Ilias Akhomach scout report: Can the La Masia winger give Barcelona the ingredient Koeman has been missing?

Nowadays, it seems rather easy to find flaws in Barcelona. The Catalans are far from their invincible best and its showing almost every week. But all the issues aside, there have been some recurring problems pestering the squad for years now. Verticality and width, for one, have been the crucial missing pieces that would undoubtedly make the team much better than it is now.

And while hardly the only issue, the lack of wingers has played a role in that. The same can be said for quality attacking full-backs but wingers, in particular, have been rather scarce at the Camp Nou. But the La Liga titans might have a solution in their academy.

Ilias Akhomach is among the most exciting talents currently playing for their B and Juvenil A teams and one of the potential candidates to move up sooner rather than later. But how does he fit Barcelona’s tactics? This tactical analysis will give you a scout report on the youngster, identifying some of his main traits.

Let’s begin.

Player overview

Ilias Akhomach is a 17-year-old winger currently plying his trade for Barcelona B. He is a left-footer who loves to cut inside and engage in a lot of dribbles against his marker(s). This dribbling ability and efficiency are probably what stands out the most about him. Akhomach’s close control, body orientation and mastery of small spaces is incredible for such a young and largely inexperienced player.

Similarly, he is quite strong on the ball overall. While not always the most adventurous and courageous passer, he does have it in his locker to playmake by distributing deadly threading balls. Sadly, as we’ll see further down the line of this analysis, this trait is not seen often enough to be a regular part of his arsenal.

One other thing that characterises Akhomach pretty well is the tendency to run with the ball and then combine higher up the pitch. The 17-year-old will often receive deep, engage in duels and dribbles and then aim to progress via his runs.

But Akhomach is far from a finished product. Of course, being so young, that fact doesn’t surprise anyone. His finishing is the biggest flaw in his player profile and this is directly tied with his decision making as well. But we’ll discuss all of that and more further down the line of this analysis.

Dribbling & carrying ability

Without much doubt, dribbling and carrying ability is key to understanding Akhomach’s profile as a whole. Despite being so young, the winger is showcasing incredible skill when taking on his man. The 17-year-old excels when isolated with his marker out wide as he can then use the pace and trickery that are in his arsenal.

But before further analysing his dribbling technique, it’s important to note when and where he engages in dribbles. Below, we can see his heatmap and action map, both of which will help us understand his general tendencies on the ball.

Akhomach is a left-footer playing on the right side of the pitch. As such, it doesn’t surprise that he loves to invert whenever possible. The youngster will receive wide and then decide whether he can cut in or keep the width, which is a great trait to have since it shows versatility in his profile.

Even though the maps suggest he has this tendency to drop deeper, it is interesting to note he won’t engage in dribbles too far into his own half that often. Below we can see four dribble maps from some of his most recent games that gave us a big enough sample for analysis. At times, his success rate can drop but is generally around 50%, which is more than good enough for a volume dribbler.