KAA Gent’s match against KV Kortrijk ended in a big disappointment for the Buffalo’s. Hein Vanhaezebrouck’s side setup in a 3-4-3/5-2-3 formation with Castro-Montes and Samoise as wing backs, Yonas Malede as left winger, Mboyo as the sole striker and Hjulsager with a free role often just behind Malede and Mboyo.
KV Kortrijk surprisingly opened the score after eight minutes through ex-Gent player Dylan Mbayo. The homeside then took back control over the match and completely dominated Kortrijk in the first half. It didn’t lead to a lot of enormous chances, but in the 44th minute it was Alessio Castro-Montes who was alert after a corner was poorly cleared. Not much later it looked like Gent was going to seal the deal when Mboyo headed in a good cross from Samoise. In the final minutes of the game KAA Gent lost control of the game. Kortrijk got dangerous multiple times and in the 91st minute it was Mbayo who scored again. The winger positioned himself between centre backs Hanche-Olsen and Owusu and after a very good first touch he chipped the ball over goalkeeper Sinan Bolat.
Ratings:
- A1 – Very good, could play higher
- A2 – Strong potential to play higher
- B1 – Good, strong player at level
- B2 – Potential to be strong player at level
- C – Average for the level, re-watch
- D – Below average in this match
Yonas Malede
Player profile:
- Nationality: Israeli
- Age: 22
- Date of birth: 14/11/1999
- Current club: KAA Gent
- Career: Maccabi Netanya, KAA Gent
- Position: Left Winger
- Secondary position: Striker, Right Winger
- Preferred foot: Right
On paper Yonas Malede played as Gent’s second striker against Kortrijk next to Mboyo. In reality Gent just played an asymmetrical formation with Malede as left winger and no real right winger, but Hjulsager in a free role. Malede started for the first time in the league since august 2021 and played an okay match overall. On the ball Malede showed some moments of brilliance, but his output in the final third was quite weak against Kortrijk.
Technically Yonas Malede looked fantastic this match. He did really well keeping the ball in small spaces and his dribbling looked very good. There were multiple times where Malede kept the ball in moments where he was pressed from multiple sides. In his attacking 1v1’s he did quite good, but he was quickly getting predictable. As a left winger who is right footed, he would always cut inside. The question was when he was going to cut inside and not if he was going to do it. He didn’t seem to use his left foot at all and just did everything with his right. His best moment was in the 56th minute when he made a good run on the left and got the ball from Castro-Montes. Just before the backline Malede cut back to his right foot and put in a very good whipped cross, but Hjulsager didn’t score from around three meters from the goalkeeper. There were two instances in the match where the 22-year old cut inside to his right and tried to shoot, but the shots were very poor and lacked any sort of precision.
Malede looked quite fast on the first few meters, but he barely used it was a weapon. He mostly just wanted the ball in his feet to start a dribble or play a simple pass. Standing at 6’2” the Israeli with Ethiopian roots has a pretty lean build, but he still did fairly well in the more physical duels. He also showed some very good jumping reach and timing in aerial duels when in the 58th his header after a free kick just went over.
Rating – B2
Yonas Malede showed some promising things, but is a bit too much of a one-trick pony. His crosses and shots were quite weak against Kortrijk and that’s something that definitely has to improve if he wants to succeed at Gent.
Matisse Samoise
Player profile:
- Nationality: Belgian
- Age: 20
- Date of birth: 21/10/2001
- Current club: KAA Gent
- Career: KAA Gent
- Position: Right Wingback
- Preferred foot: Right
Matisse Samoise played as the right wingback for KAA Gent against Kortrijk. The 21-year old had a lot of freedom to go forward, but always tracked back well. He showed incredible stamina moving up and down the pitch constantly throughout the match. Samoise often pressed quite high with right sided centre back Hanche-Olsen covering the areas behind him well, but was quite poor in his defensive duels. The 20-year old lacked some physicality, standing at 5’8” with quite an average build, but also just committed to his challenges too fast. There were multiple moments where Samoise just sprinted at his opponent trying to press and he just got dribbled past a lot too easy.
On the ball Samoise kept it very simple. The wing back didn’t dribble or tried to beat his opponent with the ball, but mostly just looked to find his nearest teammate. This worked quite well for him, but also meant that KAA Gent wasn’t very dangerous at all from the right. The only cross he attempted this game was very good. Samoise found striker Mboyo in the box who headed the ball past Ilic for the 2-1.
Rating – C
Besides a very good cross there just wasn’t that much to be excited about watching Samoise. Defensively he looked quite weak and going forward he didn’t offer a lot.