Jean-Kévin Duverne at Brest 2020/21 – scout report

In the past few seasons in Ligue 1, there has been another wave of immaculate young talents graduating from French football academies all throughout the country, including the likes of Eduardo Camavinga, William Saliba, Maxence Caqueret, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Jonathon Panzo, Imran Louza, amongst a host of other young prodigies.

Stade Brestois’ Jean-Kévin Duverne is a name that should be included in that list despite being somewhat of a late-bloomer. Now at 23 years of age, Duverne has become a main-stay in the Brest starting eleven every week under manager Olivier Dall’Oglio.

The centre-back made his professional debut for Lens back in August 2016 whilst the club was down in Ligue 2, and following 89 appearances for the club the French club, he moved to Stade Brestois at the start of September 2019 for a reported £2 million.

In the last campaign, the Frenchman made 14 appearances for the Brest first-team, but this season, he has already made 11 as of writing, and there have only been 11 games played so far, which means Duverne has started in every single league game for his side. He has put in some fantastic performances in those games, which have made rival fans and managers stand up and take notice of him.

This scout report will be a tactical analysis of how Duverne has been utilised so far this season. It will be an analysis of how the youngster has been so crucial for Brest’s tactics under Dall’Oglio in Ligue 1 in the 2020/21 campaign.

Style of play and best positioning

Duverne is a 6’0” right-footed centre-back. However, despite being right-footed, he plays on the left side of the defence for Brest under Dall’Oglio. The French manager has predominantly utilised a 4-4-2- this season but has also deployed a 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-1-1. Regardless, it is always a back four with two centre-backs.

Duverne’s partner at the back has fluctuated this season between Brendan Chardonnet, Lilian Brassier, as well as Cristophe Herelle, but he himself has always been in the side.

Being a right-footer, his favoured position in the backline would certainly be as a right centre-back, but Duverne can also be used as a right-back where he has played on numerous occasions in the past.

Duverne is a player who is very comfortable in possession and is well-versed in playing successful passes whilst under pressure. On average, he completes roughly 57.14 passes per game with a success rate of 84.68%.

He likes to play risky passes at times and is usually the one for Brest that breaks their opponent’s first line of press with a progressive forward pass to transition his side out of the build-up phase of the attack.