Teranga Lions’ Fangs a Distraction

Today, the Senegalese people are blessed with an array of attacking talent. However, it all proved to be useless having been so unceremoniously dumped out of the AFCON with only 3 goals to their name. The Teranga Lions boast of impressive firepower in the form of Moussa Sow, Papiss Demba Cissé, Dame Ndoye, and Demba Ba. Sow ended as last season’s Ligue 1’s top scorer (25 goals), Papiss Cissé was the Bundesliga 2^nd top scorer (22 goals), N’Doye was the Danish top scorer (25 goals), and Demba Ba is today the EPL’s 2^nd top scorer. With such a wealth of attacking talent however, it does seem to paper over some glaring cracks in the Senegalese setup.

One of the issues with the Senegal team is the fact that it lacks a real central playmaker able to split defenses and play the ball into those dangerous areas for the strikers to take advantage of. The fact is that in the absence of such a player there lacks real fluency and that cohesion needed to link the midfield and the attack. Moreover the fact that the strikers – with the exceptions of Demba Ba and Ndoye – are not really capable of making chances for themselves makes that all the more apparent. Sow had his breakout season at Lille because he had the likes of Gervinho and Eden Hazard giving him the ball. Indeed Sow had struggled at [his previous club] Rennes because he was not getting the type of service he craved for and it was again the case this season following the Ivoirian’s departure [to Arsenal]. As for Papiss Cissé, the whole of the Freiburg team was geared towards giving him the ball and for the Senegalese to fire in the goals. The main issue is also that coach Amara Traoré tries to play too many of his strikers at the same time, usually shunting Sow to the wing and playing Ndoye as his no.10. This naturally makes the side very top-heavy and thus creates the problem of a depleted midfield that has to not only protect the defense but provide the forwards as well.

Thankfully there is a solution to the problem if the Senegal setup is unable to find that central playmaker. If Traoré is unable to uncover the talent with the vision and passing range to unlock defenses consistently and at the highest level [before the next AFCON], then a different type of midfielder could serve that purpose. The type of midfielder I am referring to is a technically comfortable and attack-minded box-to-box midfielder. It seems strange to call a box-to-box midfielder attack-minded, but here is what I mean by it. An attacking box-to-box midfielder would not only looks to opportunistically make runs forward to take advantage of spaces, but instead look to attack the opposition and burst from midfield to carry the ball forward. He would also need to be technically sound with good dribbling ability as well as able to eliminate his man in 1v1. Mohamed Diamé showed glimpses of that ability in the pre-AFCON friendlies against Kenya & Sudan, but ultimately failed to produce at the actual tournament. However I believe he is someone Traoré should be counting on in midfield. Another player with similar attributes – and I believe who is even better in terms of current ability & potential – is Lille’s Idrissa Gueye. The young midfielder did not make Amara Traoré’s 23-men squad but we should be one to build the future of the Senegal midfield around in my opinion. Another midfielder to consider could also be the captain of Casa Sport [named the Senegalese Ligue 1 player of the season], Stephan Badji, who is a more classical no.10 than both Diamé & Gueye.

In conclusion, I think we are all in agreement here that Senegal are more than competent up top. However it is no use having the four-headed hydra that is our attack if we cannot feed our strikers. We need the last piece of the midfield puzzle in order to add more fluency into our game. It is crucial to learn from this year’s AFCON disappointment and evolve in order to become competitive again in Africa, as well as it is pertinent to our ambitions to progress in next year’s AFCON in South Africa.