Franck Kessié — Full Player Profile
Can the Ivorian break into Barca’s first XI?
On Tuesday 22nd March 2022, a host of reliable journalists, including the darling of football twitter, Fabrizio Romano, confirmed that Barcelona had secured the signing of Franck Kessié on a free transfer from AC Milan.
Kessié, 25, has finally been unveiled as an official Barcelona player, joining a squad alredy packed with midfielders, in a rebuilding process spearheaded by coach Xavi Hernández.
Having watched a plethora of his games for AC Milan and Côte d’Ivoire, and delved deep into the stats, I’ve put together this comprehensive tactical profile, highlighting the player’s strengths, weaknesses and general play style. Ultimately answering the question — what can Kessié bring to Barcelona?
Who is Kessié?
Franck Kessié currently plies his trade in Italy, in an AC Milan side who are genuine contenders for the Serie A title. While he’s not the first name on the team sheet, Kessié is a regular in the first 11 and would almost certainly start in a season-defining game.
Predominantly a left sided defensive midfielder in a 4–2–3–1 system, he has also played several times as the central attacking midfielder, due to a lack of options for Milan.
For his country, Côte d’Ivoire, Kessié plays in a more positive role, as a box-to-box midfielder in a 4–3–3 system. Those performances, as well as his appearances further forward for Milan, give us a more accurate look at his offensive capabilities.
To make this profile easy to digest, I’ve broken it down into four sections. If you don’t have time to read the whole thing, feel free to skip straight to the conclusion.
- In possession of the ball
2. Offensive awareness and movement
3. Defensive awareness and actions
4. Conclusion — what’s Kessié’s role in Xavi’s Barca?
With all that said, let’s get into the analysis.
1. Kessié in possession — reliable, but conservative
It’s important at the beginning to acknowledge the team that Kessié will be attempting to break into.
While you might have heard that Barca are more ‘direct’ this season, and that’s true at times, Xavi’s philosophy is still based on Cruyff’s possession-based ‘positional play’.
If Kessié wants to establish himself in the Barca XI, he’ll primarily have to be comfortable in possession of the ball, and contribute to the highly cerebral game-plan that Xavi is developing.
Having watched several Milan games this season, it’s clear that Kessié is technically proficient. He receives the ball well enough (though not immaculately), and is generally neat and tidy with his passes. He shields the ball against tight, aggressive opponents due to his physical prowess, and prefers short ground passes to move the ball on.
From watching him play, and taking a look at the stats below, it’s clear that Kessié is reliable in possession, however, doesn’t often progress the ball into more dangerous areas.
When he receives the ball in tight spaces, near the touch line for example, he rarely turns out and opens up the pitch, finding an opposite winger/full back with a diagonal ball. Instead he tends to play short and safe, and while he might not give the ball away, it can lead to pressure on his teammate. Here’s an example, and some stats that emphasise that.
This is arguably due to the system he’s currently in; a Milan team that rarely build up through their defensive pivots.
They prefer to go direct from the centre backs to the number 10, or the wingers that drift inside. Generally, Kessié is not tasked with playing passes into the final third — whether he wants to is a different question.
Based on how he receives and distributes the ball, Kessié’s priorities on the pitch are not particularly positive. He’s keen to keep possession without forcing anything, which can be useful in many situations.
But this becomes a potential problem against teams that press with intensity, and perhaps even those that sit deep.
There are more encouraging signs when we look at Kessié’s dribbling stats, though.
Unfortunately, while he has a reasonable number of dribbles completed, the progressive carries metric shows that not many of these move the ball forward. Suggesting again that Kessié is not the most positive player in possession.
And that’s the main conclusion in this section; Kessié is reliable but conservative with the ball. His greatest asset here is that he doesn’t lose it very often.
In a possession-based side that’s a useful trait to have. Especially when defending a lead, or combating a highly athletic, high-intensity opponent (which have been the bane of Barcelona’s seasons for a while now).
However, the reliance on ‘safe’ passes is an early cause for concern. As is how infrequently he looks to carry the ball forward. Only time will tell whether he is capable of becoming more adept at this side of the game.
2. Offensive movement — a threat in the box
Off the ball, things look a little different. Here’s a stat that might surprise you:
Over 5 seasons at Milan, Kessié has averaged 2.67 shot-creating-actions (SCA) per 90 minutes, which includes passes, dribbles and drawing fouls. For reference, this eclipses Frenkie de Jong’s and Gavi’s numbers, but falls short of Pedri’s 3.23 SCA per 90.
It might seem strange that a player, apparently so conservative, is able to generate a decent amount of shots per game. He also ranks quite highly for touches in the opposition penalty box, in the upper 91 percentile.
The reason lies in Kessié’s offensive movement and awareness, which, perhaps surprisingly, could be a very interesting asset to Barcelona.
One very noticeable tactic of Xavi’s Barcelona is the movement of the offensive midfielders. Whether it’s Pedri, de Jong or Gavi, there is an impetus to make positive runs behind the defence, often into space that the centre forward has vacated.
Kessié, while conservative on the ball, is far less so with his movement off it — at least when he’s given the license to do so.
As an infrequent 10 for Milan, or an 8 for Côte D’ivoire, he is not afraid to break forward beyond the ball and get into dangerous positions. He has a knack of waltzing into the box, in that typically unhurried fashion of his, and getting on the end of a cut-back or rebound.
He is by no means prolific, averaging 4 non-penalty goals a season over the last four campaigns, but having this trait will make his transition to Xavi’s side easier.
There were some cases, during the games I watched, that his movement was counter-productive. When he would run away from a teammate on the ball, rather than giving him a passing option.
This, the timing of his movement, would be the biggest fault that I’ve seen. It’s unfortunate, too, that he rarely looks to receive the ball between the lines. You would hope this is simply down to coaching, and that working with Xavi should improve this side of his game. But only time will tell. It takes a lot of quality to receive the ball in tight space, turn and play forward.
To give an overview of Kessié’s offensive game, he’s a dependable player in possession, generally risk-averse with his passing, yet not afraid to break forward to make up numbers in the box. Solid, but by no means outstanding.
In the final section before the conclusion, we’ll look at his defensive work, and how he might help nullify opponents as part of Barca’s system.
Defensive awareness and actions — solid, but passive
Over the games that I watched, the first noticeable thing was that Kessié is no ‘destroyer’. He is not particularly aggressive in the press, and does not win the ball back as often as you might expect.
He is athletic, and can cover large spaces quickly, but this did not translate to a lot of ball recoveries.
In fact, I would say that he looked more on the ‘passive’ side as far as midfielders go. Willing to close down, and to cover passing lanes, but not looking to win the ball back aggressively.
I checked the stats to see whether this was an error in my analysis — but no — it seems to be true of Kessié’s game. He presses infrequently, and doesn’t make a significant number of tackles.
However, despite this, there are some more promising numbers in his defensive profile. While he makes less tackles than Busquets and Pedri, his tackle success rate is actually far higher. Not only that, but he is the least likely of all Barca’s midfielders to be dribbled past. And, when he does press, his team are more likely to win the ball within 5 seconds.
To summarise; asking Kessié to be more aggressive, and to engage in more presses and tackles, should yield more recoveries than Barca’s other midfielders. In theory.
However, it’s difficult to say that Kessié is an upgrade to Barca’s current options off the ball, simply because he presses the ball and engages less often than his Catalan counterparts.
It’s hard to make a judgement here, but I will tentatively conclude that Kessié offers a better defensive game overall than de Jong and Pedri. In the scenario where Barca are likely to concede more possession, in a Champions League game against a high-quality opponent for example, he offers more on paper than Barca’s current options.
But as we’ve seen, he will have to prove himself in that regard.
With all that in mind, it’s time to answer the big question: where will Kessié fit in at Barca?
Conclusion — more than a squad player?
In terms of technical profile, the player most like Kessié in the current squad is Frenkie de Jong.
An athletic box-to-box midfielder who is neat in possession, completes a lot of dribbles to maintain the ball, and is happy to break forward into the box. The key difference is in mentality, with Frenkie completing far more progressive passes and progressive carries.
I would also argue that Frenkie is technically more adept.
Despite being a better ball-winner, Kessié is less effective than de Jong as a box-to-box midfielder, and certainly poorer than Pedri and Gavi at receiving the ball between the lines and instigating danger.
There is also little evidence to suggest that Kessié is better at retaining the ball than any of those options, despite his physical frame. He is, however, perhaps one of the better options if Barca are likely to concede possession and have to defend.
That all brings me to Nico Gonzalez, the man I think will be competing with Kessié to be fourth choice centre midfielder.
Nico has been utilised as a more physically imposing midfielder when Barca are facing athletic or aggressive opponents. With more experience, both domestically and internationally, and even better physical attributes, Kessié is probably a better rotational option against quality opposition.
He will, I think, be fourth choice.
What about a Busquets replacement?
Simply put, Kessié’s game does not align at all with that of Busquets. At least not right now.
The two most important reasons for this are his 1) lack of progressive passes, which are fundamental to Busquets’ role and 2) lack of aggression and tackles, also fundamental to Barca’s recovery of the ball. Busquets excels at both of these things, a huge reason why he is so difficult to replace.
In this regard, I don’t think Kessié is the answer. But it would be an interesting experiment, considering his defensive attributes on paper.
Final verdict — a good signing?
Looking at the big picture, I would suggest that this signing has been made due to financial convenience.
Kessié is a free transfer that gives the squad more depth and — crucially — more experience. Barca’s midfield is still full of kids, with de Jong only 25 and Busquets the only veteran. It also gives it more legs, and in theory slightly eases the burden on Pedri.
If Kessié performs well, I expect Barca to be able to compete more consistently across domestic and cup competitions. Perhaps he can even be Xavi’s Seydou Keita — the man that comes on in the last third of every game to see out a narrow lead.
However, I do have my reservations about his ability to work in tight spaces, and his proficiency in terms of vision and passing. Will he be able to turn easy possession into complex pass and move?
I don’t know. But I’m very much looking forward to finding out.
Do you think Kessié is a good signing for Barcelona? Disagree with anything in the article? Let me know below!
If you liked this profile, please give a ‘clap’ and follow the page for more in-depth football content.
