Etoile Sportive du Sahel did good business in Group A of the Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 by beating CS Chebba at home. The leaders of Group A controlled the game from the start, but couldn’t really break down Chebba’s defence in the first half. In the second half, ES Sahel almost instantly found the back of the net through Louay Ben Hassine. Ten minutes later they doubled their lead and eventually scored a third as well.
Ratings:
- A1 – Very good, could play higher
- A2 – Strong potential to play higher
- B1 – Good, strong player at level
- B2 – Potential to be a strong player at level
- C – Average for the level, rewatch
- D – Below average in this match
Zinedine Boutmène
Player Profile:
- Nationality: Algerian
- Age: 22
- Date of birth: 21/10/2000
- Club: Etoile Sportive du Sahel
- Career: NA Hussein Dey, Club Africain, Etoile Sportive du Sahel
- Position: Right Winger
- Secondary Position: Attacking Midfielder
- Preferred foot: Left
Zinedine Boutmène played as the attacking midfielder for ES Sahel and had a bit of a mixed performance. Boutmène stands at 1.78m with an average build. The Algerian mainly showed that he has good bursts of pace, as he managed to glide by his opponents multiple times in midfield. The first response of his opponents when this happened was just to foul him, but this was easier said than done as he did great keeping his balance on multiple occasions. His highlight of the game came in the 58th minute when he picked up the ball just over the halfway line. Boutmène dribbled forward a bit and scored an amazing long shot from around 30 meters away from the goal.
ES Sahel’s main problem during the game against Chebba was their build-up play. The pitch looked to be very dry and every low pass seemed to be bouncing up constantly. However, there was also just a lack of movement in the first two phases, which made it very hard to get the ball forward. Sometimes one of the two more defensive midfielders would drop between the centre backs, but both wingers and full backs seemed to be glued to the touchlines at times. Boutmène didn’t get the ball nearly enough, but also barely dropped back a little to pick the ball up on his own half for some reason. On the half of his opponent’s, he was very involved, moving from left to right, and I think he definitely should’ve been more involved in their build-up as well.
The 22-year-old is a player who likes to take a lot of risk in his plays, which his goal perfectly showcases as not a lot of players would that a shot from that range. He was a bit wasteful at times in possession but was also ES Sahel’s main source of danger in the final third. The Algerian is ES Sahel’s starting attacking midfielder this season but used to be a right winger. I personally think that he would function best on the right side, cutting inside to his stronger left foot. Technically he looked very good and the pitch didn’t really seem to affect his game. He would always try and play the ball forward or dribble forward, making situations hard for himself when he could just play to a full-back or central midfielder.
Rating – A1
Not a lot of players make the step from the Tunisian league to Europe and I’m not too sure why. However, I think Boutmène could be a good fit in Belgium for some of the midtable teams. I don’t know how the wages compare to Tunisia, but it could be a good stepping stone for him.
Jacques Mbé
Player Profile:
- Nationality: Cameroonian
- Age: 23
- Date of birth: 17/06/1999
- Club: Etoile Sportive du Sahel
- Career: Canon Yaoundé, Etoile Sportive du Sahel
- Position: Defensive Midfielder
- Preferred foot: Right
Jacques Mbé joined ES Sahel back in 2017 from Canon Yaoundé and this will be his third season in the first team. Mbé played as the right-sided defensive/central midfielder and put in a good shift. The first thing you notice about Mbé is that he looks like an absolute mountain. According to Wyscout, he is 1.79m but I would be very surprised if he isn’t at least 1.85m. He has an athletic build and is very strong in his duels with his great physical strength. Mbé doesn’t look like the fastest player on the first few meters but has good sprint speed when he gets going. The 23-year-old was surprisingly agile, but if someone changed direction at higher speed he struggled a little bit. Defensively he did very well overall. His tackling was great, aside from one moment where he looked a little naive and was easily passed. His positioning also looked good and he did well counter-pressing when he had the chance.
On the ball, Jacques Mbé looked very comfortable. His partner in midfield Oussama Abid looked like he was going to be the playmaker, but Mbé did as good, if not better, at progressing the ball. He mainly was just less wasteful in possession than Abid, who made some really sloppy mistakes. Mbé’s passing was very solid, he played some good forward passes and was also able to play good switches to both flanks. Besides some of his passes, the Cameroonian kept things relatively simple and wasn’t really pressed that often. In the 89th minute, he took some more risk and tried to turn away from an opponent a bit outside of his own box, but he didn’t spot a second opponent which lead to a dangerous situation.
Rating – A2
Jacques Mbé is a pretty interesting player and I think that he could make the step to Europe. However, I’m curious how he will do when he gets pressed, which is very important for someone in his position. So I will definitely try to watch him play again.
Fradj Ben Njima
Player Profile:
- Nationality: Tunisian
- Age: 18
- Date of birth: 23/01/2004
- Club: Etoile Sportive du Sahel
- Career: Etoile Sportive du Sahel
- Position: Right Back
- Preferred foot: Right
Fradj Ben Njima has been ES Sahel’s starting right back after a few matches last season. The 18-year-old fullback had a difficult first half against Chebba, mainly in build-up as the whole team was struggling, but showed more positive things in the second half. The main problem for the right back was that there was simply no space to really do anything when he received the ball. Below you can see an example as he receives the ball back after throwing it in. The right winger is standing still near the touchline, whilst both central midfielders are moving towards the ball, barely giving him any options than just playing the ball back to the centre back, who then plays the ball back to the goalkeeper. In the second half there was often more space and you could see him gain confidence on the ball.
Ben Njima is looked pretty tall compared to the rest of the players with a bit of a lanky build. If I had to estimate he would stand around 1.80-1.85m. He wasn’t really tested in any sprint duels but going forward he seemed to have decent acceleration with good sprint speed. He isn’t the strongest and was shoved off the ball a little easy one or two times but in his defensive duels, he showed a lot of aggression and intensity which really helped him. Ben Njima defended very pro-active and most of the times tried to get the ball before his opponent could even take his first touch. He made a couple of fouls, by being a little too ‘enthusiastic’ but none of these were in a dangerous area.
The youngster had some freedom to come forward and had a few good moments in the final third. He made some good runs when right winger Dhaoui moved to the centre, keeping the width for his side. But most of his moments in the final third missed some purpose, as they would often end in him playing a simple pass. At the end of the first half he makes a good run inside as he spots the space and plays a good pass with the outside of his foot to striker Kombe, showing that he has the composure and vision to be dangerous going forward.
Rating – A2
Fradj Ben Njima needed a bit of time to get in the match but played pretty well overall, not making any big mistakes really. I think that he has some potential but I would like to see him against some better opposition first to properly judge him.
Mohamed Dhaoui
Player Profile:
- Nationality: Tunisian
- Age: 19
- Date of birth: 14/05/2003
- Club: Etoile Sportive du Sahel
- Career: Etoile Sportive du Sahel
- Position: Right Winger
- Secondary Position: Left Winger
- Preferred foot: Left
Can you really be disappointed with a forward if he scores and gives an assist in the same match? Well, I certainly wasn’t very impressed, unfortunately. Mohamed Dhaoui was actually the reason why I watched this match since he put up some good numbers this season with four goals and an assist in his first five matches. As I said he scored and gave an assist in the match against Chebba, but besides that there weren’t a lot of positives to his game. In the first half, he had three moments where he could’ve been dangerous in the box, but all of those times he went down to the ground in hopes of a penalty. His first move in the second half was a lot better. After looking like he would cut inside, he passed his opponent around the outside and put in a cross with his right foot, which was converted by the left winger. Twenty minutes later Dhaoui tapped in the 3-0 after very good work from Kombe.
Dhaoui is a diminutive winger and stands around 1.65m if I had to guess. He is very quick on the first meters and can easily turn directions at high speed. In two of his moments in the first half, I mentioned earlier, he easily passed his opponent by cutting to his left foot, showing that he has the ability to beat his opponent in a 1v1 situation, the next step was just missing this match. I also think that he was a lot too static off the ball. He only received 11 passes this game, which is above his average per 90, and should’ve been more active making deep runs or dropping back.
Rating – C
It feels very harsh to give a C to a player, who was very important with two goal contributions in a match, but I felt like Dhaoui was just quite average this match compared to some of his teammates. He looks good technically but just wasn’t involved enough in this game. This isn’t fully his fault as the overall passing accuracy of his side was just very low this game, making it quite hard to reach the forwards.
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