Nayef Aguerd is a 29-year-old centre-back playing for Real Sociedad on loan from West Ham United.
With his loan period coming to an end this summer, Aguerd has been linked with many teams wanting to secure his services.
One of the most interested teams who are pushing to get a deal with the Irons are the Italian side, Juventus.
The idea is to make a swap deal, transferring Aguerd to Juventus and Daniele Rugani to West Ham.
The deal will be beneficial for both the Moroccan defender and Juventus, as I Bianconeri are in need of defensive reinforcements; Aguerd would certainly represent one of those.
At the same time, it is a risk he needs to take to become a more powerful defender and impose himself within Igor Tudor’s formation.
This tactical analysis and scout report aims to further explore Aguerd’s defensive and playmaking skills and evaluate his possible addition to a team like Juventus.
The analysis will also focus on comparing Aguerd with the defenders who are actually at Juventus, as this will help determine whether Aguerd has the standards needed to get sufficient playing time with Juventus.
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Nayef Aguerd Roles & Defensive Traits
Aguerd is a modern defender with everything needed to make an impact with any team he plays for.
Nayef Aguerd Pizza Map
He plays mostly as a left centre-back and can also be used as a left-back when needed, knowing he is left-footed.
He can play in most formations as he is used to playing in a back-three or a back-four defence.
First, he is very attentive to defensive duels and wins a high number of them per match, as shown in the pizza map below.
Falling in the 96th percentile for the percentage of defensive duels won last season is quite telling, and it means that Aguerd can be very reliable in this fundamental task.
Things can vary, however, if he joins Juventus because there are notable differences between the Spanish and Italian leagues.
He might need to become extra aggressive in duels to preserve that same duel-winning rate after joining Serie A.
Becoming extra aggressive does not mean committing useless fouls against strikers.
However, being ready to battle aggressive strikers who rely mostly on physical strength and direct confrontations with defenders inside the box will be crucial for Aguerd during the season.
That said, we cannot deny that Aguerd has already shown during his career that he can become aggressive when he wants to, making perfectly timed sliding tackles and clearing the ball in dangerous areas to save his team from conceding goals.
This is very important for defenders not just because it is one of their main duties but also because it makes defenders more loved by the fans, increases the esteem and trust of their head coach, and helps increase the confidence levels within the player himself.
Nayef Aguerd Sliding Tackles
With 63.6% successful sliding tackles average last season, Aguerd is becoming more consistent in this regard, but needs to work harder to improve this rate further and therefore become more reliable from this point of view.
This type of sliding tackles to intercept the ball from a Manchester United player in a dangerous zone highlights Aguerd’s sliding tackles’ mastery and his ability to time these actions well, relying on his pace to run alongside the opponent and choose the correct timing to go for tackles, knowing that he resorts to sliding tackles very often.
This reliance on sliding tackles can help him a lot in Serie A as it represents a valid solution that helps defenders win time and be confident of winning the duel, especially against very quick or very physical players.
Aguerd can also be crucial with sliding tackles and does not fear attempting such actions inside the box.
Nayef Aguerd Crucial Sliding Tackle Inside The Box
Although this can lead to fatal outcomes if the sliding tackle is mistimed, we can only appreciate defensive actions like the one shown below against Chelsea when Aguerd saved his team from a potential goal by going for a sliding tackle inside the box, intercepting the ball without touching the opponent beforehand.
His 190cm height helps him a lot in touching the ball first when attempting sliding tackles.
At the same time, being quick enough to execute the tackles despite his height makes things a bit easier for him.
At the same time, we have to highlight Aguerd’s abilities in the air as his aerial duels’ winning rate reaches the 85th percentile according to the pizza map, and that means that he can be instrumental in this aspect for Juventus especially if we consider the fact that his height is 190cm and his weight is 76kg.
These physical characteristics help him have the advantage in aerial duels against most opponents.
However, we all know that height and weight are insufficient to win aerial duels consistently.
That’s why, Aguerd makes huge efforts to always jump higher or as high as his opponent in order to win the ball.
Nayef Aguerd Abilities In Aerial Duels
Additionally, he strictly follows his direct opponent to ensure he is near him in case he receives a long pass, even when the direct opponent retreats to the middle of the pitch or to his team’s own half, like in the example below.
This strict marking and his ability to follow his opponents wherever they go on the pitch are crucial and make Aguerd a disturbing defender for these opponents.
He is quick and attentive enough not to leave space between himself and his direct opponent.
In addition to aerial duels, Aguerd’s defensive abilities in one-on-one duels can be considered good enough for Serie A levels.
He showed on numerous occasions that he can battle physically with strikers and win the ball without committing dangerous fouls.
Nayef Aguerd 1v1 Defensive Duels
He proved he can disturb and eventually intercept the ball even when put in complicated situations requiring dangerous interventions.
The one below shows how Aguerd can be patient and follow his direct opponent to the box while trying to disturb him.
When he noticed that the time had come to either touch the ball or commit a foul to prevent the opponent from shooting on goal, Aguerd was intelligent enough to time his intervention well and touch the ball first to avoid any possible penalty foul.
This highlights the defender’s maturity and his experience in dealing with the various situations near or inside the box.
If Aguerd joins Juventus, he will face further tests, as it is expected that there will be one-on-one confrontations in each game.
The margin of progress is still possible for Aguerd, especially in terms of positioning.
Aguerd will have to be very attentive to his movements without the ball in Serie A, taking into consideration the fact that the teams in Italy focus a lot on such details and might plan their in-game attacking strategy or their individual instructions on Aguerd’s wrong or late movements.
Nayef Aguerd Playmaking Abilities
According to Wyscout, with a passing accuracy of 90.7% and a progressive passing percentile rank of 90.35, Aguerd can be considered one of the best available defenders in terms of passing.
This will be very useful and important for a team like Juventus, who need someone to help effectively in the build-up from the back, whether through short passing or long passing, knowing that Aguerd excels in long passing as well.
The only aspect that needs more work from Aguerd in this regard is his dangerous passing rate, which needs to be improved, given that the player has the passing abilities to do so.
Comparison With Federico Gatti, Gleison Bremer & Lloyd Kelly
It is important to compare Aguerd’s abilities with those of the centre-backs already on the squad list to assess his value and predict his role.
Given that Rugani is expected to leave the team, this comparison will be between Aguerd, Federico Gatti, Gleison Bremer and Lloyd Kelly.
Nayef Aguerd Vs Gleison Bremer
The differences between the two players compared to Bremer are not huge, with an advantage for Aguerd in terms of shooting, dribbling, progressive passes, defensive duels won, aerial duels won, and even positioning.
Therefore, we can say that Aguerd is slightly better than Bremer on the various aspects mentioned, while Bremer is only better in terms of passes per game and passing accuracy.
Nayef Aguerd Vs Federico Gatti
When it comes to comparing with Federico Gatti, the latter is obviously better in terms of positioning and passing accuracy.
Gatti is also better in attack, since he advances more, shoots more, and dribbles with a higher success rate than Aguerd.
Both players are good enough in terms of defensive duels, with a slight advantage for Aguerd.
The Moroccan international is better in aerial duels, however.
This means that both players are actually very reliable and quite similar in terms of statistics, which means that they have equal chances of starting games, and potentially to play alongside each other.
Nayef Aguerd Vs Lloyd Kelly
The same applies to Kelly, who has good enough aerial duels and defensive duels rates.
Both players share many similarities in this regard.
They win an average of similar defensive and aerial duels, with a slight advantage for Aguerd.
Although Aguerd provides more passes per game and has a higher passing accuracy than Kelly, the latter provides more dangerous passes per match and, therefore, can be more dangerous in terms of playmaking and shooting.
This means that the two players can replace each other as they have slight differences in certain aspects, but overall, Aguerd’s statistics are good enough to make him a starter instead of Kelly, especially if he proves it on the pitch.
Another aspect that can make it advantageous for Aguerd to play consistently as a key player for Juventus is the fact that he is a left-footed defender.
With Bremer, Pierre Kalulu, and Gatti all being right-footed, Aguerd will primarily be battling with Kelly for a starting spot, knowing that Aguerd is better than Kelly in terms of defensive statistics.
Conclusion
After exploring his profile and traits, we can say that if the deal goes through, Aguerd could become a key player for Juventus.
Given his excellent defensive skills and experience in dealing with various defensive situations, he can add a lot of stability to the Bianconeri’s defence.
Adapting to Serie A’s playing style quickly and convincing Igor Tudor on the pitch will definitely guarantee his starting spot, as Juventus do not have a better defender at the moment, as seen in the comparison section.
