Zakaria Aboukhlal’s triumphant task at Toulouse in 2022/23 – scout report

Zakaria Aboukhlal (179cm/5’10”, 159lbs/72kg) has been one of Toulouse’s brightest sparks on the pitch this season in the Occitanie club’s return campaign to Ligue 1 following their relegation from the French top-flight back in 2019/20.

Toulouse spent two seasons in Ligue 2 toiling away for their opportunity to regain their place in Ligue 1 which they managed to do last season under Philippe Montanier. They’ve been doing quite well back in Ligue 1 this season, achieving four wins and four draws in their first 15 games of the season, leaving them sitting in 12th place as the league takes a break for the FIFA World Cup.

Aboukhlal is one Toulouse player you’ll be able to catch at the World Cup as he’s been called up as part of the Morocco squad for the tournament to the delight of himself, his teammates and his manager.

This is a well-earned reward for the former Eredivisie attacker with AZ Alkmaar and PSV Eindhoven academy product who was brought in by Les Violets this past summer and has featured in all 15 of Toulouse’s league games this term, playing the majority of most of them while becoming a first-team regular for Toulouse, bagging three goals and three assists in those first 15 games.

This tactical analysis and scout report shares analysis of the 13-cap Morocco attacker’s role at Toulouse since joining this past summer for €2m and what’s helped him to perform so successfully in Ligue 1. We’ll look at some key strengths and weaknesses to the attacker’s game in this tactical analysis while analysing the important aspects of his specific role within this Toulouse squad and his teams tactics.

Aboukhlal’s Toulouse role

As figure 1 indicates, defensively, Toulouse make tonnes of recoveries per game but don’t exactly have the lowest PPDA, meaning they aren’t the most aggressive team in the league in pressing from the front. However, they do attempt to press high plenty of the time, still, especially for a team that’s new to the league this season and when they do so, their high press success percentage is decent.

They keep plenty of the ball and manage to enter the final third a lot compared to other Ligue 1 clubs, while they also, crucially, tend to enter the opposition’s penalty area a good amount of the time per game.