Houssem Aouar Thread :

Likes, RTs & Follows appreciated!

In this thread, I will be taking a look at one of Europe’s best, young midfield prospects that is Houssem Aouar. He has been closely linked to a few top clubs like Juventus, Man City & Arsenal.

I will be disecting his strengths, weaknesses and how he can fit in to a team

1) Houssem Aouar is a 22yo French midfielder that plays in France for one of Ligue 1’s finest clubs, Lyon. Aouar has been playing regular football for several seasons now and has played at high levels. He hasn’t featured for the senior French squad yet but is knocking for a call.

1.1) Houssem Aouar is a central midfielder that operates predominantly on the left hand side of the midfield. He loves to venture forward and play in and around the final 3rd where he can make things happen for Lyon. I also want to vaguely illustrate his best/weaker attributes.

2) Whilst Houssem Aouar has had a very good Ligue 1 campaign considering his age, it’s his Champions League performances that have caught the eye of many clubs across Europe. HA achieved 1G/4A in 8 starts with Lyon in their impressive CL run. He also featured in the CL TOTS.

3) To begin with, we take a look at HA’s best attribute which is his ball carrying and dribbling abilities. We can see he was head and shoulders above other midfielders in the Ligue 1 last season when it came to carrying the ball and carrying the ball towards the goal.

3.1) Houssem Aouar played 1953 minutes in the Ligue 1 and had a dribbling success rate of 62.5% (25th) and beat 72 players (3rd) whilst on the ball. He also carried the ball 1118 times (5th).

4) Houssem Aouar is massively influential when it comes to his actions that lead to a shot or a goal. We can see that he is very capable of influencing shots and goals which gives the team a better chance to win the game.

4.1) Houssem Aouar created 3.08 shot creating actions p90 (11th) and 0.46 goal creating actions p90 (3rd) which shows just how effective he is with the actions that he does. Majority of these actions come from live positions as opposed to dead ball positions.

5) Moving onto Houssem Aouar’s passing, we can see that he ranks above average when it comes to playing Key Passes and Final 3rd Passes. There’s more risk involved in these passes and my next tweet will explain how he ranks against his competitors.

5.1) Aouar completed 27 Key Passes (8th) as well as 108 Final 3rd Passes (4th.)

Short passing (< 5 yards): 23.7% (20th)

Medium passing (5-25 yards): 89.8% (2nd)

Long passing (> 25 yards): 75.7% (5th)

This clarifies his intent and abilities to play longer range passes.

6) When it comes to xG + xA, HA is above average against the other midfielders. Lyon could expect to get a lot more goals and assists from Aouar when he’s on the pitch in comparison to other midfielders. In my next tweet, I will disect these numbers a little bit more.

6.1) Houssem Aouar’s xG p90 was 0.17 (8th) and had an xA p90 of (13th.) Overall, Houssem Aouar had npxG + xA (excluding penalties) of 0.31 which puts him 9th amongst Ligue 1 midfielders.

7) However, Houssem Aouar’s game is not perfect. The plot below shows his defensive abilities off the ball. He’s one of the lowest midfielders when it comes to successful interceptions + tackles and successful pressures applied. Whilst it his not his job, every player must defend

7.1) Houssem Aouar completed 39 successful tackles + interceptions which ranks him as one of the lowest midfielders (30th) when it comes to his defensive abilities. He made 12 clearances (25th) and 19 successful blocks (26th.)

8) The graphics below show some of what I’ve spoken about already but ranked against players across Europe and not just the Ligue 1.

9) Houssem Aouar is reportedly very interested in joining Arsenal, so I will be taking a look at how he compares to the Gunners’ current midfield options.

9.1)

Goals:
Aouar: 3
Xhaka, Torreira, Willock: 1
Ceballos: 0

Assists:
Aouar: 4
Ceballos, Xhaka: 2
Torreira, Willock, Guendouzi: 1

Mins per G/A:
Aouar: 280.4 mins
Willock: 424.5 mins
Torreira: 755 mins

9.2)

Chances created p90:
Ceballos: 1.5
Willock: 1.3
Aouar: 1.1

Successful dribbles p90:
Aouar: 3 (58.8%)
Willock: 2.2 (64.4%)
Ceballos: 1.4 (73.7%)

9.3)

Successful tackles p90:
Willock: 2.7 (67.5%)
Ceballos: 2.4 (51.1%)
Torreira: 1.8 (56.3%)

6th) Aouar: 1.3 (54.1%)

Successful Interceptions p90:
Torreira: 2
Ceballos: 1.7
Guendouzi: 1.5

5th) Aouar: 0.6

Final verdict:

HA is a fantastic midfielder and at the young age of 22, he looks to be going to the very top. His ball carrying and dribbling abilities as we saw are his best attributes but his range of passing and ability to play key passes in dangerous areas shows efficiency.

Final verdict:

Despite being linked to many clubs, it seems that Arsenal are favourites to sign the 22yo this summer and I feel like he is exactly what they need right now.

Final verdict:

Many games for Arsenal turn out like the one below. Many sideways and backwards passes and a clear gap in the final 3rd where there aren’t many passes happening. Aouar can play in between these lines and restore the creativity that links the midfield with attack.

Final verdict:
It’s been widely reported that Arteta “adores” HA and he’s also keen on the move. HA is also versatile and can play CAM if necessary. He must improve his defensive abilities as Arteta demands off the ball work rate.

Would you be happy with HA gunners? or

End of thread.

Thank you so much if you got to this point! It took me a while to create this thread and graphics but was worth it!

Please Like, RT, Follow and Share this thread with friends and DM me for any suggestions on players you would like me to analyse.

Credit: @MartonBalla1 for the graphs on Aouar vs midfielders across Europe.

Tags for awareness (ignore):

@bhavss14 @EduardoHagn @MrDtAFC @curtisshaw9 @TroopzAFC @LeeJudges @livzledgee @AFTVMedia @markgoldbridge @MalayaliGunner @Arsenal @hughwizzy @GeoffArsenal