Gaëtane Thiney has been one the three most dangerous midfielders this season so far at the age of 38, proving that age is just a number and that form and performances can remain powerful and sometimes become even more powerful than before despite becoming older than the most of the rest of the players. Thiney is a veteran French midfielder, or rather attacking midfielder, who has already had numerous adventures in her career but is still striving for more and still has the determination and motivation to do her best on the pitch and help her actual team, Paris FC, reach the best of results whether in the Division 1 Féminine or the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Thiney started her football career in 2000 at Olympique Saint-Memmie before moving to US Compiègne Oise from 2006 to 2008. Afterwards, she had a chance to join Paris FC Women in 2008, and from that moment, she has remained in Paris until now, with just a loan experience at Gotham FC in 2021. Therefore, we can consider Thiney to be a veteran French player and a symbol for Paris FC.
What is also remarkable with Thiney is that she can still perform very well after playing for so long at the same club while facing some of the most formidable opponents in the UWCL and still succeeding in being impactful and crucial in those games. We are mainly talking about games against teams like Real Madrid, Wolfsburg, Arsenal, and Chelsea, in addition to battling with France’s most potent teams, Olympique Lyonnais and PSG, for the Division 1 Féminine title and the second spot.
It is even fair to say that Thiney has been playing a massive part in making Paris FC surpass PSG in the standings with three points while being eight points away from the leaders, Olympique Lyonnais. At the same time, she has been extremely useful for the team in their UWCL journey this season after they were able to knock out Kryvbas, Arsenal and Wolfsburg in the qualifying rounds before entering the group stage, where Paris FC succeeded in beating Real Madrid at home and away while losing to Häcken at home and to Chelsea in the away fixture.
These results have been a bit surprising for Group D and are actually favouring Paris FC and giving them fairly reasonable qualification chances despite being in a complicated group. With six points at the moment, everything can happen for Paris FC, especially if they succeed in getting points in their remaining fixtures since they are one point behind from Häcken and two points away from Chelsea.
In terms of honours, we should mention that Thiney is a two-time winner of the Division 1 Féminine Player of the Year award in 2011/12 and 2013/14 as she was also selected in the UEFA Women’s Championship All-Star Team in 2013.
On the international level, she started playing with the French senior national team in 2009 and until 2019, when head coach Corinne Diacre decided not to rely on her anymore. And despite her compelling performances this season, the head coach, Hervé Renard, is still unconvinced about calling her back up to the team as he prefers to rely on younger players.
Nevertheless, suppose Thiney keeps putting on consistent crucial performances with Paris FC. In that case, Renard might change his decision and give a chance to Thiney, especially when knowing that the Olympic Games are approaching and that Thiney can represent one of the most potent midfield and attacking weapons for France, even if used as a backup player during the tournament.
In fact, Thiney’s history with the French team has been long enough. Writing the last chapter of her international journey at the Olympic Games can signify a perfect ending, especially when she realises that she deserves this last opportunity and is open and ready to do it. She has participated in three World Cups, three Euros, Olympic Games and scored 58 goals throughout her journey with the French national team.
In this tactical analysis and scout report, we will explore Thiney’s profile, what characterises her as a midfielder, and why she is considered among the most dangerous three midfielders in Europe this season. The analysis will focus on attacking and playmaking attributes, the roles and positions she can occupy at Paris FC or with the French national team, and her importance to their tactics.
Positions and roles
Thiney is a player who can adapt herself to various roles and be useful in different aspects, mainly the attacking ones. She has played in different positions throughout her footballing journey but excelled as an advanced playmaker and a second striker. These positions allow Thiney to highlight her outstanding goalscoring traits, especially her shooting from distance abilities while being impactful from a playmaking point of view. She is also a great passer with excellent vision and awareness of her surroundings. When she plays as an advanced playmaker, she usually provides key passes to strikers and moves very well between the lines.
In addition, she can be considered a third striker while playing as an advanced playmaker. We say this because she scores a lot of goals when playing in midfield as she intelligently advances a lot, acting like a striker and exploiting the empty spaces left by those strikers at times, and shooting from distance at other times while still in midfield, surprising the whole defensive line. This powerful shooting-from-distance ability differentiates Thiney from many actual players at her position since it is becoming a rare trait.
Moreover, retreating to receive the ball in midfield and helping with the build-up is another role that Thiney can execute well, as her experience allows her to deal with complicated midfield situations and pressing while relying on her physical strength, stamina, and endurance.
As you can see in this heatmap, Thiney moves a lot and has been playing in various spots on the pitch. She is a dynamic player who moves a lot without the ball and often provides suitable passing solutions to her teammates. This being said, playing just behind the strikers or as a second striker are the two options that allow teams to get the best possible performances from Thiney.
Goalscoring and shooting talent
Talent is the most appropriate way to describe Thiney’s shooting abilities, as the French international can be considered a master in women’s football when it comes to shooting. Although her statistics are not always revealing in this regard, Thiney has been able to score goals from different angles and long distances throughout her career and until this moment. What is also fascinating is that the same level of power and accuracy still characterises her shots.
Thiney has scored shots from distance on numerous big occasions, such as the Olympic Games, the UWCL, the World Cup and more. The following example shows one old goal from 2011 where Thiney was able to score a goal from distance with a great shooting technique and power against Germany, who were hosting the tournament, which highlights not only Thiney’s shooting abilities but also her powerful personality and ability to ignore the pressure.
Credits: FIFA TV.
In addition to this type of shot, Thiney is also able to launch powerful yet accurate first-time shots, especially when she gets second balls, meaning that second balls are errors that should be avoided when playing against teams that have someone like Thiney. This very recent goal example scored against Montpellier shows how Thiney can score from complicated angles despite running towards the right before shooting and not towards the goal, making it even more difficult to launch an accurate shot.
Nevertheless, Thiney was still able to direct her shot in a curved yet powerful way to confuse the goalkeeper and hit the net. This also proves that Thiney controls her body well when executing her shots and that her body coordination is always on point during these actions.
With an average of 1.73 shots per game and 45.8% shots on target per match, Thiney is still considered one of the most crucial finishers with shots from distance despite not having the best statistics. In addition to shots from distance, she can also dribble well with a 52.2% success rate, and these dribbles are often executed in crucial areas to avoid defenders and pave the way for herself to shoot on goal.
The following goal against Dijon showcases Thiney’s dribbling abilities and how she often resorts to one-two combinations to get rid of marking and be able to shoot afterwards. Her quick decision-making on such occasions helps her achieve her goals as she usually looks confident and knows what to do before receiving the ball, making it complicated for defenders to read her ideas or anticipate her next move.
One of the other goalscoring traits of Thiney, in addition to the mentioned ones and her ability to score with headers, is her finishing in front of the goal and how she deals with one-on-one situations with goalkeepers. Thiney proved on numerous occasions, and recently on a big one against Real Madrid in the UWCL, that she finishes actions with cold blood even when goalkeepers try to make things difficult for her.
In this goal action, she received a complicated pass that was deflected on a defender before reaching Thiney. At the same time, Real Madrid’s goalkeeper tried to anticipate the action and got out of her zone. Despite this, Thiney could still finish the action with one touch, hitting the ball with the exterior part of her foot behind the goalkeeper’s arm to score a beautiful and crucial goal.
Playmaking and assist-making
In terms of passing, Thiney has also been a great passer in the final third throughout the years and continues to be impactful in this regard until now since she still makes assists from corner kicks and open play. Her passing accuracy reaches 72.8%, while her passing to the penalty box equals 50.8%. Thiney often serves the strikers with key passes that turn into assists and usually provides these passes with great accuracy. Whether positioned in the middle, on the right or on the left, she can always provide such passes to her attacking teammates.
This example shows an excellent through pass at the back of the defensive line that enabled her teammate to be in a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper and score, highlighting Thiney’s vision and ability to choose her passing’s timings well.
Also, Thiney is a good passer and an effective crosser. She usually creates assists out of corner kicks and can cross well from the wings whenever she moves to those spots. This makes Thiney more unpredictable and less likely to be marked, as she can create danger to opponents from every position she plays inside the final third.
This picture highlights Thiney’s crossing abilities and shows that she is a versatile attacking player who can definitely be described as crucial.
Conclusion
Gaëtane Thiney can be considered a French legend who has won a lot during her long career but still finds the passion and determination to play well and give more than 100% in every game to help Paris FC get the best results. She succeeded in doing so last season and during this season so far.
Therefore, Thiney is not just a player but also an example to everyone and the fact that she was selected among the three most dangerous midfielders so far this season confirms that Thiney’s career is not over yet and that she can even end it internationally with an Olympic Games participation given her excellent actual run of form.
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