NO STRASS IN THIS BURG: Jean-Ricner Bellegarde
Scouting RC Strasbourg
First newsletter of the No Strass in this Burg: Scouting Strasbourg series with a focus on Jean-Ricner Bellegarde.
The Alsacian club’s peculiar pace merchant on wheels thriving in Strasbourg’s variation of three man midfield, mostly as a right sided box to box.
24 years old, listed at 1.70 (5ft 7) and 70kg (155 pounds).
Born during the 1998 World Cup in June, in Colombes (near Paris).
Featuring a handful of time for France U19-U21 age groups.
Bellegarde is also from Haïtian descent, a fact that this Haïti football page did not miss when checking on his social media profile.
Spoiler: he was initially meant to be a niche scouting report player, let’s spill the beans straight away that his numbers aren’t too dissimilar to Nicolo Barella’s
Bellegarde posted his own season highlights if it’s the place you want to start (but plz come back after)
Previous episodes:
Data Viz are provied by the McLachbot, Robotic Head Of International Scouting for Chelsea Football Club (parody). Built by @ChicagoDmitry
There’ll be some fbref and smarterscout as well
And also some DataMB_ for the plotcharts
Hopefully, with a sensible use of data to back points up or give a picture, that can be taken away without making the whole thing crumbling over.
Belleguardian of the Galaxy
- “Laugh it up, Fuzzball.”
- RRWWWGG.
- “I've found another Nicolo Barella”
Quick look at his radar as a midfielder and okay, you have my attention.
So what kind of player would he be?
Some sort of two-way, end to end player able to contribute both sides of the ball
Looking at @DataMB_’s plot chart with WyScout data
Looking at players' two way contribution and flagging up 4 players - De Bruyne - Musiala - Bellingham
Defensive duel won % x Succesful attacking actions/90
Foul magnet
First and foremost:
Jean-Ricner Bellegarde is the most fouled midfielder in Europe.
He’s at the receiving end of a whopping 2.9 offences per game.
Hazard was over 3.5 in France for 3 seasons, then between 2 and 3 for Chelsea.
Taking into account attackers, that makes Bellegarde the 13rd most fouled player in Europe in 2022/23.
The reason for this is simple: he’s a bundle of energy with an extraordinary explosive power (= strength x speed) off the first few yards.
He’s also a keen dribbler
The combination of reading where the ball’s about to land, and ability to teleport himself explains why he’s often getting tripped, clipped or whacked by defenders entitled to believe the laws of relativity and physics are on their side, and therefore have a reasonable chance to get the ball first.
And yet Bellegarde catches them uh… off guard, every single time.
A glance at Bellegarde’s radar as an attacking midfielder/winger suggest he’s very much able to create rupture and danger.
Penalty winning cheat code
“If I had a player like that, I’d invite him to get inside the box and see what could possibly happen”
Sensible suggestion.
Jean Ricner Bellegarde is indeed a cheat code to win penalties,
Beating players with shoulder drops
Beating players through sheer pace
Beating players by reading lose balls first
No player won more penalties than him this season, and Bellegarde’s also quick enough to retweet it himself
Darting in the channel in typical fashion
Clip, that’s a pen. “péno” as they say
Premier League scouts must already know everything about a player that guarantees a hanful of penalties per season, like this one, getting first to a lose ball at the edge of the box.
It’s another pen, Lotomba not playing Nice on this one.
Strasbourg like to smother teams with wide pressing traps
And explode off the turnover
Bellegarde is confident enough to wait for defenders to set their (bad) footwork
Then knock past them
And wait to be brought down because he’s just too powerful off the dribble
That was initially given as a corner kick because why not, after all.
Probably another complot against Corsica.
Keen on a dribble
Bellegarde’s 1.9 succesful take ons puts him in 6th position as for midfielders’ exploits this season.
Because Bellegarde has such a diabolical turn of pace, even obvious shoulder drops have a chance to suceed.
Looking at @DataMB_'s plot chart with WyScout data
Famous names Di Maria, Musiala and Cherki look to be well surrounded here too
Dribbles per 90 x Accelerations per 90
A deeper dive at Bellegarde’s numbers indicate that he’s got 35% of his touches in final third, which is his biggest share yet both in terms of proportion and volume.
As far as dribbling prowess are involved: Bellegarde has north of 60% successful dribbles on WyScout data (below).
In terms of dribbling volume, his amount stepped up to reach 4.1 per 90s, succeding with every other one (on fbref, below)
Which is a decrease from the fairly impressive nearing two out of three ratio he had in previous seasons.
But also, he’s only tackled about 28% of time now which is a one or two in ten improvement compared to recent seasons
Obviously, nearing on 4 progressive carries matches the eye test, and equals the amount of times he brings it into final third.
Getting into the penalty area 0.6 times per game is also impressive.
The non negligible amount of misplaced touches (2.4) might be due to some of the gambles on chasing after a flick he just made, but is far from being an issue considering the chaos he creates for opposing teams.
Mateo Kovacic for benchmarking purposes
Adept channel runner
Bellegarde’s trademark run is to dart down the channels; which is what nerds call “half spaces” but is mostly the space between back four fullbacks and centre backs because space doesn’t produce actions, players do.
Most teams are built with central players who don’t like defending wide, and wingers who don’t like to tuck in out of possession.
Players like Bellegarde are there like a blade in hot butter. Just like Ramires was
Granted there’d be a side midfielder keen to track channel runs (very much PhD level tactical organisation, which might fly above Lorient’s heads - unlike the rockets sents for Moffi and Ouattara to chase for 6 months), this play would have a good chance to funnel into nothingness.
Lorient don’t really collaborate effectively from a defensive standpoint, which Bellegarde takes advantage of.
Bellegarde’s turn of pace is something really worth turning Strasbourg games on for a couple of seasons on its own
Bend it like Bellegarde
Bellegarde can bend it from distance, which makes him a good early crosser from both sides
Looking at @DataMB_’s plot chart with WyScout data
He can shot pretty well from open play and aim for the far corners
Bellegarde is also on set pieces duties
Shot from range
Quick midfielders aren’t always the ones who like a piledriver
Bellegarde’s peculiarness shows up once again: lots of succesful attacking actions, that aren’t mostly about shooting; makes him an outlier like Wirtz.
Bellegarde doesn’t limit his perspectives to shooting off his right foot.
His left footed efforts are pretty good too.
And involve his typical “banana drag” to create separation
Naturally, taking set pieces isn’t a problem either.
Bellegarde’s set piece taking make him a “True Neutral Direct Set Piece Taker” would I dare to suggest, with one taken every two game and half of them testing the goalkeeper.
Aerial box to box
Bellegarde is winning 40% of the 1.9 aerial duels he competes for per 90’
Which isn’t too bad for someone 5ft7 (1.70 meters).
His leap makes up for it, and you wouldn’t want to bump into the 70kg wrecking ball at full pace that he is.
That’s his peculiarness just here: only De Bruyne wins the most share of headers (south of 50%), amongst players with more than 5 successful attacking actions per 90.
This play starts from a switch of play, that players like Conor Gallagher or Bellegarde shouldn’t really be good at.
“Shouldn’t”, as in: most second ball / activity midfielders are usually very much focused on their direct surroundings, give and go.
A welcome invitation to broaden one’s mind, watch (a lot) of terrible football down the levels to appreciate even more players like Gallagher or Bellegarde.
Bellegarde is 5ft7 (170), Flavien Tait is 6ft1 (186)
There’s a good head differential, Bellegarde definitely goes farther up in the air than Elon’s rocket.
Picking up lose balls at the edge of the box is one thing Bellegarde does well, and has given two assists by heading the ball back into the mix.
Belleguarding the back 4
Another interesting thing about Bellegarde is that he’s sometimes deployed as a deep midfielder in the variation of 4312 or 532 that Strasbourg play.
Most high level “base midfielders” are relying on a set of skills (reading, passing, intercepting, dribbling out of pressure and especially pace) and can therefore hold different roles if required.
The real criteria is: can you run, and if you can, can you score/assist/win pens.
If you do 1. and not 2. you’re screening the defence. 2., license to get forward
None, you’re on the bench period.
Fernandinho at Mancester City is a converted winger who’s game wasn’t too dissimilar to what Bellegarde can do as a CM / winger.
Distribution
The Fernandinho parallel makes sense here, in terms of making sure to progress the ball but not fannying about with lame five yarders to “build up” (mostly re-energise the opposition behind the ball)
Progressive passes suggest he’s funneling the ball forward down the channels, and seems to enjoy a satisfactory amount of succes at connecting with people in the box.
Habib Diallo (185, 6ft1) to aim at inside the box helps, but only coupled with a heads-up cross provider who Bellegarde (170, 5ft7) definitely is.
Not just a cross spamming merchant.
The following is a good example of Bellegarde’s skillset:
Problem solving under pressure
Give and go, with swift support to whoever he’s passing to
Repeating the feat to connect with a more advanced player down the line.
The passing motion is enticing as a player who likes to get after the follow up
Getting the return pass back inside
Midfielders who can act as “can openers” are immensely valuable especially for top teams.
Theres no need to waste bandwidth and hold forth on the following
Where Bellegarde is in the top of the bottom half (like Graham Potter’s Chelsea) for passing about short/medium length, let’s say.
Five or ten points more of % accuracy might mean some more time trying to unlock teams who set a defensive shape.
That’s a double contact to slice open Nantes’ whatever defensve trap they do
Getting in the box, and using arms to not be put off balance when he’ll trigger the cross
Yeah but can he progress the play???
A look at Bellegarde’s share of accurate progressive passes % underlines the substance over style aspect of his eye for a pass.
Joe Willock is also one shadowy, ball carrier / runner who gets the ball into the box whether you like it or not.
As for “getting the ball into the box”, Bellegarde is certainly flagged up on data too:
Defensive skills
Bellegarde isn’t a *prolific* tackler, staying under one per 90 minutes.
His success % dropped 20 points between his first two and last seasons, which maybe suggests that the situations in which he’s getting into are different: central/wide, or gambling into duels*
Quick look at WyScout’s “duels won” x PAdj Interceptions have him circa 50% “duels” success
(depending on what WyScout that I’m not familiar with, include in “duels”).
Which is hardly a burden for a team.
(quick players with a burst of pace and who do read the game can be useful for a team. Marc Cucurella who is not any of these things is a drag for any team he plays for. As always: the theory, and the application/implementation. There’s enough quality footballers out there to not waste everyone’s time with a “in theory that should work” with individuals so short at the basic requirements to perform a subversive/innovative role.
Data Room
Through Smarterscout lenses, Bellegarde fares strongly in ground duels in possession and dribbling.
His passing towards goal and “recovering a moving ball” are strong.
His duel rating for duels out of possession are a solid 57 which means he’s doing allright based on who he challenges for possession.
The (non) truther that is the FBRef Scouting Report indicate that some of JRB’s actions are over the 90th percentile.
The mind is like a Barella
Left here to provoke a reaction.
I don’t watch Barella enough to know how much the comparison stands.
But in the broad ballpark of Energy Drink can-sized box to box midfielders, Bellegarde doesn’t compare too badly to the much coveted Nicolo Barella
And on WyScout data:
La Ligue des Talents strikes again
Might be worth buying Strasbourg just to have dibs on Jean-Ricner Bellegarde.
Food for thoughts. Uber Eats, preferably.
