Jean-Clair Todibo Scout Report: How The Former Barcelona Prodigy Brought New Life To Nice – Scout Report

Nice will take part in the Europa Conference League qualifiers next season after finishing 5^th in the Ligue 1 2021/22 season.

The team had a positive campaign, compared to the previous year and some of the players managed to show their potential.

While they were the team with the fewest scored goals in the top eight, which is what took a toll on their performance, their defensive record impresses as they have conceded the fewest goals in the league along with PSG (36).

It was actually their actions out of possession that secured them the final European spot.

Jean-Clair Todibo, who is part of their defensive line, had a crucial role in their performance both in and out of possession.

The 22-year-old has a good understanding of the game and has contributed to their build-up-play, without neglecting his defensive responsibilities in the right centre-back position.

As a ball-playing defender, he has to use his spatial and positional awareness to support ball progression.

The defender has quite a broad experience for his young age, starting his career at Toulouse and joining Barcelona in 2019.

After spending some time on loan with Benfica and Schalke 04, he finally landed in Nice, where he seems to have fitted well.

In this scout report, we use tactical analysis to examine Todibo’s strengths.

We will explain how he enhances Nice’s tactics and why he was one of their best performers in 2021/22.

Nice’s strategy

In possession, Nice rely on high pass frequency and a compact shape.

They often move into a more advanced position in order to control the game in the opposition half and to frequently distribute the ball to the final third.

The team try to create as many opportunities in front of the goal as possible but the lack of good finishing often throws their efforts to waste.

Due to their frequent crossing attempts, many of their efforts on the goal are headers.

Their defence is considerably highly positioned and contributes to the ball progression and building up from the back.

Most of the time the full-backs would move into more advanced positions and the central defenders would spread the ball out.

Thats where Todibo contributes the most.

The team lose the ball rather often due to the players unsuccessful dribbling attempts but compensate with a strong defensive movement and precision in direct challenges.

While their press is not too intense, they try to recover the ball all over the pitch and demonstrate their defensive awareness.

In most of the situations, the backline manages to drop back in a timely manner and maintain their structure, they are that successful defensively thanks to their ability to re-organise and cover depth.

The back-four get the needed support from midfield, which is crucial, especially whenever a defender needs to go out of position.

Todibo’s contribution in possession 

Todibo’s ball-playing abilities have resulted in him having a lot of responsibilities in possession.

He is responsible for ball progression and tends to constantly move to more advanced positions and seek passing options in order to advance the ball to the final third.

He is among th