Bafode Diakite 2020/21 – scout report

Toulouse defender Bafode Diakite has been one of the standout players in Ligue 2 this season. The 19-year-old Toulouse academy graduate broke into the first-team two seasons ago. He enjoyed even more senior football last term, though his season was disrupted by a couple of consecutive injuries  a bruised foot and a calf problem.

Following his side’s relegation from Ligue 1 to Ligue 2  Frances equivalent to the EFL Championship  for the 2020/21 campaign, however, Diakité has firmly established himself as a first-team regular for Toulouse. He’s been sidelined through injury once again for Les Violets’ last three games but it’s reportedly not expected to be a long-term issue, so perhaps we may see him reclaim his spot in the starting XI for Patrice Garande’s side in the not-too-distant future.

His performances for the Occitanie club would certainly suggest that Diakité should slide back into the Toulouse squad once he returns to fitness, as he has played a significant role for his side this season and been effective in that role. In this tactical analysis piece in the form of a scout report, we will look at how Diakité has been used within Garande’s tactics this term and provide some tactical analysis of his key traits and attributes to determine why he’s been so effective in that role.

Diakités Positioning

The 19-year-old Toulouse man, who in the past, played alongside the likes of Rayan Aït Nouri, who recently joined EPL side Wolverhampton Wanderers on loan, at youth level for France, has played in positions all across the backline already at some point in his young career but this season, he has more often than not been playing as a left-centre-back in Toulouse’s three-at-the-back system  usually a 3-5-2.

As we will discuss at greater length later on in this tactical analysis piece, Diakité is comfortable with playing on the left side of defence despite being right-footed. He is proficient with his weaker foot and both on and off the ball, it doesn’t generally seem to be a major issue for him to be positioned on the opposite side of the pitch to his preferred foot.

This image above shows us Diakité’s heat map for the 2020/21 campaign and this confirms that he has played as a left-sided defender.

We can see from this image that Diakité tends to spend a lot of time positioned quite wide despite being a centre-back and we will also discuss this at greater length later on in this tactical analysis piece but, essentially, Toulouse’s left wing-back tends to press fairly high and when attacks come down the left side of the pitch and he is beaten, Diakité shifts over and effectively becomes a left-back in a back-four with the rest of the defence shifting over along with him.

The heatmap also shows us a bit