At the time of writing, Marseille are one of just three Ligue 1 sides to remain undefeated in the league this season, along with PSG and Lens.
This season also welcomed the arrival of a new manager in the Stade Vélodrome dugout, with former Juventus player and coach Igor Tudor, among other clubs, replacing the enigmatic Jorge Sampaoli in Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur.
Total Football Analysis published a couple of in-depth analysis articles looking at Sampaoli and his tactics at Marseille.
One player who played a key, unique role at Marseille under the Marcelo Bielsa disciple was Valentin Rongier (172cm/5’7”, 66kg/146lbs), who recently signed a contract extension keeping him at the Ligue 1 giants until 2026.
Rongier has also quickly become a favourite of new boss Tudor, though in a different role to the one he performed under Sampaoli.
The 44-year-old manager who’d most recently coached at Serie A side Hellas Verona before joining Les Phocéens has said of his midfield general:
“Rongier gives me everything. Hes smart, hes got the legs and knows how to time his runs. Hes underestimated by the press and the fans, but he really is a fantastic player!”
Indeed, the 27-year-old has shone for his club this term under Tudor, with Rongier even captaining Marseille for most of their Ligue 1 games so far this season.
The midfielder’s performances at club level have even resulted in some calls for Rongier to be considered by Didier Deschamps for the French World Cup squad ahead of the upcoming tournament.
This tactical analysis piece will look at why Tudor and plenty of others have been heaping praise upon Rongier this season.
Our scout report analyses the player’s role within his team’s setup and the new manager’s tactics while highlighting some key strengths and weaknesses of Rongier’s overall game.
Valentin Rongier Data Analysis
We’ll kick off this scout report by conducting a brief data analysis looking at how Rongier stacks up in some key areas versus other Ligue 1 central midfielders from the 2022/23 season so far.
On our visual in figure 1, alongside raw metrics from Wyscout, we’ve got ‘possession involvement’ (a combination of passes received per 90 and passes per 90), ‘positive passing’ (a combination of forward passes per 90, progressive passes per 90 and passes to the final third per 90), ‘penetrative passing’ (a combination of through passes per 90, passes to the penalty area per 90 and smart passes per 90) and, lastly, ‘creative passing’ (a combination of xA per 90, key passes per 90 and shot assists per 90).
From this, we could say that Rongier is a fairly well-rounded midfielder with a solid defensive contribution, a good duel success rate (for both ground and aerial duels) and a decent passing contribution for his side.
In particular, the Marseille man could be described as a relatively reliable passer, as his pass success rate demonstrates.
This is also evident
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