Warren Kamanzi (177cm/5’9”, 70kg/154lbs) is a name that started being hyped a little bit among some of those interested in Nordic football in late 2022. Toulouse were quick to make their move and secure the 22-year-old right-back’s signature at the beginning of the 2023 January transfer window, adding the Norwegian to their squad for the second half of the 2022/23 Ligue 1 campaign following a €600k transfer from Tromsø IL.
Kamanzi is a young player with just one season of top-flight football to his name — that coming in 2022 at Tromsø. He’s yet to make an appearance for Norway’s senior national side but has two appearances to his name for his country’s U21s.
So, why did Toulouse opt to sign Kamanzi? And what can supporters of Le Téfécé expect from their new full-back recruit? This tactical analysis and scout report seeks to answer those two questions via a combination of data analysis and video analysis.
We’ll look at why Carlo Ancelotti-inspired Philippe Montaniers Toulouse may have decided to dip into the Norwegian market, why Kamanzi was their chosen one to fill a void in their squad and provide analysis of some key elements of the 22-year-old’s game while examining his role within his former team’s tactics and discussing how he may develop further into the future as his career progresses.
Why Norway?
Toulouse are no strangers to shopping in the Nordic football market. Over the past 18 months, they’ve brought in centre-back Rasmus Nicolaisen from Danish side Midtjylland, right-back Mikkel Desler from Norwegian side Haugesund, goalkeeper Kjetil Haug from Norwegian side Vålerenga, left-back Oliver Zandén from Swedish side Elfsborg, attacking midfielder/winger Veljko Birmančević from Swedish side Malmö FF and, now, Kamanzi from Tromsø.
So, on this occasion, why Norway?
To answer that question, let’s first examine what Toulouse look for from their full-backs. They rely on their full-backs a lot for crossing, with Toulouse playing the 10th-most crosses (13 per 90) of any Ligue 1 side this season, with left-back Issiaga Sylla playing the most in the team with 2.66 per 90 and right-back Desler playing the fourth-most of any player at the club with 2.11 per 90.
Le Téfécé have made the third-fewest dribbles per 90 (20.34) in Ligue 1 this term — not an outstanding statistic — with Sylla making the most of any Toulouse full-back by far with 2.73 per 90 (seventh of any Toulouse player). Toulouse’s only other right-back, Desler, falls at 16th for dribbles per 90 with 1.43 to his name — the fewest of any Toulouse full-back, highlighting potential room for improvement in this area in Toulouse’s right-back department, should they wish to boost this area on the right side.
Defensively, Toulouse have the fourth-lowest PPDA (8.99) in Ligue 1 this term, indicating their aggressive press, they’ve had the third-most defensive duels per 90 (72.56) with Desler engaging in the third-most of any Toulouse player with 9.19 per 90 (61.47% success), quite impressive from the existing Toulouse right-back.
Le Téfécé have also made the third-most interceptions (42.04 per 90) of any Ligue 1 side this term, with left-back Sylla falling fourth in the club with 5.69 per 90 and Desler coming in at seventh with 4.55 per 90.
We’ve stylistically compared several of the world’s top leagues in some of the key areas mentioned above to show why Le Téfécé considered Norway for their right-back search. Starting with figure 1, we can see that the Norwegian top flight saw a relatively high number of crosses per 90 in 2022 compared with other leagues of a somewhat similar high level this term.
For dribbling volume, Norway also ranked quite highly, as shown in figure 2, and when we move on to figure 3 below to examine progressive runs per 90, we observe perhaps even more interesting results.
