International tournaments are always perfect showcases for lesser-known players, offering them a unique opportunity to make themselves known to the wider footballing audience. During the last UEFA Nations League, the standout performance belonged to France’s Aurélien Tchouaméni. The current AS Monaco player is being touted as a possible signing for Real Madrid next season. For this reason, at the MBP School of Coaches, we will describe in depth the player profile of Tchouaméni.
Player Profile
The first distinctive characteristic in the French midfielder is his conditional ability, which is reflected in his heat map on the field.
Tchouaméni has a ‘box to box’ player profile, being capable of making a big impact in the different phases of the play. Through his physical power, the Monaco star is able to recover the ball in zone 1 and run the entire length of the field to launch his team’s counterattacks. The second aspect to highlight within the player’s structures is his coordination skills. In this area, we can describe Tchouaméni as a player similar to Paul Pogba.
The 21-year-old is not a slow mover. Tchouaméni is able to use different technical resources to avoid opposition pressure and overcome these situations successfully.
In addition, it is important to highlight the French player’s ability to combine both structures, enabling him to coordinate his technical skills together with his conditional ability, generating a perfect synergy for the current modern game.
Game Fundamentals
Delving into the more tactical aspects of his play, we should highlight Tchouaméni’s great tactical capacity. The midfielder excels through his cognitive intelligence, being able to dominate both in the attacking and defensive phases of the game. For the attacking aspects of his play, Tchouaméni possesses a great ability to apply the universal progression zone fundamental of ‘Searching for a game in progression by assessing the risk/benefit of the passes’.
Tchouaméni is skilled in identifying when to take risks in the type of passes he makes, either by using passes that enable his teammates in advantageous situations, or, on the other hand, by passing to give continuity with lesser risk.
Regarding the defensive aspects of his game, the Frenchman is noted for ‘taking responsibility for the corresponding attacker’ according to the different situations that arise during the course of the match, whether it is when his team are pressing, or when they are using a more floating defence.
The impact Tchouaméni has on his team
Tchouaméni does not yet have the capacity to have a major impact on the way his team plays. However, as he is a player with a strong adaptability to different game contexts, the player brings to his side an ability to adapt to different scenarios. As we saw during the recent UEFA Nations League games, the midfielder was able to provide different qualities to his team, all of them at a high level.
For example, in the moments when France were more dominant in the game, Tchouaméni could give Les Blues the necessary passing continuity to consolidate the different attacking actions. On the other hand, in the defensive moments of the game, whether in the defensive transition or in the organized defence, Tchouaméni executed high level defensive actions to shut down the opposition’s attacks.
Conclusion
The current AS Monaco player has a promising future ahead of him. Although there is still a lot of room for improvement, we are undoubtedly talking about a player who will be one of the world’s stars in the years to come. At the MBP School of Coaches, we are excited to see how Tchouaméni can adapt to La Liga Santander if Real Madrid are fortunate enough to sign their target.
