Big Men Up Next :
Exploring the profiles of four different big guys with potential to impact games upfront.
Every season, I watch a lot of games that most people wouldn’t watch because 1°part of my job 2°watching full 90s is the way to evaluate players because that is the way the game is played.
This being said, watching full 90s takes time. 90 minutes + added time « duh ». That’s why every season my watchlist consists in watching 80% of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, one U17/U19 game/week-end, one fifth tier and one third tier game/week-end, on TV or live. I also always end up watching 2-3 other teams regularly because I find them entertaining/interesting because of the players that they have or because of the way they play sometimes for both reasons when *somehow* players and play style are aligned. Those teams often *somehow* get good results. See Forest, who could’ve seen it coming ? Gibbs-White on City’s shortlist ? Damn, what a story.
As far as strikers go, I think I do an honest job at understanding what is required. Ask for GKs and my analysis will stop at basic stuff like « he does a lot of saves, he claims crosses, he is quick to get off his line/to the ground, his post shots xG stopped are good ». Not that it is not a nice way to tell you Yehvann Diouf and Yahia Fofana are good and the differential between their clout and some other goalkeeper’s should not be that big. But that it all I got.
For strikers, I feel like I have been building a more complete framework. And so if you’re looking for a big guy who does valuable stuff on the pitch, I think those players are worth considering :
By the way, I used to look at strikers and focus on what they could not do. By doing so, I was missing the whole point. Strikers must be looked at to answer the question “how can this player impact a game ?”, not “what can’t he do ?”. It’s not important to discuss what he can’t do if he has 2-3 tools that he can use at a very high level and to great effect.
So let’s break down their game, one by one talking about how they can impact games.
Thierno Barry
The success story no one is talking about. Meanwhile everyone is busy raving about the former Coventry striker who now scores goals in a league that is actually weaker than the Championship, Villarreal CF have qualified for Europe starting a guy who played for SK Beveren is Belgium’s second division two years ago. Even better, this is a guy who never played in a professional club academy and made his way through grassroots club SC Toulon.
Yeah, I let the money spent for transfers on the screenshots. So when he moves for big money you can remember it.
As said a few months ago, good number 9 usually don’t grow on trees and neither in top academies (Lukaku did at Anderlecht, you can always find counter-examples). They grow in the trenches where they are put on the spot and forced to exist. That is what Thierno Barry did.
Long story short : Barry then went on to play fourth tier footy for Sochaux’s reserve, then moved to that Belgium club I didn’t know about, then to FC Basel and is now at Villarreal CF. Talk about “moving places”. One move every season, each time towards a club playing at a higher level. If you started from the bottom of the football pyramid, you don’t get this kind of opportunities over and over again unless you’re not good.
Now what about his game ?
Roadrunner :
First thing I noticed about Barry when he came on vs FC Barcelona in the sixth game of La Liga this season : the man runs an awful lot and at high intensity. It's the kind of thing that get people saying : “this is football, not athleticism”. What do you know ? The game has shifted towards more intensity and with it, a higher number of intense runs. You can’t do it, you can’t hack it past a certain level.
On that matter, I can only advise you to give this a read if you haven’t already done it : https://x.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1922992560588365860
Here is what Barry’s coach at Basel says about Thierno :
“Usually, those who can run fast are a bit less resistant. Thierno can run very fast, and a lot”.
“When players fail at something, they lose confidence and stop to try, they hide. Thierno never hides even if he misses 50 times”.
Physical and mental relentlessness. I personally like it.
What does it look like on the pitch ?
One thing to look at is that not only he does run quickly and a lot, but every run starts from the opposite side of the ball and goes towards trafic/the goal. That way :
if he gets service he is in a dangerous position
if he doesn’t get service and his team switches the play, he is back in a position to make yet another run
Now an example with output because that is the whole point.
One of the most basic points for strikers dropping off the line : do it with an angle, diagonally. That way you navigate between the zones of two different defenders and they don’t really know which one of them should step out.
Here Osasuna’s CB is late because Barry drops off the line diagonally. He still gambles and tries to catch him.
Barry is too quick on the turn for that and changes of direction perfectly to attack the space. Ruthlessness.
Alive in the box :
Strikers are supposed to ATTACK crosses as opposed to waiting for them to nicely end up on their forehead because football doesn’t work like that.
So if you’re going to attack crosses, you might as well do it as quickly as possible. And that’s the first post. Good thing Thierno Barry does that then, even against Real Madrid.
Stays opposite side, goes across the box and towards the first post when the crosses arrive. How surprised are we he ends up beating his defender (Tchouameni btw) ? The cross is a bit too high so even him can’t get his head on that.
Unlucky, but two weeks later the same kind of move gets him on the scoresheet vs Valladolid.
Getting at the end of crosses is good, mandatory if you ask me. But another valuable thing in the box is to stay alive, on your toes, ready to get on any loose ball and smash it into the net.
Barry manages to get on the ball twice on the follow up of a corner kick. And twice he manages to get a clean contact with good balance and pivot foot pointing towards the goal to hit the ball.
Drifting wide
So we have now established that the man can run, a lot, with purpose and knows his way around the box. But the one peculiar thing that makes him even more valuable is that he can actually carry the ball on distances and to good effect.
See here :
Things to value :
Barry cuts across the path of the recovering defender
Sends the defender to the ground with 1) a stiff arm 2) a strong ballside leg planted in front of the poor guy
Barry waits for the defender to get on the line between the ball and the goal to free Pépé Nicolas
Two other cases.
Again, things to look at :
Barry gets wide early, so the guy who passes him the ball already sees him wide ready to receive
Tries his best to not let the defender set his footwork (vs Atlético)
Shows a will to go outside or inside
Mohamed Kader Meïté
While other Ligue 1 strikers got a whole lot of clout, some others were impacting games at 17 years old without drawing that much interest. Storylines are strong especially when Ligue 1 is in dire need of spectators. That is why you heard a lot about Emegha scoring 14 but nothing about Kalimuendo scoring 17. Strasbourg are the young upcoming team (who’s worth several hundred of millions btw) and Emegha is their 22 years old bagsman. Wait Kalimuendo is only 23 and has 53 goals and 18 assists in 156 Ligue 1 games ? Anyway.
With all this parasite noise, you might have missed a 17 years old man-child playing for Rennes who a lot on the pitch.
Mohammed Kader Meïté exemplifies the way Paris stand out talents just come into big academies and break the pathway whatsoever.
He played nine years for those Paris clubs : CA Paris, Paris Alésia and then two of the biggest Paris grassroots clubs who play at the highest regional levels in U13, U4, U15 and U16 categories : US Villejuif and FC Montrouge. He then joined Rennes in 2022 when he was allowed to move more than 50km away from home to play football.
The point is : he isn’t an academy product. When some strikers spend years in an academy before playing professional football. Lukaku joined Anderlecht’s academy at 13 years old, Kane joined Arsenal’s academy at 8 and Tottenham’s at 11.
MKM actually played two years in an academy across his whole youth football journey. Then he started playing against adults. He was EFFECTIVELY trained by grassroots clubs for 9 years where he experienced football as it is really played out there. That’s how he learnt to use his qualities and align them with what competitive games demand.
Meanwhile, strikers who enter academies very early spend years playing in a team with a ridiculous talent differential compared to the teams they face between age 9 and age 15 and that still exists at U17 and U19 level. So what do they do ? Well most of them do lay-offs to complete a nice build-up and runs between the goalposts for a tap-in. Congratulations, you’re Marc Guiu.
Like your usual guy who’s just too good MKM only spent two seasons playing youth football. One at U17 level in 22-23, the other at U19 level in 23-24 at age 16.
One thing about him is that he didn’t score *that many* goals a youth level. See his 23/24 season at U19 level where he scored 5 goals in 18 games. In that same category and on the same timeline (not in the same group tho), Ilenikhena scored 10 goals in 6 games.
Thing is, at that age output is not the thing to look at. You can see some strikers scoring one goal/game because they suit what’s asked (run in behind get between the goal posts on crosses) because the defending is usually not that good. The point is that it sometimes doesn’t reflect neither the striker’s level, nor his skillset or his development. Some of them are just okay in the end, Meïté is not one of those.
Hold-up play :
Without any doubt the thing you see first is the fact that Mohamed Kader Meïté is a gigantic human being. Not only is he tall, but his legs are long which adds even more of a towering/gigantic visual impression.
And for a literal child, MKM knows how to use that huge frame of his to cause chaos.
Good thing about really following a league is you don’t need to watch 12 games to figure out if a new guy is good. I mainly watched Meïté twice : vs Lens and Juma Bah, vs Toulouse and Charlie Cresswell.
Juma Bah on loan to Lens from City is a big guy. He is strong and pretty efficient at knocking anyone off the ball. Yet, when Meïté uses his arms to put him in “jail” Bah has no choice but to foul him.
That’s how you do it. Take a good stance, use your arms to get around the defender and keep him locked in your back. A bit more side on and you have the perfect picture.
Being able to do that is good. Being able to turn defenders around at 17 should be illegal, just like drinking or driving. Meïté can do it in Ligue 1.
Incredible stuff made look simple. Meïté takes the position, keeps his balance and takes a touch to get out of the duel and make a play.
It takes more coordination to use legs + arms at the same time, balance to keep his body over his feet, strength to body the defender and technical ability to get the right amount of touch on the ball to get out of the duel while not losing control of it for the next action.
And to me that is the really uncanny thing about Meïté that makes him a physical specimen (if you accept the idea that the physical aspect of the game is not just “Power and Pace”). Being tall is a thing, often comes with being stronger. But having those tools while maintaining this level of balance to take knocks, pushes, shoves and still move with ease while manipulating the ball is what makes him incredible.
Channel action :
Good players impact the game in various zones. Remember Barry who can drift wide ?
MKM’s game allows him to efficiently drift wide and bring his team into the final third.
The thing is his channel runs and how he makes them allow him to get the ball “inside” to take his man on instead of keeping the ball between himself and the touchline where he can get trapped.
This play is particularly good.
First you have the separation movement, faking a drop off to get the ball to feet then running the channel FORWARD as opposed to towards the touchline
Then the uncanny balance to resist the push from Gradit (seasoned ligue 1 defender who doesn’t want to get stuck in with Meïté because he knows he’d get moved) and great footwork to let the ball “slip” where he can carry it.
Hang it in the Roazhon Park
Next box to tick on our physical specimen bucket list would be the jump.
Speaking about jump and headers I like to look at several pointer :
hang time
moment of the contact (way up, way down, apex…)
zone of the contact (forehead or slightly off)
follow through
On that first header, Meïté takes off but hits the ball while still being on the way up. Can’t smash it properly.
On this one, he hits the ball slightly on the way down so can’t hit it with enough power.
This doesn’t mean he is a bad header. He is actually outjumping Ligue 1 defenders and not the worst one at header since Cresswell has won 69% of his contested headers this season.
It just means he needs to scale up to the next level. More often than not, tall guys don’t really learn how to use their heads (as in “headed play”, not as in “using their braincells”) at youth level because the game doesn’t require it as much as it does at senior level.
Most long balls aren’t accurate enough to fall on the intended player so it’s more of a “chase that shit” situation. And the demographic is not the same, you don’t face actual professional CBs who stand at 185 cm or taller so you don’t need to jump to head the ball.
That’s also why target men are supposed to develop slower.
Yet Meïté did showcase some good signs at heading when less contested. He even scored that way vs Nantes, his first Ligue 1 goal.
Not only the jump is perfectly timed but the movement prior to it is good too. Stepping back to keep some space available to ATTACK the cross.
What’s next ?
Coming into the men’s game at Ligue 1 level doing all sort of shit is already a feature worth mentioning. Meïté is obviously a ridiculously gifted athlete with a knack for off ball movement and good feet to manipulate the football. That’s a lot of quality.
He can already hold the ball back-to-goal and turn defenders around. The next step will be to get shots off afterwards. That’s one thing he showcased a lot at youth level, bullying defenders to turn and getting mean, powerful shots off quickly while still keeping defenders at bay.
First play is impressive and made vs Elikya Legros currently representing France at the U-17 euros. It’s from the Gambardella (U-18 French cup) semi-final vs Auxerre, which Meïté won with Rennes scoring the winner at the death to beat Dijon 3-2 in the Stade de France. Minerals.
Taking the position before receiving, side on and arm out to be able to turn the defender around. Then he gets his shot off, the pivot foot is slightly off position because he wants to shoot quickly. He could have easily taken a step to set his footwork better given how gone he was.
Another pretty good play at Youth level, this time vs Monaco again in Gambardella. That day he humbly scored a hat-trick.
Again, look how he makes contact before receiving to not get put off balance, how he lets the ball “slip” inside so he can manipulate it towards the goal (and cook his defender) instead of just shielding it towards the touchline and getting to know mister corner flag from closer.
The first steps of those plays have already been showcased in Ligue 1, the outcome will arrive I’m sure.
Alvaro Rodriguez
On to the most “exotic” profile of this list given my usual watchlist. Barry is french, Meïté is french and plays in Ligue 1, Idrissa Gueye with whom I’ll conclude this piece is Senegalese but plays in Ligue 2 for Metz. Being a french football enthusiast, I want to talk about them.
Alvaro on the other hand is a 6feet3/1m93 left footed striker born in Spain who first played for La Rojita in U-18…
before switching to Uruguay’s La Celeste in U-20.
The man started football and played for grassroots sides before joining Girona at 11 and Madrid at 16 years old. After spending two years between Real Madrid Castilla and the first team where he only had a few minutes he got a loan move to Getafe this season.
My first ever memory of him was to see a tall skinny dude getting dunked on by José Maria Gimenez in a Madrid derby a few years ago to concede the opener. 7 minutes after that he tied the game on a corner kick, getting away from Gimenez to score on his debut in La Liga. Minerals.
Looking good playing for “Hoof it” FC
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Bordalas’ Getafe by now, it basically consist in hoofing the ball forward at every single occasion with few people forward. Long kick, goal kick, clearance, throw-in. You name it, they boot it.
What it means for a young striker is that it is basically the toughest environment to play in. Bad service, very little support, attacks starting very deep on the pitch. Sort it out.
Good thing is : if you can look half decent in that kind of team in your first season as a first team member, then you’re probably a player worth following.
Looks like nothing but again, bomb pass forward getting into the stratosphere and crashing back towards the ground. Can you somehow make something out of it ?
First Rodriguez gets his leg in front of his opponent to get as stable a stance as possible. Then cushions the ball for a teammate to get the second ball and moves where the space is.
One thing I like about Alvaro Rodriguez on long kicks is that he doesn’t wait at the drop point which would get him dunked on quite easily despite his size. He stops 5 meters away from the drop point, then take a few steps to jump and eventually flicks the ball with momentum.
First Alvaro gets away from the drop point, then he moves towards it when the ball is on its way down and takes off. Btw, Camavinga jumping over that dude… 👽 is he a good player tho ?
Again, on the topic of “young tall forward don’t have to jump when they’re playing youth football” :
Those odd moments will happen. He looks like he’s chasing clouds yes. The truth is that he has a way to get at the end of every shit ball sent in his (very) general direction.
Not me saying it but the /Data/. 104 headers won this season in La Liga, which puts him 24th in that metric across the five big leagues despite not even playing 10 full 90s. Impressive is the word.
What’s the point ? It creates value out of nothing. Take throw-ins for example. Getafe send every throw-in in the box towards Alvaro Rodriguez hoping he’ll flick it for one of the two teammates supporting him in there (while teams like Brentford pack the box with 5 bodies).
Again, things to like :
Alvaro holds his opponent in his back
Figures out where is the drop point so he can flick the ball
Gets a clean contact to send it across the goal with some speed, defender ends up clearing while running towards his goal.
Connecting in the box
Good point about Alvaro Rodriguez is that despite the terrible service he has to live on, he manages to connect with the ball, or to “shoot that shit” if you allow me, quite often, especially on crosses.
A healthy mix of knowing where to get and a knack to get there first even against good opposition. See also the uncanny heading accuracy and the ability to look for the post where he is going to hurt the goalkeeper most.
Another feature of Alvaro Rodriguez’s game in the box is how quickly he can sort his feet out and hit the ball, going through it trying to hurt the keeper and not just trying to farm shots on target so he gets green bars on the so called “scouting report”.
How does the picture look ? quite good imo. No step is wasted, Alvaro efficiently chests the ball to leave it where he can volley it straight away, he doesn’t stutter on his toes but just walks into a strong volley saved by Courtois.
Bare in mind, the two first volleys happened in one half of football vs his parent club Real Madrid while his team was playing their ultra direct brand of football. Couldn’t make it count in the end, but he did score one of those vs Real… Valladolid.
Slows down when he smells he might have something to benefit from, seemless turn on one step to follow the ball, perfect posture when going through the ball. Gol.
Make something happen
Another uncanny thing about Alvaro Rodriguez, a 1m93 striker, is that he can actually manipulate the ball in tight spaces and send defenders for an occasional hot dog.
First thing I thought when I saw him shifting and carrying the ball is “why does that guy looks like one of those old heads dribbling in Bobby Charlton’s days ?”.
It’s not the kind of things you really see these days, a guy who just shields the ball, shifts it and uses his arm. He’ll also do a croqueta here and there but that’s essentially it. It’s not the kind of bag current forwards have, but it works so who cares ?
Shied x1, Shield x2, Shift. Quite simple and efficient.
Idrissa Gueye
Last but not least, we have Idrissa Gueye, the latest hot senegalese prospect coming through the Génération Foot → FC Metz pipeline of hot talents.
Génération Foot is one of the finest football academies in Africa, and dare I say in the world. Over the last 15 years talents such as Sadio Mané, Kalidou Koulibaly, Ismaïla Sarr, Pape Matar Sarr or Lamine Camara have played in their ranks. You want to see the next ones ? Games are broadcasted for free on Youtube.
Just like his illustrious elders, Idrissa Gueye joined Metz in january. Between january and the end of the season he converted 6 goals in 13 starts and 1127 minutes in Ligue 2 at the age of 18 years old.
Idrissa Gueye also took part in the 2023 U-17 World Cup with Senegal, which is where I first saw him balling with the likes of Amara Diouf (Génération foot too) and Pape Daouda Diong (former Daroum Salam, now at Strasourg).
In this competition, Idrissa Gueye scored three goals, a hat-trick against Poland before Senegal eventually crashed out in the round of 16 against France after a penalty shoot-out in which he scored. Minerals.
So what does he do ?
Box instinct and movement :
First and foremost, Idrissa Gueye is a guy who gets goals thanks to interesting movements and abilities in the box.
Out of his three goals scored vs Poland, Gueye actually scored two beautiful first post goals. One with the left, one with the right, throwing himself out there and getting output.
The thing with Gueye in the box is that he manages to adjust his runs to get good angles to attack crosses and not end up short.
Getting at the penalty spot to start his move, darting when his teammate his running down the wing to put a cross in. Gueye gets an angle to attack the cross towards the goal while staying more or less between the goalposts.
Notably, whenever a teammate is in a position to get a cutback across the box, Idrissa Gueye will get at the first post, trying to flick the ball with his shinpad or to head it, drawing defenders and creating space for his teammates in the process.
Heading accuracy and finishing skill :
Moving in the box is good, making in count is the only thing that really matters. And as his goalscoring record suggests (6 goals in 1127 minutes of Ligue 2 footy), Gueye knows where the goal is and how to connect with the ball.
How do you know if an apparent quality is scalable to another/higher level ? Idrissa Gueye says “watch me” and scores the exact same goal in Ligue 2 than he scored for Génération Foot.
Things to look at :
Gueye takes off without momentum. He is basically standing still before elevating above the defense
Gueye hits the ball at the apex of his jump, therefore he can generate power (hit it on your way up it goes anywhere, hit it on your way down it lacks power and you might dig a hole two yards further)
Gueye absolutely goes through the ball using all of his upper-body to generate power and making sure to follow through to get the intended direction on his header.
And he is also quite interesting with his feet for such a tall guy, sorting them out efficiently to gets shots off quickly.
Let’s break it down.
First touch : that is in fact a weak foot first touch on the turn
Second touch : Setting himself for the shot. Not steps wasted.
Third touch : weak foot strike, pivot foot pointing towards the intended direction of the shot, shoulders over the ball and arms swinging for balance. Keeping the ball low on the ground.
staying alive in the box is a currency. Gueye doesn’t only stay on toes, he slightly drifts wide to get a better angle towards the goal
First touch while getting across his defender, he’s gone.
Gueye sets himself up and strikes the ball in the blink of an eye. The technique there isn’t perfect, but being able to think fast, to get the right ideas and execute them all so quickly is already pretty good. He was 17 at that time.
Conclusion
All of the 4 strikers presented in this article are now part of that personal watchlist. Not to say I’ll watch them every week. But I’ll keep an eye on them and tune in for interesting games. By the way, Idrissa Gueye will play the second leg of Ligue 1/Ligue 2 relegation play-off. Reims-Metz on thursday night to determine which team will play in Ligue 1 next season.
Obviously they are all on different timelines. Barry has had the most original pathways I’d say, yet he might play european footy with Villarreal next season if he stays there. Meïté is the youngest of them four but probably the highest ceiling. Alvaro Rodriguez had his first shot as a first team player for full La Liga season this year at the age of 20. And Idrissa Gueye will likely (hopefully) stay at Metz next season to keep growing and discovering this level of football in a place where he can develop.
love your work victor, keep it coming
Great post! Will be interesting to follow and see what is coming up!