Celin Bizet Ildhusøy is a 20-year-old attacking player who has just moved from PSG to Spurs Women. With a Cuban mother and a Norwegian father, she’s also a Norway international. Playing with the Norwegian national team as well as at some excellent European teams like PSG and Tottenham has surely contributed to making Bizet a much more professional and mature player despite her young age. Having the chance to play at this high level also guarantees that she develops her skills even further and in a way that fits her teams’ tactics and helps her in dealing with complicated situations.
Bizet still has a lot to learn during her journey in the FAWSL but at the same time, she is expected to add a lot of quality to Tottenham’s attack and we will discover together how she can be useful in this regard.
She started her footballing journey at Skedsmo in 2016 before playing from 2017 to 2021 for Vålerenga and on loan for Grei. In 2021, she got her first “big” transfer to PSG where she got more exposure and learned a lot by playing alongside some European stars. However, playing at big clubs isn’t simple for young talented players as they risk not getting the playing time needed for their growth as players.
That’s why, in our view, it was great to see Spurs sign Bizet as this transfer can benefit the two sides. Tottenham required a talented attacking player and Bizet herself needed more playing time at a high level. Also, playing in a competitive league like the FAWSL can only be beneficial for Bizet, who will get to face a lot of powerful teams during a single season.
Tottenham’s coaching staff, however, will need to know how to monitor Bizet’s playing time and make sure that they prepare her very well from all aspects in order to compete in a different league and be at her best. This might sound simple but it requires a lot of effort and intelligence, otherwise, it would be difficult for her to help the team and perform as expected.
In the following tactical analysis scout report, we will be exploring the player’s characteristics, especially in terms of goalscoring, dribbling and playmaking. The analysis will also study which formations and positions suit her best, and what roles she can interpret well in order to have an idea of what she can achieve with Spurs Women.
Positions and roles
Bizet is an attacking player who can interpret any of the attacking positions in an efficient way, and she has already tried playing in almost all of these attacking positions. She was employed as a left winger, right winger, advanced playmaker and as a striker as well. Indeed, her numbers are not outstanding at the moment but that doesn’t mean she isn’t an excellent attacking player. Moreover, getting minimal playing time at PSG — and even with Norway — impacts the player’s overall statistics a lot even if she performs well in every game.
Bizet finds no problems with being put in different formations as she has already played in a 3-4-3 formation and in the 4-2-3-1 while interpreting different roles such as the striker in a 3-4-3, the playmaker in the same formation and the winger and the playmaker in the 4-2-3-1. Therefore, Rehanne Skinner should find no issues in inserting Bizet in her team’s line-up as the Norwegian is a versatile attacking player at the moment.
Nevertheless, Skinner can focus on this aspect and find where Bizet can be most beneficial to the team and use her permanently in a single position to get the best out of her. But that requires some time in order to understand all the qualities and weaknesses of the player to see where she plays best.
Bizet was used as a second playmaker in a 3-4-2-1 formation when the team faced Tokyo Verdy Beleza in the Women’s Cup, but that was just a test and doesn’t necessarily mean that Bizet will continue playing in that same position.
In my own opinion, Bizet can perform better and be more dangerous when playing as a left winger. She has all the skills needed to be one of the best in that position, given that her dribbling abilities and acceleration qualities fit this position perfectly.
Moreover, the fact that she is not as physically strong as needed to play as a striker and resist the continuous disturbance of centre-backs makes the left winger role more suitable for her. Compared to the playmaker role, the left winger gets more space for running and dribbling than the advanced playmaker who has to find solutions in tight areas and rely on quick passing skills instead. In the following heatmap, you can notice the diversity in her movements and the fact that she covered almost all the field despite playing mostly on the right wing.
Goalscoring
In terms of goalscoring, Bizet has the potential to become more prolific, especially if she gets a starting spot on a regular basis at Tottenham.
Using her dribbling skills in a smart manner would allow her to be more consistent in scoring goals. However, she will have to time her shots more carefully and improve her shooting accuracy even further in order to improve her number of goals per season and become a more impactful player, as just dribbling past players is not enough at this level and providing assists or scoring goals is necessary for attacking players.
In fact, Bizet learned a lot in terms of strikers’ movements without the ball when she was used as a striker, and that helped her score goals and get some experience in finishing the action and in knowing exactly how to position herself well before receiving the ball. What she can improve at, though, is to be able to score more goals while playing on the wings and not as a striker because it is improbable to be regularly used as a striker at Spurs or even at Norway.
In the following example, you can see how her movement without the ball allowed her to receive a pass in a perfect shooting situation, and what followed was a perfect finish to a well-played action.
Bizet is also characterised by a great ability to read the game, especially in counter-attacks where she gets the possibility to exploit her quick accelerations to get rid of marking. She can be very dangerous in such situations as counter-attacks suit her abilities more than anything else.
For Norway against Italy, she showed that she can get rid of two Italian defenders thanks to her pace and her well-timed off-the-ball movement to meet her teammate’s assist and score a beautiful goal. Tottenham should exploit this characteristic and rely on Bizet during counter-attacks even if she plays on the wing because she can cut inside and score goals.
In addition, Bizet can exploit crosses coming in her direction very well, as she has great control of the ball and a special style in dealing with it in terms of control, dribbling and even in terms of passing. This style can only be associated with one player in football, Ronaldinho.
It is true that it doesn’t make sense to compare a female player to a male player and that women’s football and men’s football are different. However, when looking at Bizet’s way of dealing with the ball, it just resembles Ronaldinho’s, for me. By the way, even in men’s football, not a single player has got Ronaldinho’s playing style, but Bizet has.
This means that she controls the ball very well and can confuse opposing defenders easily, and that was clear when watching her footage. Nevertheless, Bizet should make more use of her playing style and be more dangerous whenever she touches the ball in the final third.
For example, she received a cross from the right flank in this action while she was running on the left wing, and despite being disturbed, she successfully controlled the ball with her chest while directing it in front of her before kicking the ball in an acrobatic way and scoring a half-volley that couldn’t be saved by the goalkeeper.
Building on such actions, therefore, can make her one of the best wingers in the FAWSL soon. Bizet can also be effective when pressing high and predicting her opponent’s next move. She was able to intercept the ball on several occasions from such situations and the picture below shows one of them.
This suits Tottenham’s playing style very well as they rely heavily on high pressing. But at the same time, Bizet should be attentive enough to not leave a lot of space behind her when applying this kind of pressure, as it could work against the team, especially when playing against teams that are experienced in avoiding such high pressing.
In the following picture, we can notice Bizet’s intended shot after cutting inside from the left wing and dribbling past her direct opponent. She intends to shoot towards the far post but decides to switch to the near post at the last second in order to confuse the goalkeeper and score a beautiful goal.
This is exactly how Bizet can be extremely dangerous inside the box when playing on the left wing. By working on these kinds of situations even further at Tottenham, Bizet can master these situations and score goals more frequently by cutting inside and exploiting her excellent dribbling skills to avoid defenders and clear the angle for herself.
Playmaking and passing
Although she can improve this aspect even further, Bizet has already got some excellent passing skills and she can be a very good playmaker for her current team. Improving her key pass accuracy would serve the team a lot and make her a much more impactful player as she has the vision needed to pick the adequate passing choice on every occasion.
In the following action, she gave a pass to her teammate who gave the ball back and then Bizet looked as if she was thinking about another passing choice but surprised everyone by providing a through pass to the same player who was between two defenders, using her weaker foot.
Moreover, she usually uses her left foot with great precision when put in situations that require using her weaker foot. This will help Bizet a lot in certain situations as it makes her a much more complete player because not every player can use her weaker foot with great precision. As proof of this, here’s a goalscoring action in which Bizet was able to cross the ball exactly towards the head of her teammate Amanda Ilestedt who scored a goal for PSG.
Conclusion
Celin Bizet Ildhusøy will definitely represent a great addition to Spurs Women as she will help them do better in the FAWSL this season from an attacking perspective and can help them achieve their goals for this season and subsequent seasons despite the great competition from teams like Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and others.
At the same time, doing well in the FAWSL would most probably guarantee that she gets more playing time with the Norwegian national team, and that would be very important for her, especially as the Women’s World Cup is just around the corner.
