Moneyball scouting - crowding out - Denis Will-Poha

I have never seen a single nation produce as many good central defenders and midfielders as France is at the moment.

This glut of players isn't limited to a single club, or even a cluster, almost every team seems to have players of the highest potential.

Take Rennes. Currently 10th in the league.

Their regular central midfield options are impressive:
Clement Grenier
James Lea Siliki
Benjamin Andre
Romain Del Castillo
Adrien Honou

In reserve they have:
Nicolas Janvier -  a U17 European Champion and U20 French youth international
Rafik Guitane - a £10m signing from Le Havre at 18 years of age and U20 French international
Faitout Maouassa - although mainly left sided he is also thought of as a future central midfielder. U20 French international and U19 Euro Champion.
Stephane Diarra - another 20 year old central midfielder on loan at Le Mans
Denis Will-Poha - yet another Euro Champion central midfielder
Jeremy Gelin - yet another Euro Champion central midfielder (or defender)

I could write a similar article on lots of clubs - for example Saint Etienne are stacked with wide players, with Vagner Gonclaves far too good for L2 but only third in the pecking order for a wide left role.

So I'm just going to look at one of the left out players at Rennes:
Denis Will-Poha

The first thing that stands out from the clips of him playing is the quality of his dead balls. His corners, in particular, seem to be excellent. A midfielder who is just OK in every aspect of the game but excellent at dead balls can go a long way in the game.

However he does seem to have other qualities, he works very hard defensively, passes often and accurately.



A good way of seeing how well a player is doing is to look at the forums of the club they play for.

Will-Poha is currently at Nancy, the fans are overwhelmingly positive about his play with them. Apart from a reckless red card in one match he has added quality to their midfield and the team have improved immensely since he joined. The massively increased form of another player I've mentioned in the past, Amine Bassi, is credited to his arrival.

His previous loan spell at Orleans was also a great success. He is in that difficult in-between stage of his career, like Kieran Dowell, of being good enough to play but not having the opportunity. Both retained by their clubs after decent loan spells they've stayed and stagnated only to have another loan spell later.

At nearly 22 Will-Poha needs to play. From the little I've seen I feel he'd be a great buy for a top-level Championship club. He could go higher but he just needs to play. With a 40 game season under his belt, his real ability level would be easier to assess. But he has shown enough to make me confident in his technical skill and work rate.

He is just crowded out. 

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