Ryad Hachem: SO Cholet’s exciting left-back who’s ‘felt a progression’ in 2021/22 – scout report

So far in this scout report series focusing on the brightest talents in France’s third tier, Championnat National 1, at present, we’ve analysed two very different types of midfielder in Florent Da Silva and Ahmad Allée, a winger in Godson Kyeremeh, a centre-back in Harold Voyer and a versatile centre-forward/wide forward in Walid Jarmouni. Today, in part six, our latest National 1 scout report looks at 23-year-old SO Cholet left-back Ryad Hachem (173cm/5’8”, 74kg/163lbs), who joined the club on a free transfer last summer after leaving EA Guingamp B.

In a February interview with his club’s media, the left-back discussed his season so far, at the time, explaining that he felt “satisfied” with what he was offering his team both offensively and defensively before going on to declare that he “felt a progression” in 2021/22, “especially at the defensive level”. Indeed, Hachem has performed impressively all over the pitch this season, but especially at the back, which we’ll discuss in some detail as we progress deeper into this scout report.

The 23-year-old former Paris FC academy member was born in the Livry-Gargan commune not far from the centre of Paris, a massive city, of course, which has become a hotbed of football talent, with Paris boasting the likes of PSG’s Kylian Mbappé and Presnel Kimpembe, Manchester United’s Paul Pogba, Chelsea’s N’Golo Kanté and Bayern Munich’s Kingsley Coman on their list of recent football products, just to name a few.

This tactical analysis piece and scout report aims to provide in-depth analysis of another Paris native who’s been taking his own portion of the football world by storm this season, albeit restricted to the more low-key French third tier as opposed to the highest levels of the game as some of the aforementioned Parisian talents have done. We will inspect some of the key strengths, weaknesses and points of note with regard to Hachem’s game and role within Cholet’s tactics in this tactical analysis piece to highlight why we’ve decided to look at this particular player for this series, and why he may be the most exciting young full-back in National 1 this term.

In the final third

While Hachem has correctly identified the defensive side of his game as being perhaps the most impressive part this season. However, the full-back role is one of the most demanding and dynamic roles in modern football, with players in this position required to play a box-to-box role, and that remains true for Hachem in his current role at Cholet.

The 23-year-old has been an effective box-to-box presence for his side this term, meaning he’s performed this role quite effectively, and our first section of this tactical analysis piece focuses on Hachem’s performances going forward this term, specifically within the final third.

Hachem has created 2.47 xA this term, which ranks quite highly among National 1’s full-backs. His movement in the final third helps him to be such a valuable creative outlet for his team, leading to this relatively high xA number. In this team’s offensive strategy and tactics, it’s vital that Hachem provides the width inside the final third and he often does so while performing late overlapping runs to support his winger moving inside and double-up on the opposition’s full-back.

Figures 1-2 show an example of this kind of late overlapping run. In figure 1, we see Cholet’s winger carrying the ball inside while running at the opposition’s full-back — thus driving this player backwards, influencing them to move narrower and naturally creating more space out wide for Hachem to attack in the process. The full-back (circled in the image) manages to prove into the final third unmarked, in part thanks to his late run which allows play to develop ahead of him first before committing to driving forward himself, which can be safer but also more effective at finding space high on the wing.

It’s really common to see Hachem make this kind of run for Cholet and the team’s left-winger is well aware of the full-back’s preferences and tendencies by now. While the ball carrier was moving inside, he kept one eye on Hachem’s run. Eventually, after forcing the opposition’s full-back to move narrower, the winger was able to release Hachem in behind on the wing as the full-back reached the opposition’s defensive line, getting to a point where he was actually further forward than the winger.