BACKSTORY
A story that started in the suburbs of Paris, Soualiho Meite was born on March 17th, 1994. His initial career started off with FC Gobelins before he signed for AJ Auxerre’s youth academy as a 13 year old in 2007. Meite spend the next 4 years playing for the Auxerre B team and the academy before the arrival of Bernard Casoni in 2012 who promoted Meite to the senior side. 22 appearences later he started catching eyeballs of bigger teams and finally Lille paid 2.7M to Auxerre to part ways with him. However following failing to impress the bigwigs at Lille he was farmed out to Belgian team Zulte-Waregem where he found his Mojo once again. And in the summer where Monaco had a huge exodus of incomings and outgoings a virtually unknown Meite was signed by Monaco from Lille after being impressed with him in Zulte for 8M. However given the depth of talent at Monaco he couldn’t break into the main XI and was send to loan to Bordeaux for playtime. A move to Serie A beckoned in the form of Torino who paid Monaco 11.5M for his services in 2018.
PLAYING STYLE
Playing under Giampaolo this season Meite’s role has been redefined under Giampaolo. Torino play a 3-5-2 with a 3 man midfield of Rincon, Meite and Linetty with Belotti and Zaza/Verdi up top.
In the 3-5-2 Meite is used as a wide midfielder whose main job is to combine with Singo, recycle possession and cover the defense.
Here are some aspects of Meite’s game observed
Pressing
For Milan pressing has been the soul of their game. Milan use cover shadows, play a high compact line (unless down to 10 men like Benevento). At Torino, against Giampaolo used a basic version of the pressing by restricting the opposition the byline and cover passing lanes thereby cutting off all passing option to the player in possession.
Passing and Deft Touches
Meite’s passing is usually restricted to short ground passes keeping in mind that his main role is to win the ball back and pass it to the more creative player. Retaining possession, recycling possession and acting as a passing option to form a passing triangle (an intricate part of buildup play in Giampaolo’s style of play).
Now this is not to exclude some deft touches Meite pulls out of the hand including his assist for Zaza against Inter.
He is also capable of finding players between the lines albeit he is very inconsistent with his passing and rarely tries to play long balls
Making space for the overlapping fullback while covering his tracks in case of a counter
Being a wide midfielder in a 3 man midfield, Meite is also tasked with creating space for Singo, the wingback. He occupies defenders and makes runs leading defenders and creating space for Singo to bomb forward. If Torino lose the ball then Meite will cover the tracks of the Singo and prevent exposing the 3 man defense to attack from the wide areas.
Aerial Ability
Standing at 187 centimeters (6ft2), which is the same size as Milan Skriniar, Meite brings an aerial threat during set-pieces. With Milan struggling to defend corners, Meite’s huge frame can help Milan to clear more balls or even distract defenders during a corner at the other end of the pitch. His solitary goal this season came via a headed goal
Physical presence
Standing at 187 centimeters Meite’s huge frame and his fairly built muscular body gives him an edge to win challenges. His strong physique and upper body strength gives him the power to wrestle opposition players off the ball and his long legs gives him an edge to cleanly tackle players without giving away much fouls
AREAS TO IMPROVE
As adept he is as at some areas there is a large area of the game Meite has to improve.
Defending Corners
In terms of defending corners, Meite’s positioning is lacking as he is often away from the thick of things given his size and aerial ability. A more palpable explanation for this could be that Giampaolo uses a zonal marking system and therefore he wants Meite’s tall frame to distract the path of the corner as much as possible.
Workrate
Another area for improvement is his workrate. In this picture below you can see that while Chiesa is engaged in a duel with Singo there is a lot of space between Singo and Meite. Ideally Meite should position himself a bit harder and close the gap because in this sequence of play Chiesa beats Singo and goes on to shoot which luckily went wide.
Involvement in play and Passing
Meite is at times too far away from the point of where the play takes place and hence cannot influence play. His passing also has to improve if infact he wants to challenge Kessie for the starting role at Milan.
However we could also debate that Giampaolo’s style of football has not suited to Meite’s strengths and he would be more home to the idea of playing as a DM in a 4-2-3-1.
STATISTICAL COMPARISON
Thanks to @ViziFootball for this statistical comparison between Frank Kessie and Soualiho Meite.
Kessie, one of the most complete midfielders in Serie A today excels over Meite in every department. While Meite averages 0.98 interceptions per game, Kessie has 1.18 interceptions per game. Now Kessie averages 1.84 tackles per game Meite only has 0.98 tackles per game.
In terms of assists, Kessie has 3 assists this season while Meite has only registered a single assist.
DEAL OR NO DEAL
With Injuries piling up, it came to a point where Milan had to play a Right back out of position as a crisis in midfield. Krunic, even though he was injured, was a square peg in a round hole as he was not suited to Milan’s style of play as he was brought in to play Giampaolo’s 4-3-1-2 style of play. It was clear for Milan fans a Defensive midfielder with the properties of Kessie was needed and Milan didn’t have much of a budget given how corona has shrunk the pockets of even the cash rich Premier league. A loan move for a player who is used to the Serie A for as cheap as 500,000 with an option to buy at 8M is a welcome move for Milan who are chasing Champions league football maybe even the Scudetto.
Transfer Rating: 7/10
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