Maghnes Akliouche – Scout Report
In his breakout season as a senior star, Maghnes Akliouche has established himself as a promising supporting attacker for Monaco, featuring in a variety of roles under Adi Hütter, from a #10 in a 3-4-1-2 to a wide right midfielder in a 4-4-2/4-2-2-2.
As a 22-year-old breaking onto the scene, he is, by today’s standards, a little more of a late bloomer. In any case, recording 11 direct goal contributions (7G+4A) in just shy of 18 Ligue 1 90s in your first full senior season is nothing to be sniffed at. So, here’s a look at the details behind the newcomer’s rise to the first eleven.
Playstyle
In attack
Movement is a major part of Akliouche’s game. It perfectly describes him as a player, both positively and negatively. On the positive side, he has an excellent turn of pace over the first few yards that makes him capable of being a potent threat in behind. He’s provided that threat best by acting on vacant spaces up front when the centre-forward(s) have dropped deep of the last line.
Against Marseille earlier in the season, as a #10 in a 3-4-1-2, he served as an excellent off-ball mover for the front pairing, with movements short into feet to pin the space ahead, as well as bombarding runs off them to attack the spaces they were drawing open in behind.
It’s when he has a #9 as a focal point that his movement towards goal really excels because he often sees it as his responsibility to attack vacant spaces ahead when they are elsewhere. On the other hand, when there is not that onus to do so (and even sometimes when there is), we begin to see the selflessly-intended selfishness of his movements towards the ball.
Akliouche loves to offer to feet. He’s not short of enthusiastic moves across the space between the lines, looking for pockets to receive in. There are times where he finds the perfect space to help connect play through the lines but there are also times where it becomes a hindrance.
When he doesn’t feel incentivised to make runs into depth, he’s been guilty of ball-watching and gravitating slowly towards or around the ball without considering what space he should be occupying ahead. This can be the case in settled states where he drifts too far across and severs links by offering too flat, or when he simply wastes opportunities to provide a threat ahead in an open channel.
These are perfect examples of what I mean when I say “selflessly-intended selfishness”. He wants the ball to feet all the time and, once he gets it, he will release the ball to a teammate very quickly. He’s not looking to hog the ball once he gets it, but the downside of these halting movements is that they fail to maximise the real space that’s ahead and tend to be quite negative options.
Akliouche will frequently scan beforehand to assess opposition pressure but won’t scan to detect how best to occupy the space at hand, which leads to many of these situations where the ball-holder, understandably, doesn’t see the benefit of playing such a short, lateral (and sometimes slightly backwards) pass when either a) it might slow play down or b) they don’t trust that he will break past the opponents he’s offering needlessly close to.
It highlights the need for his selflessness to extend to his movement. Despite good intent in wanting to be the middle man, he needs to learn that he can be the middle man without touching the ball, be it by holding higher positions or running into depth, not least because it limits his capacity to be more of a goal threat, which should also be a priority for him.
It’s why he ranks in the 80th percentile for passes received per 90 compared to other attacking midfielders/wingers in Ligue 1 this season, with an average of 42.18, but is as low as the 48th percentile with 7.53 per 90 for progressive passes received.
That said, there have been signs of improvement this season already. In his position on the right of the 4-4-2/4-2-2-2, he’s showcased more discipline to hold his position on the far side, as well as to make rotations into depth, which has provided a better balance to his forays across the space between the lines.
What his aforementioned scanning does aid, though, is his receiving of the ball. The attacker makes a concerted effort to open up his body using his first touch, be it with an out-to-in spin when on his stronger left foot, or a weaker foot trap of the ball on the half-turn.
Typically, his weight of control is impressive and this sort of forward-thinking receiving gives him a platform for progression that can be very manipulative of opponents when offering through the midfield channels. However, what holds him back is his technical security and reluctance to use and shift his body.
Akliouche has quite a slender frame. With it, he’s good at moving the ball quickly between his feet on the spot but struggles when it comes to shifting his body weight and, therefore, maintaining balance. It’s less that he’s naturally ill-equipped and more that he doesn’t lower his body and spread his stance well enough to execute these moves. A lot of players who receive on the half-turn like he does above with his weaker foot, then use that lowered, spread stance with the setting foot planted back towards the ball use it as a platform to push off in the opposite direction with their other foot, but the frenchman is often reluctant to push off in this way.
These frailties to his body shaping are also apparent when receiving like above or with his back to goal when under pressure, because he moves to receive without prioritising the need to keep his opponent at arm’s length by getting the other side of his body between man and ball. It leaves the ball more exposed and him more susceptible to challenges.
In the case of trying to pin opponents the latter way, he will move across with quite an upstanding body shape while facing the ball, which, given his lacking physical presence, makes him very easy to overhaul.
What he needs to prioritise, both here and in his ball-carrying, is keeping his opponent at bay. He focuses too much on his control over the ball but not what he should be doing with his body, especially with his right side in order to shield the ball effectively from challenges.
Unfortunately, even on the odd occasion when he has prioritised this aspect, he’s done so at the cost of his first touch by failing to balance withstanding pressure and taking the sting out of the ball with his cushioning control.
What makes this binary line of focus harder to excuse is the lack of technical security. Even when his first touch is well-measured, his second touch can regularly let him down when looking to move into space. When on the cut-in, it can be from him moving the ball at too sharp an angle, or it can simply be a loose weight of touch when moving vertically. This lack of consistency to the control over his ball path adjustments is killer to his attempts to take on opponents and space.
He’s often very reluctant to take engage opponents on the dribble for this reason. Out wide, you rarely see him confront his opponent even when the opportunity is there, and when he does it becomes clear why he avoids doing so. Unlike the best dribblers, he doesn’t centre himself over the ball to keep his options open whilst forcing his opponent to backpedal – he instead angles himself more jarringly in one direction, either inside or out, and, as mentioned, doesn’t spread his weight well to be able to protect the ball.
So, when he finds himself moving through a tight space, his narrow posture and tied-together feet lead to a lack of ball protection and manipulation, with the ball often getting caught under him. Without command over the ball versus pressure, it’s easy to force him onto his weaker foot and away from goal.
In the league this season, he ranks in the 41st percentile for attempted take-ons, averaging 2.9. Unsurprisingly, he’s also dispossessed very frequently – at a rate of 2.23, which puts him as low as in the 8th percentile. It makes him the sort of attacker that’s more complementary than anything, as he’s very unlikely to drive the team and create something out of nothing.
Whilst this is another element of his game that has somewhat grown in confidence – at least when it comes to driving through open space – it’s still a limiting factor, particularly when it comes to shot generation. There are too many times when Akliouche has space in front of the defence to be able to line up a shot from the edge of the box, but either all-too-willingly hands the ball off or is too easily dissuaded from taking the shot on as a result of his control.
You can see above how he doesn’t engage the opponents as much as he should, but instead cuts in sharply very early, which makes the defender’s mind up for them as they can then afford to step out and make it hard for Akliouche to find that clear shooting avenue.
The lack of precision to some of his setting touches is something that too easily wastes good opportunities even when he has ample space, both because of their lack of precision and because he doesn’t get shots off quickly enough. The latter might come down, at least partially, to the way he plants himself.
Akliouche is someone who plants his right foot very close to the ball and gets right behind it with, as usual, a very upstanding body shape. As can be seen here, he tends to ‘knuckleball’ it with a very shortened follow-through that he sometimes has to double-step out of to maintain balance. Nevertheless, it produces easy power, lift and spin for quality ball-striking.
With such a technique, and little wavering from it in terms of spacing his non-striking foot further out from the ball, the majority of his striking favours verticality over finesse and/or shaping the ball outside by finding more from the inside of the ball. And, with less commitment to getting over the ball with his laces, his range of shots is quite restricted as a whole, which is possibly why there is that reluctance to go and attack any ball that sits to be struck when there’s a remote element of pressure to contend with.
It’s disappointing because his ball-striking and accuracy have shown extreme promise. This season, his shooting accuracy finished at 61.1% (98th percentile) and he averaged a goal almost every 5 shots (0.19 rate – 95th percentile). However, his shots taken per 90 sit at just 2.01 (57th percentile). With that overly careful shot selection, it’s not a huge surprise to see his non-penalty xG per shot sitting as high as 0.15 (91st percentile).
When you see the quality of his finishes, it becomes clear why a lack of shot generation is such a disappointment, as the cleanness of his strikes are so sweet. He’s shown an impressive ability to take the ball first-time on cutbacks and connect perfectly with difficult half-volleys.
Sometimes shooting situations do call for him to use his laces more, especially when the ball’s on the ground, but the general quality and control of the strikes illustrates that his impressive scoring rate of 0.39 goals per 90 (93rd percentile) isn’t something that has to slow down. It could even improve with the right furnishings to his ball control, selfishness and movement in the final third.
This technique also carries through to his passing. It’s proven very helpful for weighting aerial balls and in feeding forwards as quickly as he does. His vision and speed of release is one of his most impressive traits.
They, like most of his game, are at their best in transition when he has a bit more time, space and margin to work with, allowing him to focus on angling his body correctly to be able to get off the vertical pass. And, because there’s less pressure, his pre-scanning is more geared towards spotting the teammate to find.
His weight of through ball can still sometimes go amiss, be it long or short, but the speed at which he gets the pass off, and how willing he is to take the risk, is a huge positive. His 0.45 through balls per 90 ranks pretty highly, in the 87th percentile, and so do his key passes with an average of 2.12 (86th percentile).
Thanks to his general awareness of the forward line and his want to be a consistent factor on the ball, he’s a regular offerer and passer of the ball – attempting 24.77 short passes per 90 (93rd percentile) – looking to combine with one-touch and two-touch plays through the space between the lines. However, simple bits of execution frequently let him down in more congested areas and make it harder to be clinical when these small openings arise.
His overall pass completion of 77.4% puts him in just the 57th percentile among attackers and begins to highlight his issues with regard to short passing. Similar to his problems with technical security, his weight of the simple passes can be disruptive to combination plays.
As a broader point, even when he does drop short to get on the ball, it’s rare that he seems to have a picture in mind of how he wants to construct a move. It’s simple pass-and-go, which typically doesn’t do much harm but also doesn’t carry much weight in terms of effectively picking the locks of opposing teams.
In defence
Early in the season, Akliouche carried all the regular hallmarks of a forward defending, from the angle of approach to the body shaping and work rate going back, but as the season’s progressed, he’s developed and been able to take on more responsibility.
Easily the most improved aspect has been his jockeying stance. Before, he exclusively pressed out to players with a narrow stance and committed to challenges without a thought given to recovering in the case that he was beaten or his opponent looked to dart away from him. So, despite good enthusiasm to close down, he could be easily undone by simple movements and combinations.
In the second half of the season, though, the no.21 has been much better at assuming wider-spread stances when engaging opponents, allowing for more dynamic shifts in either direction for greater coverage. This has helped increase the rate at which he’s been able to intercept/deflect passes and also sustain pressure without being as easily bypassed.
His numbers back up these contributions, as he’s won 1.28 tackles per 90 this season (88th percentile) and blocked 1.17 passes (82nd percentile).
It seems to have gone hand-in-hand with being used in a slightly deeper position than before, as a wide midfielder with a back-four behind, which therefore comes with more defensive responsibility.
That being said, it has still been hard for him to shake a lot of his attackers’ instincts. His intensity and focus is very up and down, which is the case going from box to box in and out of possession. You can see this when opponents move the ball past him, as he’s quick to down tools and will tend to react (i.e. recover goal-side) once it’s too late in the move and the burnt of the damage of losing his man has been done.
Since he’s not the most durable athlete yet, he operates more in bursts, utilising his acceleration. This applies better to loose balls, to hunting down lost causes and to making sure he does eventually get back into the shape. It’s thanks to this energetic approach, and also his impressive reach, that he makes an average of 6.14 ball recoveries (93rd percentile).
Inevitably, though, this approach tends to mean that he will win some but he will also lose plenty. He only manages to dispossess a third of dribbles he contests (31st percentile), losing 1.34 challengers per 90 (18th percentile). It’s what he does in volume that gives some of his defensive performances a more positive shine.
A couple of the other ways that he approaches defending like a striker come during pressing and counterpressing phases. Akliouche, like in possession, can follow instructions but his instincts do still override them.
When pressing out to his opposite number (the full-back), he still doesn’t maintain enough positional discipline to hold narrow until his press has been triggered by the pass wide. He always wants to get out early, which can create access through the inside that enables easy progression through the lines.
In counterpressing phases, these tendencies arise in the lack of importance he places on defending goal-side. Sometimes this can be due to a lack of blind-sided scanning, as his awareness fluctuates, but generally he’s most keen to nip in front towards the side the ball came from, which can make it incredibly easy to discount his efforts and exploit the open space left by his thoughtless attempts at closing down.
The one area I haven’t touched on so far that sort of falls by the wayside with Akliouche is his aerial ability. That’s because he doesn’t contest many at all. His height is less the issue than his physicality and willingness is. He’s reluctant, here, too, to put his body in the mix. Even by an attacker’s standards, his 17.4% aerial win percentage is very low (8th percentile).
Conclusion
What’s been positive to see from the 22-year-old this season has been his progress in and out of possession. There are plenty of upsides to work with, especially in the attacking half with his speed of movement, release and shooting ability. What concerns me most of all is his lacking physicality and technical security. While the former can be improved, the latter will need to improve substantially for him to raise his game to another level given its impact on him as both a ball-carrier and goalscoring threat.
What his best assets and limitations have shown me is that he’s very well-suited to a second striker role, where he’s able to play a more complementary role and which responds to the actions of a focal point in the middle. Particularly for a transition-heavy side, he can flaunt the best of his chance-creating and chance-getting abilities without too much onus on him defensively or in having to be a difference-maker with his dribbling and playmaking.
The current ceilings on his game dissuade me from projecting him to push on to the very top of the game, where his flaws would likely be more greatly exposed, but establishing yourself as a starter for the 2nd-placed side in Ligue 1 is no mean feat. With all the confidence he has and the rate at which he’s been developing under Hütter, there’s no reason for him to flee the pack any time soon.
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