Saint-Étienne have had no shortage of young central defensive talent pass through their club in recent years. Harold Moukoudi, who is currently on loan at EFL Championship side Middlesbrough and William Saliba, who is set to join Arsenal in the Premier League next season are two of the more well-known talents to have recently spent some time developing in Saint-Étienne, as is the player who will be the subject of this scout report, Wesley Fofana.
19-year-old Fofana has been enjoying a consistent run in Saint-Étienne’s first-team over recent months. During that time, Fofana has shown himself to be yet another highly promising product of Saint-Étienne’s youth academy, thanks to some impressive defensive displays that have been delivered by the teenager.
In this tactical analysis piece in the form of a scout report, we will examine some of Fofana’s key attributes and try to determine what exactly he brings to Saint-Étienne’s defence and how he fits into their tactics. Additionally, we will examine some potential areas of improvement for the young centre-back in this tactical analysis piece, in order to explore some ways in which the defender can potentially work to become an even more well-rounded defensive prospect.
Aerial duels
One of the most impressive aspects of Fofana’s game is his dominant aerial ability. The 19-year-old centre-back has contested an average of 6.38 aerial duels per 90 in Ligue 1 this season according to Wyscout, managing to win an impressive 71.2% of those aerial duels that he has contested.
This impressive success percentage gives the Saint-Étienne teenager the second-highest aerial duel success rate in France’s top-flight this term according to Wyscout, trailing only Mateo Pavlović of Angers with regard to aerial efficiency.
One of the reasons that Fofana has been so successful when engaging in aerial duels this season can be attributed to his impressive jumping ability, which we can see an example of in the image above. The 19-year-old centre-back, who stands at 185cm tall, has proven to be capable of propelling himself above his competitors in the air due to an impressive jumping ability which has been an effective tool for him this season.
In the image above, we can see an example of Fofana boosting himself up into the air, above his competitors in preparation to contest this aerial ball. Just prior to this image being taken, the opposition goalkeeper sent a goal kick long into Saint-Étienne’s half of the pitch. Fofana then took a run up and managed to gain a significant amount of height on his jump which allowed him to win this aerial battle with relative ease and knock the ball back into the opposition half.
