Baghdad Bounedjah is a prolific striker, constantly exceeding his expectations playing in the Middle East with the high profile Qatari club, Al Sadd SC. He holds a commendable record in the AFC Champions League and with the national team of Algeria. Yet, Bounedjah is not a name that critics in Europe talk about. Despite having interests by clubs like Leeds United, Lille and Marseille, Bounedjah continued to play for Xavi Hernandez project at Al Sadd awaiting the opportunity to play for an even bigger club.
He scored the goal that won the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations for Algeria, but his journey into professional football hasn’t taken the traditional route. At the age of 20, when most players are looking to play top-flight football at home or in Europe, Baghdad Bounedjah was at an amateur side in the sixth-tier of Algerian football. Today, not only are his stats skyrocketing, but his intelligence to play in his position are worthy of a closer analysis. In this scout report, I shall analyse Baghdad Boundejah’s profile as a centre forward and his tactics and movements to create space for himself. This tactical analysis of the 28-year-old Desert Fox striker attempts to justify why he is overdue for a stint in European Football.
Player Profile
Bounedjah is a right-footed centre forward mostly used as a lone striker up top. He is deployed as a target man where he uses his 180cm frame to fend of defenders and hold the ball up. If we look at his heatmap, we can see that he spends most of the game lurking around the defensive line or poaching for goals inside the box.
He does like to drift wide on occasions to receive the ball or if he finds more space for himself in the wide areas. Centrally he does a brilliant job of hold up play and making good decisions even under situations of numerical inferiority. This makes his team-mates trust him well with playing the first ball to their targetman. He has an xGchain of 0.18 in counterattacks which is way ahead of the QNB Stars League average.
