Léa Le Garrec is a French international who plays at FC Fleury 91 Women and has been regularly participating with the French women’s national team in various international and continental tournaments since 2023. In other words, Le Garrec has been neglected for five years following Corinne Diacre’s first invitation to the national team in 2017. She missed the opportunity to participate in tournaments like the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2019 and UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 and was restricted to playing with her team only.
But following her excellent run of form during the last few seasons and especially the appointment of a new head coach for the national team (Hervé Renard instead of Corinne Diacre), Le Garrec finally got the opportunity she needed to showcase her talent to the world when Renard relied on her and added her to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup squad.
It is important to note that Le Garrec did not disappoint and proved her worth by scoring against Panama, knowing that she was not used as a starting player during this tournament. The match against Panama was the only time she was a starter during this tournament.
Following the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Renard did not give up on Le Garrec and called her up for the events/gamedays that followed, including the 2023/24 UEFA Women’s Nations League. This represents a good sign for Le Garrec and a source of motivation to continue improving her performance to perform well during the upcoming tournaments. She deserves to be called up and perhaps even be played as a starter during Switzerland’s UEFA Women’s Euro 2025.
Le Garrec started her journey in football in 2007 at Évreux when she was 16 years old. She quickly moved to Montigny after two seasons and was able to attract the attention of a big team like PSG to play with them from 2010 to 2012.
Afterwards, Le Garrec’s career continued to take extra directions as she left PSG to join EA Guingamp for two seasons, had an experience at US Saint-Malo and then returned to EA Guingamp from 2017 to 2019. That year, she marked her first transfer outside France when she had the opportunity to play in the WSL with Brighton. But at the end of her first season at Brighton, Le Garrec decided not to renew her contract in June 2020 and returned to the Division 1 Féminine but with the colours of FC Fleury 91 this time.
Le Garrec’s time at Fleury has been relatively her most successful and stable period in her career so far. She has played with them since 2020 and has been a key player for the team, contributing with a great number of appearances, goals, assists, and convincing performances.
Nevertheless, French media have been reporting that Le Garrec will not renew her contract, which will expire at the season’s end. Therefore, this opens the door for her to have a different new experience. At the same time, she is much more mature and experienced in all aspects, potentially leading to an even better experience than the one she underwent at Fleury.
In this tactical analysis and scout report on one of the best-performing French midfielders at the moment, Le Garrec, we will explore her possible roles and positions within her team’s tactics and her playmaking attributes. The analysis will also include a section for her goalscoring abilities and identifying the teams that could best suit Le Garrec starting next season.
Positions, roles and playmaking abilities
Le Garrec has often been used as a right-central midfielder and a right-defensive midfielder. At the same time, she played as an advanced playmaker on numerous occasions and as a right winger on some occasions (the most important one being the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup game against Brazil).
Moreover, there were times when Le Garrec was used as a left winger at Fleury and, more importantly, as a striker in Brighton’s 4-4-2 back in 2020, for instance. She played against some of England’s big teams, such as Tottenham and Manchester United, while being a striker, and this proves how versatile and tactically fluid Le Garrec can be.
This ability to adapt to various positions on the pitch makes Le Garrec a very wanted player since she proposed many solutions to numerous issues. The following graphic highlights this ability to move in various areas on the pitch while respecting her defensive duties and positioning.
Le Garrec’s roles on the pitch are numerous. She is often required to cover for the defensive line, especially when playing as a defensive midfielder, be the first to get the ball from the defence during the build-up phase, use her excellent long-passing techniques in favour of the team while timing them well to surprise opposing defences and meet the movements of strikers.
Being the captain at Fleury makes Le Garrec’s presence even more important, as she is often required to communicate with her teammates regarding movements, covering and even motivation.
In addition, Le Garrec’s attacking roles include set-piece taking since she proved some excellent efficiency and skills in executing set-pieces previously, shooting from distance, and being always present to be first on second balls.
With 61.8% passing accuracy, Le Garrec can be considered one of the most efficient passers in the D1 Arkema. She provides numerous assists and key passes per season, especially using long passes.
The following assist example highlights Le Garrec’s ability to quickly scan her teammates’ movements without the ball and provide key long passes into space to meet their runs. This technique has usually been fruitful for Le Garrec and for Fleury in general as numerous goals were scored mainly thanks to Le Garrec’s creative long passing.
In addition to her long passes using the right foot, Le Garrec relies heavily on her left foot and has already been able to provide assists using it, which makes it even more complicated for defenders to predict her passing timing or destination.
The following left-footed pass was executed with a lot of accuracy to find two Fleury players, and what is remarkable with this cross is that Le Garrec made sure that the cross was directed to meet the two players a bit away from the goalkeeper to avoid risks. In other words, Le Garrec controls her left-footed long passes and does not just opt for these passes without aiming for accuracy. And that’s what makes her a very dangerous midfielder, even when she plays as a defensive one.
Moreover, Le Garrec has already been able to convert corner kicks into goals since she executes them extremely well to find headers inside the box. Another very important trait that characterises Le Garrec is her physical strength and ability to resist in duels, whether in midfield or upfront, despite the fact that she does not really look very powerful. Despite that, she wins 45% duels and has proved on numerous occasions that she can deal well with situations during which she is subject to defensive aggressivity or disturbance.
The next example shows Le Garrec resisting two defenders’ attempts to intercept the ball from her while she was about to provide a key pass to her teammate inside the box. Even though the defender started having an advantage on her, she was still able to provide the pass while falling, giving her teammate the opportunity to score despite all the disturbance.
Goalscoring skills
With 2.78 shots per game, Le Garrec has proved her ability to score using different techniques and from various situations, including direct free-kicks, shots from distance, left-footed shots, penalties and more. She is a creative midfielder who can be very useful to any team in goalscoring, especially from set-pieces. Moreover, if she plays more regularly as an advanced playmaker, Le Garrec’s goalscoring numbers would improve greatly because the French international has the abilities needed to score when playing more often near the box.
This goal, scored from a direct set-piece, shows how efficient Le Garrec can be in such situations. She can direct her shot towards the needed angle while making the action look very simple.
Plus, Le Garrec has already shown that her shooting techniques are varied and that she can score from a distance, relying mainly on power but also on shooting accuracy. During her next club experience, it would be very advantageous for her and for the team to ask her to aim more for shots from distance since she is more likely capable of scoring a high number of goals per season using shots from distance.
Another essential feature that characterises Le Garrec is that she is always impactful during big games and often scores against tough opponents such as Olympique Lyonnais, Canada and more.
As this example shows, Le Garrec was able to exploit Canada’s defensive error and quickly launch a curved shot that no one could save despite the fact that she was obliged to execute this shot quickly and without even having the time to look at the goal.
Most suitable destinations
Le Garrec might prefer a change of teams inside France, which is very probable because she has often found herself comfortable. If she is considering staying in the French league, Paris FC would represent a very good upgrade and a suitable destination for Le Garrec since the team regularly plays in the UWCL lately and has a great squad that challenges PSG and Olympique Lyonnais.
Moreover, Paris FC needs a creative midfielder like Le Garrec to form a very powerful duo with Gaëtane Thiney. Therefore, finding a regular spot at Paris FC would not be very complicated, as opposed to PSG and Olympique Lyonnais, where the midfield is already full with numerous quality players, and playing time is never guaranteed.
If Le Garrec is open for a new experience abroad however, joining a NWSL team might be a very good option for the French player as that would represent a fresh challenge for her in a different and new environment. It is fair to say that Le Garrec’s level allows her to shine in the NWSL as well, no matter what team she would join.
Conclusion
Léa Le Garrec has been a very useful player for Fleury but must think deeply about her next move to guarantee playing time and, therefore, avoid missing the upcoming national team tournaments. It will be important for her to keep representing France and achieving great results with them while putting on convincing performances at her potential new team.
Comments