Analysis: Youssouf Fofana combines power and finesse for AS Monaco
Despite AS Monaco conceding a late goal to draw 2-2 with Lorient, there’s no doubting Youssouf Fofana deserves praise for his quality shift in midfield.
In a match that Monaco really should’ve won, Fofana was certainly their best performer, as he blended power and finesse nicely to stamp his mark on both sides of the ball.
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While his defensive output was solid, for he was forceful in the duels to break up opposition moves, pressed well, flexed his muscles aerially and chimed in with a host of crucial interventions, his influence was most keenly felt going forward.
To start with his movement, and this gave Les Monegasques a fine platform from which to build through the thirds from.
Typically stationed deeper than his midfield partner in crime, Denis Zakara, Fofana was regularly on hand to form numerical and positional superiorities to help his team bypass the Lorient press.
By often dropping central or in the deep half spaces near the central defenders, this ensured he formed 3v2 overloads, where he could enjoy extra time and space to dictate the play, coherently make decisions, strike progressive upfield passes and drive ahead on his trademark bursts if the opportunity arose.
As can be seen below, the way he’d mix things up by splitting wide to form 2v1s and push on to receive between the lines centrally added to his menace.
Constantly altering his position to help support or breathe life into attacks, there was much to like about his marauding runs into the final third, both with and without the ball, as he frequently caught out Lorient while injecting another layer of threat into his team’s attacks.
Causing issues in regards to who should mark him in what area, Fofana proved a tough man to keep tabs on, which was the case for his goal, where he read the situation shrewdly, timed his leap beautifully and directed his header superbly to beat Yvon Mvogo.
Showing his aforementioned technical quality, his penetrative line breaking passes, classy through balls in behind and neat combination play elevated his impact and helped create many openings. The examples below showcase his aptitude in this regard aptly.
By the numbers, his 12 ball recoveries, eight duels won, six interceptions, four accurate long passes, three completed through balls, two shots and two progressive runs illustrated his tidy all-round display.
Adaptable, great in all phases and such a challenging opponent to come up against, this match yet again underlined why he’s such an indispensable member of this Monaco side.
“I’ve been here for four years, and I’ve had the opportunity to develop with a lot of players by my side. I knew how to adapt each time, so it doesn’t matter if I have someone by my side or if I play alone as number 6, I have to give my best. Whether I have to play with Denis, Mo, Edan or Mamadou if that’s the case, I prepare accordingly,” Fofana insightfully explained recently.
He also said this on Adi Hutter’s approach that he’s clearly enjoying, but has seen them caught out at times: “The coach has a mentality which means that we must take risks and score more. Once again he has a very offensive philosophy, which means that we sometimes concede goals, but it doesn’t matter, as long as we score one more than the opponent.”
A real leader and presence for Les Rouge et Blanc, he’ll be hoping to get his team, who are undefeated in four league matches, back to winning ways when they face Metz next weekend.
With just eight Ligue 1 matches left in the campaign, Fofana’s set to be an instrumental figure in their Champions League qualification quest – just like he was in this clash vs. Lorient even if his team ultimately didn’t achieve the result they were looking for.