Few players have had as much of an impact on RC Lens’ stellar 2020/21 Ligue 1 campaign as 20-year-old Loïc Badé, who made the move to Sang et Or from Le Havre last summer with minimal appearances to his name at senior level and no prior experience of playing in France’s top-flight.
Despite his inexperience, Badé, who stands at 191cm (6’3”) tall and weighs 89kg (196lbs), has been a giant for Lens, not just in terms of his physical height but also in terms of his influence on the pitch this season, with ligue1.com highlighting him as a ‘rising star’ in an article that described him as a ‘leader’ of the Pas-de-Calais side, compared him with four-time UEFA Champions League winner with Real Madrid Raphaël Varane and quoted fellow Lens summer signing Ignatius Ganogo as stating of Badé: “You’ll see him playing for a top, top side soon enough.”
The centre-back has enjoyed 1980 minutes of Ligue 1 action so far this term more minutes than all but three other Lens players playing a central role in helping Franck Haise’s side to enjoy a positive return to top-flight football just one season after achieving promotion, with Sang et Or sitting in sixth place at present, threatening to take their challenge for a European qualification spot all the way down to the wire.
In this tactical analysis, which is a scout report, we’ll analyze Loïc Badé’s role within Haise’s tactics this term.
We’ll examine his games notable strengths and weaknesses, how his role at Stade Bollaert-Delelis accentuates his strengths, leading to his impressive campaign, and share our thoughts on how true Ganogo’s exciting prediction for the 20-year-old’s future could prove to be.
Loïc Badé’s Position at Lens
Haise’s Lens have played in a 3-4-1-2 shape most of the time this season.
Badé has operated in the centre of that back three, typically with Jonathan Gradit to his right and Facundo Medina to his left.
Figure 1 shows Loïc Badés heatmap for the 2020/21 campaign.
As this heatmap indicates, the centre-back’s role in this squad involves covering quite a lot of ground centrally.
This heatmap shows a lot of co
