Ahmad Allee 2021/22 scout report – National 1’s very own Andrea Pirlo?

Earlier this month, the official Twitter account of Championnat National, France’s third tier, posted a clip of Bastia-Borgo’s Julien Anziani scoring a picturesque free-kick in his team’s recent 2-1 defeat at home to US Avranches. They bestowed the esteemed title of ‘Le Pirlo du National’ (effectively ‘the Pirlo of National’) upon the 22-year-old midfielder in that tweet. However, Ouest-France Sports journalist Dylan Le Mée replied to that post with the comment: “Je ne vois pas Ahmad Allée sur cette vidéo (I don’t see Ahmad Allée in this video) — a comment that I enjoyed quite a lot.

Indeed, Allée (172cm/5’8”, 67kg/147lbs) is also a free-kick specialist which is one trait that might justify this comparison with the Serie A legend who rose to superstardom at AC Milan and Juventus but if we are to crown a ‘National 1 Pirlo’, there’s plenty more than just set-piece specialisation in favour of Allée taking that moniker, although set-piece specialisation is a trait that will always endear me to a footballer as someone who grew up in an era when sitting down and contrasting the poise and elegance of a David Beckham special alongside the controlled chaos of a Roberto Carlos rocket and the mesmerising technique of Juninho Pernambucano was a regularity.

Allée is a deep-lying playmaker from mid-table Stade Briochin — a club that’s only been in the third tier since last season, having achieved promotion from the fourth tier, Championnat National 2, the previous campaign. Allée played an important part in that promotion-winning 2019/20 season, with the 25-year-old Rennes academy product having been plying his trade at the Saint-Brieuc-based club since 2017 when he was released by Saint-Étienne.

Allée is a name that might be familiar to those who’ve followed French youth football since the early-mid 2010s; the midfielder came through Les Rennais’ academy at around the same time as James Léa Siliki, who is currently on loan at EFL Championship side Middlesbrough from the Brittany-based outfit. However, despite showing some promise during his days as a Rennes youth, the Duhak, Iraq-born midfielder of Kurdish origin with French citizenship never made an appearance at senior level until forging his own path with Stade Briochin.

Now playing in National 1, Allée remains a key figure for Les Griffons and though his contract status is unclear, I feel he represents an interesting opportunity for some Ligue 2 clubs to potentially find themselves a decent recruit from the league below, as Allée has been one of the standout midfielders in the third tier this season. He’s undoubtedly a player who requires a specific role in the squad and I don’t think he’ll eventually return to the heights of Rennes but provided his club utilises him in a specific role that accentuates his strengths and minimises his weaknesses, I feel there’s room for further growth in the 25-year-old at a higher level than we’re seeing him at right now.

So, what kind of player is Allée? What are these strengths and weaknesses I’ve referenced? And what kind of role should a prospective new club be looking to fill if they are considering the Stade Briochin man? I’ll attempt to provide clear answers to all of those questions and more via this tactical analysis and scout report, in which I’ll detail Allée’s role within Didier Santini’s strategy and tactics, highlighting what I’ve identified as some of the key strengths and weaknesses in his game, as part three of a series here at Total Football Analysis looking into the most exciting talents from Frances third tier. I hope that this tactical analysis piece shines some light on, for me, one of National 1’s most interesting players and clarifies exactly why I believe he’s someone Ligue 2 clubs should keep an eye on.

Passing

As mentioned above, Allée is a deep-lying playmaker; he’s comfortable operating as a lone holding midfielder, occupying the space in front of the defensive line, operating in either of the two slightly more advanced central midfield positions in a 4-3-3 ahead of that holding midfielder or operating in a double-pivot — with the player having made appearances in all of these positions this term.

His general playing style and role in the squad doesn’t alter too much depending on the position, as Allée is a specific type of player; he’s a ball progressor and dictator of play. Allée is the man you want if you need someone to help your team control the game, spread the ball around the pitch and create chances from deep. The 25-year-old has added a lot of threat to his team on the ball this term by constantly driving them forward and setting them up to attack from dangerous positions via his incisive passing. He’s not an extremely energetic player or someone to drive forward with the ball from deep — he’s not a dribbler. However, Allée is fantastic, for National 1 level, as a progressive passer and a man to dictate play from deep, as this section of analysis will hopefully highlight.

Allée is heavily involved in his side’s possession play, which is evident from the fact he’s played an average of 52.63 passes per 90 this term — ranking highly among National 1’s central midfielders to have played at least 600 minutes in 2021/22. His equally impressive 85.04% pass success rate also indicates the midfielder’s reliability in terms of ball retention, hence why his team entrusts him to play and receive the ball so much.

Moving on, however, it’s not just ball retention in which Allée thrives, but ball progression also; the 25-year-old has played a very high 9.02 progressive passes per 90 this season, with a solid 75.9% success rate. This isn’t the greatest success rate in the league, rather just a decent one but that wouldn’t concern me too much as Allée often opts for riskier passes when he does look to progress the ball and is relatively successful considering the areas to which he often aims to play the ball and the difficult types of passes he shows such confidence in pulling off.

Allée is reliable when looking to retain possession but also an exciting risk-taker when he turns his attention to progressing play upfield. He does look to progress the team forward at a relatively high frequency — highlighting his constant eye for a progressive pass — and he’s good at achieving success with these plays too.

It’s common to see Allée looking to drive the ball at pace and a good amount of power into teammate’s feet in central areas or the wings, while he’s also comfortable with aiming to slice the opposition’s backline open with a defence-splitting through ball for an attacking teammate to run onto, adding another element to his game for opposition defences to concern themselves with.

Allée particularly thrives when playing against a team leaving space to attack behind their backline and his teammates know this, so when this space exists and Allée gets on the ball, it’s common to see Stade Briochin’s attackers quickly turn their attention to making their run in behind the opposition defence, targeting that space. This is where Allée’s ability to progress the ball combines with his direct creativity. As far as deep central midfielders with the ability to actually directly set up a shot on goal go, you won’t find better in France’s third tier than Ahmad Allée. His presence in the side should give defences an extra element to worry about, which can be very beneficial for the creative midfielder and his team in numerous ways from a tactical perspective.

We see an example of Allée sending a teammate through on goal into a 1v1 with the goalkeeper via a tricky lofted ball played in behind the opposition’s backline in figures 1-2. In figure 1, the midfielder has just received the ball in the chance creation phase on the edge of the final third, while the opposition are aiming to hold their line on the edge of the box to avoid collapsing inside their penalty box and giving Stade Briochin all of the valuable space in front of their box to control. However, with Allée on the ball in this kind of position, that space behind the defensive line is not safe and we see the midfielder scouting it out with a quick look after taking his first touch in figure 1.

Moving on into figure 2, we see how the 25-year-old swiftly reacted to his teammate’s movement in behind the backline by driving a lofted pass over the backline with plenty of backspin. The pass was very well-timed and very well-weighted, gently dropping in behind the defensive line right into the runner’s path. This created a great 1v1 opportunity for the attacker with the opposition goalkeeper, highlighting the directly creative side of Allée’s game and how effective he can be as a deep-lying playmaker. His passing quality is second to none in National 1 in relation to what it takes to be a quality deep-lying playmaker, while his vision is also fantastic, as is evident from this example and how quickly he capitalised on the attacker’s movement into the small bit of space behind the backline.