Scouting France's Ligue 2

In terms of countries that can be relied upon to develop and bring through talented young footballers, there are few, if any, that are better than France. In terms of performance in international tournaments, at youth and senior level, France routinely reach the latter stages with a seemingly constant pipeline of talent coming through their system. This is coupled with the fact that Ligue 1 currently markets itself as the ‘League of Talents’ as they fully buy into the fact that they will develop and play younger players while also being willing to sell them abroad for profit.

When it comes to the French top-flight it is possible to watch almost any game and find young players of interest who have the potential to be sold on to a higher standard league. The same is also true, however, of the French second tier and Ligue 2 regularly hosts young players who have real promise and potential. Indeed, Ligue 2 remains one of the most heavily followed and scouted markets in football.

In this article, we will use Smarterscout to identify four interesting young players who are currently playing in Ligue 2. Using data from Smarterscout allows us to cut through the noise and the volume to find players that fit the specific metrics that we are interested in. From a recruitment point of view this means that as long as we have our desired player profiles set, our processes for talent ID and recruitment can become more efficient.

While all of these players are interesting and capable of playing higher than Ligue 2, our selecting them does not necessarily mean that we expect to see them in the Champions League, just that they are interesting and worthy of more scrutiny.

First up: Tairyk Arconte, 20, CF/RW, France and Guadeloupe

The first player on our list is the 20-year-old Guadeloupe international attacker Tairyk Arconte of Rodez AF. So far this season Arconte has 5 goals and 1 assist in 16 league games in Ligue 2 and his attacking performances to date have caught the eye. He is currently on loan at Rodez from Stade Brest in Ligue 1 having started his career with Ajaccio.

The scatter graph above shows Arconte’s performance with the x-axis having SMPSI which measures the involvement of players leading to shots and the y-axis having carrying which measures the players' ball carrying. As you can see Arconte performs strongly in both metrics making him an exciting attacking player.

We can then visualize the performance data from Arconte further by looking at his pizza chart. These charts allow us to add context to the player's on-field performances in three different areas, attacking, possession and defending. You can clearly see from the chart that Arconte is at his strongest in the attacking phase of the game.

He is in the 80th percentile for goal contributions per 90 but only in the 51st percentile for expected goal contributions per 90. This tells us that he is notably outperforming his expected performances for goals and assists and normally this would be a red flag from a recruitment perspective. In this instance, however, Arconte has strong underlying attacking data which suggests that the expected performances should actually rise in line with the actual performances. At the time of writing, Arconte is in the 81st percentile for shots per 90, the 69th percentile for dribbles per 90 and the 73rd percentile for touches in the opposition area per 90.

We fully expect Arconte to be playing in Ligue 1 for Brest next season.

Next up: Thibault Vargas, 23, RB, Laval and France

The next player that we have selected is a 23-year-old right-back who is currently playing for Stade Laval. Thibault Vargas originally developed at Montpellier in Ligue 1 before moving to Nimes on a free transfer. After only one season at Nimes, however, he moved again to join Laval.

The scatter graph above shows carry on the x-axis and forward on the y-axis. Forward is a measure on how effective each player is in terms of moving the ball forward and progressing up the pitch for their team. Essentially, we can use this combination of metrics in order to identify interesting attacking fullbacks and as you can see Vargas is an outlier in terms of his forward passing although his carrying metric is around average.

This means that for a team that favors progressive passing FBs Thibault Vargas would make an interesting addition.

Once again we can then dive deeper into the performances of Vargas by looking at his pizza chart. As you can see, when compared to other RBs in Ligue 2, Vargas's attacking data is a standout. He is in the 85th percentile for goal contributions, the 77th percentile for expected goal contributions, the 72nd percentile for shots and the 90th percentile for dribbles per 90. When you look at his possession section on the pizza chart you can see that he stands out for his dangerous passes, which include passes to the final third and passes to the penalty area, as he is in the 69th percentile.

We would expect a lower-half Ligue 1 team to be looking closely at his performances for next season.

Next up: Nordine Kandil, 22, AM, Annecy and Morocco

The next player on our list is the 22-year-old Moroccan U23 international Nordine Kandil who is currently on loan at Annecy from Strasbourg in Ligue 1. Kandil is an attacking midfielder who is naturally left-footed. He is comfortable playing as an 8 or a 10 from central areas or as a right-sided winger who will cut inside and play as an inverted forward from the wing.

The scatter plot above shows forward passing on the x-axis and SMPSI on the y-axis and again we are looking for creative players who create chances for teammates. As you can see from the graph Kandil is firmly in the top-right quadrant as a strong performer across both metrics.

Kandil is the first player that we have selected who actually has at least one standout metric in each of the three sections of his pizza chart. Starting with the attacking output of the chart, as you essentially read these like a clock, he is in the 54th percentile for expected goal contributions and the 86th percentile for dribbles per 90. Moving on to passing and progression Kandil is in the 78th percentile for passes per 90 and he is not passive with his passing as he is in the 82nd percentile for dangerous passes and the 82nd percentile for progressive passes. Finally, in the defensive section, he is in the 91st percentile for defensive duels and the 73rd percentile for the % of defensive duels he has won.

He is another player that we would expect to see next season in Ligue 1 for his parent club.

Finally: Andreas Hountondji, 21, ST, Rodez and Benin

The final player that we have selected is the 21-year-old striker Andreas Hountondji. The Benin international is currently on loan at Rodez from Caen and so far this season he has impressed with 9 goals and 1 assist in 20 matches. He is listed at 190cm (6’2’’) with the ability to run in behind or receive with his back to goal, a profile that fits modern thinking teams.

The scatter chart above has shoot on the x-axis, which looks at shot value, and PCTXGREV on the y-axis which measures players who receive the ball in areas where high xG tends to be generated from. An interesting mix for forward players.

As you can see from his pizza chart Hountondji is an interesting forward with a good profile for a 21-year-old. He is in the 66th percentile for goal contributions per 90 and the 78th percentile for expected goal contributions. This means that we would expect his actual goal output to grow in line with the expected outputs. He is also in the 80th percentile for dribbles per 90 and in the 92nd percentile for touches in the opposition area per 90.

Next season we would expect to see Hountoudji make the step up to play in Ligue 1 at the very least.