Malo Gusto Scouting Report At Lyon – Tactical Analysis

Lyon have long been lauded as one of the most efficient and effective talent developers in French football.

The list of French footballers who developed at the club’s academy before achieving success in European football is extensive.

This is, of course, in line with the marketing of French football as a whole

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In all fairness, there is some truth to this, as French football tends to value the use and development of young players.

The latest player off of the Lyon production line appears to be the 19-year-old right-back Malo Gusto.

He is predominantly a right-back, although, as a younger player, he developed as an attacking midfielder, which shows when he is in possession of the ball. at 179cm | 5’11”, he has a good frame and size for the right-back position.

At the time of writing, despite only being 19 years old, Gusto has been capped five times by a very talented French U21 side.

Gusto is a very modern full-back in that he is comfortable in the attacking phase of the game and can attack dynamically down the outside to provide genuine width.

However, he is also extremely capable in the defensive phase, and his ability to win 1v1 duels for his side before starting the attacking transition has really stood out so far since Gusto broke into the Lyon first-team.

So far in his career, he has predominantly played as a more traditional right-back, although he does move to a much higher line in the attacking phase of the game.

Given his physical capacity, we suggest that he also profiles as a player who would fit as a wing-back for several teams.

In this article, we will break down Gusto’s profile and explain what makes him such an intriguing player going forward.

Malo Gusto Player profile

This pizza chart shows Malo Gusto’s data from this season so far compared to all other fullbacks who are playing in Ligue 1.

The data is from Wyscout and the raw per 90 data is converted into percentile rankings.

So far this season, Gusto’s data has been largely excellent.

He is in the 78th percentile for goal contributions and the 88th percentile for expected goal contributions.

He sees a lot of the ball for Lyon and is in the 98th percentile for passes per 90.

Crucially, though, he is excellent in terms of using the ball when making those passes.

He is in the 96th percentile for dangerous passes and the 97th percentile for progressive actions.

He also gets the ball into the area effectively, and he is in the 95th percentile for area entries.

However, he has also impressed in the defensive phase of the game. At the time of writing, Gusto is in the 95th percentile for defensive duels per 90, but only the 50th percentile for the percentage of defensive duels won and the 80th percentile for positioning (blocks and interceptions).

Here, we see the heatmap and pass map for Malo Gusto so far this season.

As you can see from his heatmap, he moves high often and gets into advanced positions in the final third.

He is a good passer of the ball, but again, most of his attempted passes tend to come in the wide areas of the pitch as he accesses central spaces.

Malo Gusto’s Style Of play

In today’s attacking phase, full-backs have to become wingers as wide forwards increasingly move inside to occupy space in the half-spaces.

This means that the full-backs have to be comfortable pushing forward and taking possession in wide areas.

From these positions, they have to be able to beat an opposition player and find angles to play the ball into the area.

In this example, we see Gusto taking possession of the ball right on the touchline in the final third.

He is adept at getting forward and providing significant width for Lyon.

As he receives the ball in this position, two opposition defenders look to move and engage the fullback.

Gusto is not a player who wastes time trying to show off or do something fancy when he takes possession.

Instead, as soon as he takes possession in the final third, he looks for opportunities to get the ball into the area.

He reads the movement of attacking teammates and is capable of putting the ball into dangerous areas to meet those runs.

Here, we see him just getting the ball out of his feet and curling it to the near post to meet the attacker’s run.

Gusto shows great composure in the final third, especially for such a young player. Even when he is put under significant pressure, he rarely panics or looks to force the ball into the area.

We see this here as Gusto once again is in possession wide in the final third.

Two opposition players are close to him and looking to put immediate pressure on the ball, and there are six players in total between the young fullback and the Montpellier goal.

Once again, we see how effective Gusto is at reading space and putting the ball into the best area to create threat.

He crosses deep into the opposition area to find the run of the teammate who is bursting through the central area into the penalty area.

Malo Gusto Driving in possession of the ball

While it is true that Gusto very rarely takes much time when he receives the ball in the final third, he always wants to put the ball into dangerous areas; that does not mean that he cannot drive forward in possession of the ball to get the ball into those positions on his own.

He is tall for a full-back, and he’s quick and dynamic in his movements.

This makes it difficult to easily stop him when he moves in possession and gets into his stride with the ball at his feet.

Here, we see Gusto in possession of the ball as he is driving forward through the middle third and into the final third of the pitch.

He has a nice ability to slow down his movement when travelling in possession of the ball. He almost pauses on the ball, which forces the opposition player to also slow down.

In this instance, the defender also has to be aware of the threat of Gusto either driving inside or passing inside to the player in the half-space.

As soon as the defender plants his feet to look to make a challenge on the ball, we then see Gusto drive down the outside and into space.

Here we see an example from the match between Lyon and Angers as Gusto again receives the ball tight to the touchline.

As the defender looks to move tight to engage the ball, Gusto again slows the pace down and looks as though he is going to check back or go into the centre of the pitch.

Again, this slows the defender down, and as he plants his feet, Gusto simply drives past on the outside and attacks the space.

Gusto is dynamic and very effective in the attacking phase.

Malo Gusto 1v1 defending

Modern full-backs must be able to contribute effectively in the attacking phase and going forward, but that is not enough for a player to play at the very highest level as a full-back.

At that level, full-backs also have to be able to defend and Gusto has shown not only the ability to defend aggressively in 1v1 situations but a real appetite for doing so.

Here, we see an example of Anthony Lopes, in the Lyon goal, putting his team in trouble with a poor pass that was low and straight to the Feyenoord player at the edge of the final third.

As that player starts to move forward in possession, he has a vast area that he can attack into before being engaged by the deeper Lyon defenders.

Instead, however, we see Gusto working hard and showing his pace to get back into a position to make the challenge.

Not only does he challenge for the ball, though.

He cleanly wins possession back and is then in a position to start an attacking transition for his team as they move forward.

This time, we see Gusto defending in a more traditional 1v1 situation in the match between Lyon and West Ham in European competition.

He is faced with a difficult situation in an isolated position against a wide attacker who has managed to turn his situation into a positive one.

From this position, the player in possession can move inside or outside and drive into the area.

Indeed, the player on the ball does attempt to feint inside before then looking to dynamically attack Gusto down the outside to get to the touchline.

Instead, though, Gusto steps across and cleanly takes the ball away from the winger without having to go to the ground.

He is then able to drive forward and start an attacking transition.

Conclusion

At just 19 years old, Gusto is a player who is likely to continue to develop, and we believe that he has the potential to become one of the best full-backs in World football.

He has a profile that appears to be ideally suited to modern football.

Given his relative inexperience at first-team level, he is likely to stay at Lyon until at least the end of next season. After that, we would expect to see the biggest sides in Europe move to attempt to sign him.

However, it would not be surprising to see Gusto make his breakthrough at the senior international level for France before that.