Snippet profiles: Wout Faes
Who is Wout Faes? Well, he’s a Belgian centre-back who was fairly unknown across the East Midlands prior to the sale of Welsey Fofana. But, the 24-year-old is Leicester City’s first outfield signing of the summer transfer window. I will be the first to admit that I wasn’t familiar with Faes, even during his time with Stade de Reims, and so I decided to do some research on his play style, in an attempt to educate myself and hopefully the reader.
This article, which I refer to as a “snippet profile”, utilises his data (I’ve used FBRef’s open data source) and limited match footage — hence the title, to illustrate what sort of player the Foxes have signed. There are limitations to this approach, which I will outline below, but I think it offers a decent enough summary of his characteristics.
- A small sample size of video footage (a single game vs. Paris Saint Germain in 2021/22), doesn’t adequately showcase Faes’ overall playing style — but does offer indications.
- The opposition for the game includes; Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, and Lionel Messi (featuring from the bench, on his PSG debut), it doesn’t get harder than that.
- It’s difficult to suggest whether some of the referred decisions are team-based or individual, Faes could be instructed to defend scenarios in specific ways by, his then coach, Óscar García.
- As a byproduct, the data portion of this article isn’t supported by the eye test.
I state all of these considerations, as these are going through my head as I write this, and would like the reader to be aware that I understand the shortcomings of such an article, but the speed of Leicester City’s interest, and furthermore, the signing Wout Faes doesn’t lend itself to a long scouting process. Nevertheless, here’s my opinion on his profile.
General Outline
Given the magnitude of the opponents (PSG) and the quality of their individuals, I thought Wout Faes had a good game. Interestingly, his average rating for the Ligue 1 season (using the SofaScore application) was a 7.02 — which is great — but for this game, they only scored him a 6.5, indicating this was a “below average” game for the Belgian. This was probably in part due to the final result, a 0–2 loss.
Against PSG, Stade de Reims played a 3–1–4–2 system, with Faes operating as the central centre-back (CCB). For the majority of last season, Óscar García utilised back three formations, with the 3–5–2 and the 3–4–3 also being played, the idea in possession was to find the forwards in the early phases of building, attract a press from the opponents CBs and use the wide-players to help creation — this also included both the LCB and RCB stepping up to help in the middle/final third, leaving Faes exposed centrally — but this wasn’t an issue.
Defending
I’ve noted that Faes has good control of defensive space. He’s constantly micro-adjusting his positioning to ensure he’s proactive for his next defensive action and doesn’t allow the opposing forward to receive to feet uncontested. There’s an example of this below — with a video also, but an interesting side point is that Faes recognises the situation early (PSG behind the #6 of Stade de Reims) and uses that as a catalyst for his action.
This is also supported by covering space behind the defensive line. As I’ve mentioned, the wide CBs are used as full-backs in specific sequences, and it’s Faes’ job to cover the space behind them if there is a transition. Predominantly, this was exploited down the defensive-left, as Yunis Abdelhamid (LCB) would be caught out, forcing Faes to deal with overloads on the right. Again, like before, I’ve attached a couple of images + a video to help show this.
It’s two different kinds of defending, to feet and behind the defensive line, but he seemed comfortable in both sequences. Only a single game sample, but versus one of the most explosive forwards in the world, Kylian Mbappé, to seem in control of these areas is impressive.
Throughout the game, I was impressed with how well Faes tracks the movement of forwards, especially when the ball is controlled by the opposing midfield/defenders. Always aware that, because of Stade de Reims' high-line, a pass can go behind him, the Belgian treated all of PSG’s forwards with care — sticking close to subtle movements attempting to puncture behind, and following the connection to feet, until it becomes the #6’s job due to proximity. There was very little joy for Mbappé or Neymar when combining on the defensive line, all of their play was underneath — not uncommon with Mauricio Pochettino, but a byproduct of Faes’ control.
As positive as I’m being, Faes’ tracking movement was smartly used against him by Mbappé for PSG’s first goal. The Frenchman had noticed how Faes was marking him, therefore he feigned himself as a passing lane slightly wide-right, before puncturing the box in the vacated space and heading home. The video below will show this better.
It’s only subtle, but it’s incredibly good by Mbappé. I wouldn’t pin this as a massive mistake from the 24-year-old, but the elite tier forwards will highlight any weaknesses and use them. But, overall he controlled these spaces throughout the game very well — I thought I’d highlight this to remove any biases.
Aerial Prowess
An element of Faes’ game that will please the supporters is his strength in the air. It wasn’t massively on show against a PSG side looking to connect to feet, with limited height to challenge him, but his data does provide an upwards trend for shots/goals in the opposing box. He ranks highly (when compared with other CBs in Europe’s top five leagues) for (selected); shots on target (0.25 p/90) and goals per shot (0.17), although this roughly equates to a goal every 23.5 games (or 1–2 a season).
I refer to his actions in the attacking area as having an “upwards trend”, as he’s showing the valuable assets to be strong in these sequences, perhaps just limited with opportunities. Either way, a strong aerial presence isn’t going to be undervalued at Leicester City — that’s for sure.
In Possession
Now, this is an interesting one. The data doesn’t match the role I saw Faes play versus PSG. He doesn’t rank well for progressive passes or passes attempted, yet every time the ball was at the Belgian’s feet he looked to play vertically — albeit with a few misplaced passes. I think with time to appropriately scan his options, he makes the correct selections, but under pressure, he struggled to gauge all the required information and often overhit the ball. I’ve provided another video, more of a “highlight” style to show both sides of his passing game.
Overall
With all the previous considerations out the way, I think Faes is a good purchase for the club, especially at a £15m fee. He’s got a great understanding of how to address the defensive spaces around him and commanding in his actions. I’ve also noted his leadership qualities during the game, he was in control of aligning the back three's line height (even with the captain as the LCB) consistently adopting the correct approach for the sequence they were facing. During set-piece situations, he was constantly marking PSG’s most dominant aerial threats, showing a “desire to attack the ball” in a defensive scenario…where have we heard that question posed before?
In all honesty, he feels more like Jonny Evans in his defending style — in this game, dropping to negate spaces and measured in tackles/blocks. But, as has been highlighted by many, his disciplinary records predate him — 11 yellow cards (2019/20), and already two in three games for Reims this season. There was a weird hiatus for him in 2021/22, playing 37 games in the league and only being carded twice. Same management, and supposedly the same style of play, just with a lot fewer suspensions on his end. But that’s perhaps what likens him to Çağlar Söyüncü — a bit wild in his decision-making, reckless and, at times, a liability for the side.
I guess the real scouting will happen during this campaign, I’m excited to see how Brendan Rodgers chooses to integrate him into the side. Importantly, and this fits the mold of the Foxes’ recruitment, I believe Faes’ potential will pose a much higher fee than the initial investment, and that’s a crucial component that Leicester City’s recruiting staff have often correctly identified.
