THREAD | This will be the 1st thread in many which I'll decrypt our opponents during the next #WCQ. This thread will concern Sudan who'll be our 1st opponent in these qualifiers (5-8th June). It's gonna be a team analysis, other threads will come soon.

Sudan played the last #AFCONQ in group C alongside Ghana, South Africa & Sao Tome é Principe. They ended 2nd & qualified to the next #AFCON. Their last participation were in 2012. Sudan won 4/6 of their games with no loss or conceded goal at home. They scored 9 & conceded 3.

In their last #AFCONQ, Sudan were managed by 2 coachs: Zdravko Logarusic & actual head coach Hubert Velud . Both coaches used a list of 27 players mostly coming from giants Al-Hilal & Al-Merrikh (more than 95%). They choosed to play in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-4-1 system.

1/ IN POSSESSION

Sudan plays mainly in 4-1-4-1 system. The idea behind it is to find the wide areas & progress from these areas. They do so by using combinations, midfielders off-ball mouvment. They end their offensive actions with a cross into PA.

So in possession, everything starts from the defensive line. Width is the key option here for build up. Every player in central position looks to pass the ball towards players in wide areas. These spaces are used for progressing the ball into offensive areas.

Back to South Africa's game in Khartoum & from the defensive areas, we can clusterise 2 types of passes where both looks to play in direction of the wings. They can be short or long balls.

In midfield too, the same ideas are used. The purpose is to build quickly because sudanese players don't have the possession a lot. Sudanese wingers & FBs are good runners & can be dangerous in the small empty spaces.

Back to South Africa's game again, we can obviously clusterise 2 others types of passes from the 3rd tier of midfield which both tends to play the ball into the wide areas. This is one the characteristics of playing in 4-1-4-1 system who offers solutions in the sides as a key.

It's interesting to see from which sides does Sudan prefers to attack from. During #AFCONQ, 41% of the Sudanese attacks came from the right flank, 31% of the attacks came from the left side & 28% from the central position.

It's also interesting to categorize these attacks into :
- Ending with a cross
- Ending with a breaking pass
- Shots coming from long range.

54% of the Sudanese attacks ends with a cross. Back to Sao Tomé's game, Sudan played 31 crosses where 15 ended with a shot.

These stats aren't random, we saw how Sudan tries to progress from the sides. But why Sudan prefers to attack from the right? The answer is the presence of Al-Tash & El Tahir who are the best crossers in the team.

Here is a map of all the accurate & inaccurate crosses attempted

But not all these crosses ends with a shot. In reality, just 36% of Sudan crosses ends with a shot. The amount of shots coming from the PA is higher then any other zone. Sudan shots mostly from inside the PA.

Sudan players tries some shots from outside the areas. They got players who can shoot good from long range. I believe Abdelrahmane is one of them. 2/9 goals of Sudan came from outside the box.

Another goal from a long range shot

All copyrights belong to BeinSports. These videos are used for analysis purpose.

2/ Off Possession

When they loose the ball or during the opponent buildup, Sudan defend in 4-1-4-1 system but it can move to a 4-4-2 shape. This depends on how the opponent builds. For eg, if there are 3 players in defensive area, Sudan use 2 players in the 1st line.

Sudan defend in a mid-block. One of the characteristics is closeness: all the players stays close to their opponent. Also, Sudan tries to reduce the gap between their midfielders so they moves together & creates a numerical superiority in the ball zone.

In this defensive system, Sudan achieve many recoveries in the midfield zone. This is the heatmap of all the recoveries made by Sudanese during #AFCONQ. 3 zones are actives, 2 of them located in midfield.

Sometimes this system can be beaten with triangles who creates a breakup while Sudanese follows their marked opponent. This is the key option used by opponents to break the 1st midfield line. A. Abdallah has a role to move from the central position to the sides to help the FBs.

While Abdallah tries alongside Faris Abdullah or El Tahir to slows the opponent actions, the broken midfield line goes back & helps in creating a low block. But here is where the chaos may happen. Many errors of marking are committed by Sudanese in PA.

Some reccurent errors are the big spaces that can be found in PA. It can be explained by some mistakes in positions of the block or a gap used to intercept the upcoming crosses. Another mistake is the 2nd post where always no one covers it.

End of thread.
Next thread will focus on Sudan's set pieces.

RTs & likes appreciated.