FM21: Khephren Thuram — Scout Report

Khephren Thuram comes from a famous footballing family as his father is legendary French defender Lilian Thuram. His brother, Marcus Thuram is also a professional footballer who plays his trade in the Bundesliga for Borussia Monchengladbach.

After starting the save in the development sqaud, the Frenchman is starting to become an important player for Nice in terms of providing cover for team mates who move into higher positions on a regular basis, this emergence has become ever present since tweaking our tactics, as mentioned in our previous blog Les Aiglons (Tactical Analysis).

Pairing my love of tactics with my long-term affection with Football Manager, I have decided to have a stab at conducting a scout report on the player through a tactical analysis

The foundation of the attack

The youngster provides an excellent base for attacks because of his mobility and the range that he has to recover possession should the opposition manage to clear the ball.

This can be highlighted in the above image against RC Lens, with the bulk of Nice’s attackers in high areas of the pitch, the opposition are forced to drop in to their defensive structure. As the ball is cleared Lens do not have enough bodies up field to effectively receive the clearance and progress with the ball forwards.

Thuram moves into position to intercept the clearance, it is phases of play like this which ensure that Nice can play a much higher attacking structure with the reassurance that Thuram has the attributes to cover large amounts of space.

Passing

As mentioned above Thuram is responsible for providing the base of the attacking structure as a Deep Lying Playmaker, when the full-backs either retain their original wide position or more forward to join the attack then the deepest midfielder is the only player at the base.

However, Thuram is important within the 4–3–3 structure, operating as the central conduit that connects players across the entire team structure.

The above passing diagrams show that Thuram is often positioned in the central lane, from this position the Frenchman can recieve the ball either from deep areas or even back from more advanced areas before playing into his team-mates who find themselves in pockets of space.

Despite Thurams low passing attribute (10) his ability to be composed and make the correct decision certainly have been of benefit to his tea. Thuram is an intelligent and capable passer of the ball who understands when to move the ball forward into the final third and when to play safer passes, this is reflected in his pass completion of 94% in all competitions.

Breaking up play

Thuram has not only proven effective at regaining possession via interceptions, the Frenchman also is putting in 3.78 tackles per 90, winning 93.3 percent of them, over the Ligue 1 average.

Against Angers Thuram regains possession through pressing, as Ibrahim Amadou receives the pass from his teammate, note his back is facing goal, Amadou has no mental image of other players on the pitch. Identifying this Khephren targets him, closing in on his man and recovers the ball, he then uses his passing ability to play a progressive pass, in my opinion this skill set is one of the most important functions of any midfielder as it helps to break the lines of the opposition.

Another fine example of his ability to read the game is displayed against RC Lens, Massadio Haidara looks to switch play from the left-flank into the middle of the park towards Seko Fofana. Thuram in this circumstance is the fastest OGC Nice player to react and intercepts the pass, before driving forward with a powerful run before sliding the ball into the channel for Kasper Dolberg who is played in on goal.

Conclusion

Being the son of one of the most famous defenders of all time, Khephren certainly has some rather large boots to fill if he is to raise to the heights of his old man.

However, despite saying this Thuram, despite his young age has played his way into Steinkelsson’s first eleven, forcing the Swede to progress Danilo into the more advanced role of the ball winning midfielder.

The midfielder has been training exceptionally well (8.90) and if he continues to develop and perform on his current trajectory, there is no doubt that he will become integral to all things good within this save.

Scout: Magnus Steinkelsson