Feel like people have forgotten about Houssem Aouar due to how bad Lyon have been doing. Time for a thread.

He's still one of the best young midfield prospects in world football and most managers in the world would be glad to have him. Immense technical ability and as playing in a pivot for the majority of last year showed, positional discipline and workrate aren't weaknesses of his.

He's fantastic at aiding the press and releasing the ball intelligently. Shows that he'd be comfortable in a press intensive side and that he doesn't really endanger his team with either a passive engagement in defensive actions or a poor ability to retain the ball.

He loves that clipped ball into the RB, would be an interesting and useful addition for a team that stagger play on the left before switching to the right.

I think he'd be well utilized as a free 8, able to show his ability in the first/second phases but also allowed to make an impact in the box. He has this sort of arrogance/confidence in a 1v1, or when getting pressured, always thinks he can slide it through the opposition's legs.

Cool and composed, Aouar is adept in the usage of La Pausa in order to create space. Here he waits for his teammate to make a run before moving, making the opposition second guess their press+organisation.

My only issue with Aouar is that, he's not the best at consistently breaking the lines with his passing, he's much more reliant on his dribbling and ability to use his locomotion and feints to create space (similar to Kovacic I guess?).

Means that he'd have to be accompanied by a deeper lying player with the ability to break the lines with ease. He won't be anywhere near his best next to a limited destroyer, i.e. Ndidi.

All in all, I believe Aouar is fully capable of becoming a top player, he's strictly an 8 for me, none of this coming off the wing bollocks that Sylvinho, Garcia and Génésio have tried to throw at us.

Credits for the clips used go to the YouTube Channels of:
BNS Comps
DxG Comps
Kinry Double