Rayan Cherki Scout Report At Lyon 2019/2020: Talent Beyond His Years – Player Analysis

Aged just 16 years and 140 days old, the next great hope to come out of Lyon’s esteemed academy, Rayan Cherki, became the youngest player to score for Les Gones’ first team.

Cherki netted for the first time as his side romped to a 7-0 Coupe de France win on 4th January.

That first goal appears to have only been the start for the promising young attacker.

Since that goal, Cherki has netted twice more for Lyon.

In addition to that, Cherki has already notched up two first-team assists.

He has earned five direct goal contributions in just 289 first-team minutes.

This impressively averages out to Cherki, who has provided a goal contribution every 57.8 minutes so far.

The exciting young talent’s performances have drawn plenty of attention.

He has predictably already earned countless comparisons to some of the world’s best players.

While it may be too soon to go overboard, Cherki’s undeniable talent at such a young age is reminiscent of the impressive output of Hatem Ben Arfa and Karim Benzema when they first joined Lyon’s first team as promising young teenagers.

In this piece, we will analyse Cherki’s key attributes and explicitly dissect what the player brings to his team.

Rayan Cherki Off The Ball Movement And Preferred Positioning

One of Cherki’s most important attributes is his intelligent off-the-ball movement.

Cherki has already been able to showcase his ability on the senior stage.

One key reason for Cherki’s seamless transition to first-team football, which already plays a significant role, is his ability to read the game.

Cherki often manages to put himself in positions where it appears as though the ball simply finds him.

This desirable ability enables the player to frequently find himself in space, benefiting from comfortable goal-scoring opportunities.

Cherki’s reading of the game and excellent offensive positional awareness are the key to creating these opportunities.

This image provides an example of Cherki positioning himself in optimal space to benefit from a clear shot at goal.

This image is captured from only his second full 90-minute, first-team game.

Moments prior to this image, Cherki drifts into the Nantes box.

We can see here how he positions himself in the perfect pocket of space between Nantes’ defenders.

Cherki’s excellent reading of the game allows him to get to the end of Bertrand Traoré’s cutback.

He subsequently benefits from his positioning, scoring a clear-cut chance that he slots away.

This intelligent positional awareness has been a clear trait of Cherki’s throughout his young career.

He excels at positioning himself in intelligent pockets of space between defenders to create goal-scoring opportunities.

This has clearly translated well into Cherki’s first-team football and is one of the key reasons for his bright start.

This second image provides us with another example of Cherki positioning himself in a clever pocket of space.

On this occasion, Cherki finds room in the right half-space as Lyon attempts to break down the opposition’s defensive block.

This image illustrates the type of position Cherki often adopts during an attack.

In the majority of Cherki’s youth games, he enjoyed the positional freedom to roam around Lyon’s offensive third.

In the defensive shape, Cherki has occasionally occupied various positions, such as the right-wing or a more central position.

However, Cherki generally likes to position himself in the half-spaces in attack.

This is where Cherki can generally find the tight pockets of space between defenders, which is where he enjoys operating.

You generally will not see Cherki position himself out wide.

Cherki thrives in these tight, central areas due to his excellent close-control dribbling ability and quick decision-making.

This image illustrates a different example of Cherki’s off-the-ball movement when Lyon has possession.

In this image, we can see Cherki dropping into a much deeper zone than he usually occupies.

This is a movement Cherki makes often in games when his side struggles to build out from the back.

Here, Cherki is vacating his central attacking position to try to make himself an option for his defenders.

As Cherki drops deeper, he also scans more frequently, which is illustrated in the example below.

One negative you might point out about Cherki is that he is sometimes too casual when receiving the ball.

When winning comfortably and positioned in the attack, he can be prone to allowing preventable turnovers.

However, as we can see here, he generally scans frequently in tight games and in more dangerous areas.

Cherki is valuable in these scenarios because he can progress the ball from defence to attack.

He excels at progressing the ball up the pitch due to his exceptional passing and dribbling skills.

Rayan Cherki Ball Control And Dribbling Ability

Cherki is incredibly skilful with the ball.

He is challenging to dispossess when he is able to carry the ball towards the opposition’s goal.

Cherki possesses excellent ball control, an obvious touch of flair, and the ability to accelerate with pace, all of which combine to make him a significant threat on the ball.

This image provides us with an example of how Cherki’s threat on the ball can create space for his teammates.

Cherki received possession on the left-wing just prior to this image.

As he received the ball, the opposition right-back began to press him.

Cherki proceeded to carry the ball infield, threatening the opposition’s defence.

Cherki is an excellent attacker to have in a one-on-one situation.

His skill and threat on the ball subsequently attract two more opposition defenders to him, preventing him from getting through on goal.

However, as the opposition presses Cherki, this creates space for his teammates elsewhere in the attacking third.

Cherki skillfully backheels the ball to his nearest teammate, who subsequently picks out another teammate in space.

This creates a shooting opportunity for the player, who scores a goal.

Cherki’s one-on-one dribbling ability is clearly an asset in forging out opportunities for his teammates.

However, Cherki is very comfortable using his dribbling skills to take on multiple men and create a chance for himself.

In the image above, we can see Cherki in possession, carrying the ball towards an opposing player.

At this moment, Cherki is approaching the defensive player while carrying the ball away from the opposition box.

We can see two clear potential passing options for Cherki, one on his left and one on his right.

We can also see two opposition players pressing Cherki, both from behind and ahead of him.

Meanwhile, one other opposition player moves to cover the passing option to Cherki’s right.

The next image shows Cherki taking on the opposition defenders as the passage of play continues.

Firstly, these two images clearly illustrate another one of Cherki’s most valuable assets: his ability to change direction quickly.

In the first image, Cherki was facing away from the opposing goal.

However, in this second image, we can see Cherki quickly changing direction to charge towards the opposition’s goal.

Cherki’s ability to change direction at pace is valuable, making him an unpredictable dribbler.

As this passage continues to play out, Cherki probes into the space circled in this image, creating a shooting opportunity.

One physical asset of Cherki’s which helps him to carry out quick changes of direction is his two-footedness.

Cherki is extremely two-footed.

He himself has stated he doesn’t know which foot exactly is his stronger one.

This helps him even more to be an unpredictable dribbler.

Another significant result of Cherki’s impressive ball control is his ability to receive the ball on the half-turn in dangerous areas.

Cherki can often be seen receiving the ball with his back to goal, or even with an opponent tight to him, as we can see here.

However, he is generally well capable of turning towards the goal quickly and driving towards the goal.

In addition to his impressive ball control, this image illustrates Cherki’s ability to utilise his body effectively.

Cherki is not the most physical player in the world.

At just 16 years old, he naturally has a lot of room to improve in that regard.

However, despite that, he is very good at using his body well to hold off defenders and ride opposition challenges.

Cherki can often be seen simply shaking off opposition challenges despite physical disparity.

This is another valuable trait of his, making him a quality dribbler and challenging to defend against.

Rayan Cherki Passing Ability

Cherki’s dribbling quality is arguably his most evident and impressive asset in possession.

However, he is also an impressive passer of the ball.

Cherki’s passing ability can significantly influence the game, depending on his positioning at the time.

This image illustrates Cherki’s ability to pick out an influential pass through a narrow gap in the opposition’s defence.

On this particular occasion, Cherki has received possession as Lyon counterattack.

We can see that the Nantes backline is now retreating from a high position.

Centre-forward Moussa Dembélé has got the pace required to beat the Nantes backline.

As he times his run, Cherki picks out a perfectly weighted pass through the tight gap between the left-back and Dembélé, circled here.

As the pass is played, Dembélé can break into the increased space behind the defensive line.

This subsequently results in a Lyon goal.

Cherki’s quality at playing the final ball is evident from this image.

We can clearly see that Cherki provides a valuable asset in this counterattack, as shown in this image.

His positioning, ability to make quick decisions, and technical ability are all on display here.

The next image provides an example of the effectiveness of Cherki’s passing versus a deep block.

Cherki can find dangerous pockets of space to influence both on the counterattack and when playing in front of a deep block.

This image shows us an example of the latter.

Cherki is circled in this image.

We can see that the opposition is set up to effectively prevent Lyon from playing through the lines here.

Cherki picks up a central position to receive the ball.

His vision and long-passing ability are evident in this passage of play.

As Cherki receives the ball from the packed right wing, he quickly switches the play to the left wing, where his teammate has found some space.

This demonstrates how Cherki can control the game and manipulate the opposition’s defensive shape to create gaps.

His pinpoint passing ability, vision, and quick decision-making are on show here. 

Rayan Cherki Calmness In Front Of Goal

Another one of Cherki’s most important attributes is his calmness and quality in front of goal.

Cherki has shown himself to have very solid nerves in front of goal.

Cherki’s finishing clearly demonstrates his quality in front of goal and undeniable confidence.

His calmness in front of goal is another trait that will help Cherki seamlessly transition from youth football to the first team.

The image above shows us an example of Cherki casually pulling off a quality finish from a tight angle.

Prior to this image, Cherki carried the ball from his attacking midfield position into the box.

As we can see, Cherki has left himself with a tight shooting angle here.

The on-rushing goalkeeper does not help him.

However, Cherki’s coolness is exemplified by his ability to pick out the gap over the goalkeeper’s right shoulder.

He calmly chips the ball over the keeper’s shoulder from the right angle, placing it into the net.

This kind of finish is a favourite of Cherki’s.

The talented youngster even scored a Panenka penalty in one UEFA Youth League game against RB Leipzig this season.

His confidence is evidently a big asset to his ability to finish in such a calm manner.

He is a player who can consistently take advantage of the clear-cut opportunities that his movement creates.

Conclusion

To conclude, Cherki’s rise from youth football to Lyon’s first team has been meteoric.

However, he has already demonstrated considerable ability to influence the game at a higher level.

Cherki will be an interesting one to watch develop as time moves on.

Currently, it seems that Cherki is destined for great things.

A player never finishes developing at 16 years old, however.

He has developed much quicker than many 16-year-olds. However, we have seen similar cases of young players progressing quickly with Lyon, who fail to reach the heights projected for them.

Cherki is a quality youngster and undeniably one to watch for the future.

He is an influential playmaker whose dribbling and passing make him a major threat.

He appears to have the potential to develop into a player similar in style to Philippe Coutinho.

Both players are skilled dribblers and dominant passers, and he can forge similar goalscoring opportunities through intelligent movement.

Cherki still has plenty of room to improve, which is scary in some regards.

His casual nature on the pitch at times can be both a positive and a negative, depending on the situation.

He could also significantly increase his defensive contribution; obviously, his physicality can continue to develop further with time.

However, his talent is incredible at just 16 years old, and he has undeniably world-class potential.