-wing.
Tunisian players will need to remain in the match mentally speaking even if they concede a goal or two, and they should not lose their temper and start committing unnecessary fouls because that will add to the problem and not fix it.
The way the team approached the Brazil match especially after conceding two goals was not good enough as the players started to become very aggressive and that cost the team a red card in addition to conceding a penalty. If they want to succeed from a defensive perspective, Tunisia will have to be patient and defensive as a unit while remaining attentive for the whole match. And what should be consolidated is the individual marking capacities as the Tunisian defenders can defend well in 1v1 situations and they have to work on this aspect to improve it even further in the group stage.
Transitions
Tunisia’s offensive transitions are usually quick and quite direct. They rely on one of Skhiri or Laïdouni to start the first pass and then the ball always gets to Msakni or Sliti who are very good dribblers and can advance well with the ball. These two key players often find the best solutions inside the final third either by penetrating with their runs and then trying to shoot from distance or by playing one-two passes with each other. On other occasions, they can also serve the striker if the latter moves well without the ball and asks for it.
In the next example, Msakni is advancing with the ball and looks at the striker to see if there is a passing possibility, and when he notices that the striker is being marked, he fixes his direct marker and attempts to play a one-two combination with his closest teammate to break a line. The same happens when Sliti gets the ball too and that’s usually how Tunisia advance in such situations.
The Tunisians can also opt for direct passes towards the strikers whenever they detect the adequate opportunity to do so. They do have some very good passers who can create a lot of danger in such situations by providing long passes or through passes to one of Khazri, Jaziri, Khenissi or Jebali, exploiting the dynamism and the continuous off-the-ball movement of these players.
Tunisia scored the second goal against Japan thanks to a surprising through pass from Ben Slimane towards Khenissi who knew how to get the advantage over his marker and win a penalty. Therefore, Tunisia would try to exploit this attacking solution during the upcoming World Cup games and have a great chance to succeed in executing such plans.
Attackers
As mentioned earlier, Tunisia have various options in attack and will mainly rely on Khazri, Jaziri, Khenissi and Jebali. Although these players are all 29 or older, all of them are still delivering some solid performances with their respective clubs and are capable of helping their national team by scoring goals during this tournament, knowing that they have the experience needed to help the team.
Khazri, for instance, has already scored in the previous World Cup against Belgium and Panama and we can expect to see goals from him. The same applies to Jaziri who has been excellent during the past few seasons with Al Zamalek and will represent a great weapon for Jalel Kadri knowing that he has some great finishing skills and pace.
Midfielders
We have already explained that this might be the team’s best area as the players existing in this part of the field are excellent and will be fundamental for the team both from a defensive and an attacking perspective. Players like Skhiri, Laïdouni, Chaalali, Sassi and probably Ben Romdhane will have a key role during the tournament and will be responsible for dictating how the team will play. Also, they will have a very delicate mission which is protecting the defensive line and covering when necessary, according to the head coach’s instructions.
Defenders
This might be the most delicate and fundamental section of the team as it is the part that will suffer the most and endure a lot during the group stage, given the quality of the opponent’s attack. Tunisia, indeed, have some excellent names in defence. Nevertheless, it will not be sufficient to be excellent on an individual level. It is going to be necessary to defend as a unit and have a very organised defensive line in order to avoid mistakes and limit the attacking threats. Otherwise, Tunisia would be in trouble.
Key Player
Tunisia’s key player in this tournament is Youssef Msakni. The Al Arabi 31-year-old international will be the team’s leader in this competition as he is the most skilful player in the team and the most experienced player to boot. He was forced out of the 2018 World Cup due to a last-minute injury that ruined his World Cup journey at that time. Since that moment, Msakni wanted to make up for that frustration and showed on several occasions that he wants to play in this World Cup and take “revenge” for himself.
Msakni plays in most attacking positions and doesn’t have problems with adapting to different formations or positions. He plays mainly in all final third positions and can also play as a false nine. But most of all, he excels when playing as an advanced playmaker or as a leftwinger.
According to this graphic, we can detect that Msakni is an outstanding dribbler who can beat any defender thanks to his quick moves and unexpected tricks. When he is physically fit, he is able to cause a lot of trouble to any defence as his passing accuracy is also excellent.
Over recent seasons, Msakni developed a lot from an athletic point of view and started to make a lot of effective pressing per match, which makes him even more useful. And although he is not a very physical player, Msakni is able to win duels relying on his ball protection abilities and on his dribbling skills mainly. In fact, Msakni represents one of Tunisia’s most dangerous attacking players as he is capable of creating unexpected actions out of nothing.
Tournament prediction
Tunisia have got slight chances to qualify from the group stage mainly due to the level of the opposing teams they will have to face. Getting points from teams like Denmark and France will represent a very complicated mission for Tunisia, knowing the gap that exists between these teams.
Nevertheless, the team will certainly aim at doing their best to get a point or two from these two matches and do their best to win against Australia. In reality, the match against Australia will also be a difficult one and Tunisia will have to be at their best in order to win.
Otherwise, this would be a failed World Cup for Tunisia. Another factor that can help Tunisia a lot, especially from a psychological level, is the fact that Tunisia will play in an Arab country where there will be a big number of Tunisian supporters to push the team in difficult situations. Tunisia will have to exploit this in their favour and use it to disturb Denmark and France, and why not exploit the issues and injuries of the French squad as well.
