FIFA World Cup 2018: Morocco

Morocco are back on the grandest of world stages after a 20-year absence, having last played at the FIFA World Cup in 1998. The Atlas Lions had a stellar qualification campaign, beating Equatorial Guinea 2-1 on aggregate in the second qualification round for CAF, before winning all six games without conceding a goal, to top their group and qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2018. This was despite the presence of African heavyweight Ivory Coast in their group, who failed to qualify for Russia 2018 as a consequence.

However, they were drawn in an extremely tough group alongside Spain, Portugal and Iran, and it would take a stellar performance for Morocco to qualify for the knockout stages.

The Squad

Coach: Herve Renard

Herve Renard is something of a legendary figure in African football, as the only person to have won the African Cup of Nations with two different sides; Zambia in 2012 and Ivory Coast in 2015. Renard took charge of the Atlas Lions in February 2016, guiding them to a quarter-final place at the 2017 African Cup of Nations, before sailing through qualification for Russia 2018.

Renard has got his Morocco side playing on the front foot throughout his time in charge; they press high up the field, look to get the ball in wide areas and stretch their opposition. It is debatable whether he will employ this approach against Spain or Portugal, and may well need to rely on a well-drilled defence to have any hope of progressing further in the tournament. He has already made a big call by dropping Soufiane Boufal of Southampton from the squad.

Goalkeepers

Mounir El Kajoui (Numancia), Yassine Bounou (Girona), Ahmad Reda Tagnaouti (Ittihad Tanger)

Defenders

Medhi Benatia (Juventus), Romain Saiss (Wolves), Manuel Da Costa (Basaksehir), Badr Benoun (Raja Casablanca), Nabil Dirar (Fenerbahce), Achraf Hakimi (Real Madrid), Hamza Mendyl (LOSC)

Midfielders

Mbark Boussoufa (Al Jazira), Karim El Ahmadi (Feyenoord), Youssef Ait Bennasser (Caen), Sofyan Amrabat (Feyenoord), Younes Belhanda (Galatasaray), Faycal Fajr (Getafe), Amine Harit (Schalke 04)

Forwards

Khalid Boutaib (Malatyaspor), Aziz Bouhaddouz (Saint Pauli), Ayoub El Kaabi (Renaissance Berkane), Nordin Amrabat (Leganes), Mehdi Carcela (Standard de Liege), Hakim Ziyech (Ajax)

Tactics

Morocco have predominantly played a 4-3-3 throughout Renards tenure, morphing into a 4-2-3-1 at times. Ahmed el Ahmadi functions as the midfield pivot, dropping deep to collect the ball from the centre-backs and shield the defence during transitions, as seen in the image below from their friendly against Serbia, while Mbark Boussoufa and Younes Belhanda take turns to move into attacking midfield.

Medhi Benatia and Romain Saiss are the centre-backs; both have the ability to play out from the back, especially given that Saiss plays as a defensive midfielder for his club side, Wolves. This allows them to go direct at times, with the two centre-backs playing long passes into the channels for the forwards.

Morocco also press aggressively high up the pitch, often funneling their opponents towards the touchlines, in order to use it as a natural barrier and decrease space for them to play out. In attack, one of the central midfielders usually moves up in support of the lone striker, usually Khalid Boutaib, while the opposite winger also comes in at the back post when the ball is on the flank.