Scouting Lyon’s academy – data analysis

Olympique Lyon are a top club in France and in Europe, they were crowned champions of Ligue 1 seven times in the club’s history, all of them in consecutive years from the 2001/2002 season to the 2007/2008 season. A part of the club’s success in winning these and other titles comes from their wonderful academy that has produced some great talents such as Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette, and Anthony Martial, who are now playing for big clubs like Real Madrid, Arsenal and Manchester United.

In this data analysis, we will use data and statistics to find the best talents currently in Lyon’s academy that could potentially take the step up and earn a place in the first-team. 

Methodology 

In order to make this analysis, we need to establish what our data pool will be. Since Olympique Lyon II is the only youth team that has data available on Wyscout for the 2019/2020 season, our choice must fall on the players on that team but with the required specifications.

Because Olympique Lyon II play in National 2, a league that is not widely covered, the data available has its limitations, therefore, we will only highlight players who have played at least 450 minutes this season to make our analysis a more realistic one.

After analysing all the players we will compile a shortlist with the best talents.

Defending 

Starting with the defensive statistics, we created a scatter plot that shows us aerial duels won% and defensive duels won% on each axis. The size of the dots was set to display the amount of PAdj interceptions per 90 giving us a view of the most important defensive metrics.

Looking at the upper right quadrant we can see the players that are above average on both metrics displayed on the axes. Sinaly Diomandé stands out from everyone when it comes to aerial duels won with a great 73.03% win rate, he also pairs that number with a solid 62.16% rate of defensive duels won and the second best number of PAdj interceptions per 90 (8.33). Melvin Bard ranks 2nd in terms of aerial and defensive duels won with win rates of 63.89% and 68.97% respectively and first when it comes to PAdj interception per 90 with 8.54. Pierre Kalulu wins first place with his 75% win rate on defensive duels which way above his 52.27% win rate on aerial duels, in terms of PAdj interceptions he averages 7.58 which is a good number. Osseynou Ndiaye boasts an impressive 70.21% win rate on defensive duels which, much like Kalulu’s case, clearly surpasses his average 42.86% win rate on aerial duels. The Frenchman also displays an average number in terms of PAdj interceptions per 90 (4.39). Mathis Louiserre and Lilian Perrier also show good defensive numbers but they both left Lyon this season, therefore, they will not be taken into account.

Passing and ball progression 

In this section, we will take a look at the best passers in the team, the players that are able to circulate the ball and do it well. We will also take a look at the players that are the best at progressing the ball up the field through passing or carrying.