January 2021 saw the £8.1million acquisition of central midfielder Emmanuel Kouadio Koné for Borussia Mönchengladbach from Toulouse. The twenty-year-old, born in Paris, found his feet further south with the now-second division side that are on the precipice of a return to France’s top flight.
After playing a little over ten nineties in Ligue 1 last season prior to its disruption, Koné has this season broken the 2,000-minute mark under manager Patrice Garande as a number eight in the Frenchman’s free-flowing 3-5-2 system.
Ahead of this piece, I watched a handful of his performances from this season to see what makes Koné such a huge prospect, and why ‘Gladbach were so keen to get in early for the youngster.
Playing style
Attack
Movement and positioning
Koné is always showing for the ball, particularly in the first and second phases of buildup. He’s inventive in his exploration of space, and although the Frenchman scarcely scans his surroundings, his strategic underlaps, short drop-ins, and everything else relative to standard wide patterns, come like second nature to him. That goes for both his timing and execution.
This is also the case when it comes to lane shifting, which is a demand that Garande places great importance upon. Even without checking over his shoulder during his ball-facing offerings, looping in and out of the blind-sides of opponents still comes naturally to him, just as backing into the spaces between the lines does. What’s more, he frequently carries out these off-the-ball actions without unknowingly congesting the areas around the ball like most would.
His frenetic movement is always best seen right in the connecting line between deep midfield and attacking midfield. His positioning, albeit impressive in rotation, seems suited to higher roles than the number six position. He doesn’t have the prowess in attack yet, either, to willingly exploit openings ahead in as timely and aggressive a manner as he would need to, even though his vertical movements can be very impressive following deep turnovers when trying to offer a short out-ball.
Receiving
His ball-facing approach can occasionally lead to negative, closed-bodied controls of the ball that skew his angles, however, he otherwise sets himself and opens up his body in one motion perfectly using both feet. His weaker foot setting touches frequently afford him the opportunities to burst forwards and/or pass the ball at such great speed and force as he’s immediately ready to spring forwards with his stronger, right foot.
His weight of control is just as good under direct pressure since he understands how best to spread his weight and how to angle his body, which is sometimes executed as a means of springing off of his opponent with the ball. His low centre of gravity plays a big part in this and to how he’s able to U-turn in either direction so sharply on the spot to resist pressure so consistently.
The deliberacy to his weight of touch further illustrates his intelligence, as it enables him to step onto the ball at a pace that can allow him to breeze past opponents, sometimes helping to draw easy fouls.
Ball-carrying
The precision of his ball path adjustments and the timing of his touches around or beyond opposition challenges is matched by how well his ensures the other side of his body is across to either ride the challenge to propel him forwards, or to instead draw a foul.
Although his left foot is used well to maintain control of the ball in tight areas, he over-relies on his right foot across straighter and longer carries, which makes it difficult for him to always successfully hurdle these challenges when carrying the ball out towards the left side.
Pegging him back more so is his lack of foresight, as his sporadic, longer runs into narrow paths with the ball are often in sacrifice of easier options and happen without him thinking ahead to what he will have to confront. With a bit of improvement in this respect, he could become a far more lethal and confident ball-carrier against deep blocks and over greater distances on counterattacks.
Passing
Koné’s short passing is nigh-on perfect. He weights and relays them with so much precision and is so selfless in his handling of the ball, which makes him a great resource in aid of steady ball circulation. This comes to greater use out wide, where his exchanges with his back to goal often help teammates evade pressure and move inwards via the space he’s helped create.
Right-footed reliance remains the only blemish in this sense as it can hold back his otherwise superb combination skills that are facilitated by his high-level operation speed, even in spite of the minimal scanning he does. These combinations largely happen either side of the opponent’s midfield line, and are rarely much higher.
Where he has conveyed a little bit more hesitance and reluctance is in certain mid-range passing situations where he has the chance to play through narrow channels, however, his long-range passes are much less symptomatic of this.
Through balls – particularly ones along the ground – are most often played inside of defenders and are so exquisitely-weighted and directed, which can be devastating on counters.
Koné has a similar speed of thought when it comes to aerial balls but his sliced technique negatively impacts the weight and speed of the ball, despite their consistent levels of accuracy in direction. This also impacts regular switches, but the speed and weight of his passes from side to side along the ground prevail.
Goal threat
As mentioned already, his movement lacks in terms of central penetration against opposition defensive lines, however, he’s quite willing to take on shots from long distances, and is very good at finding the target regularly.
Koné’s technique involves him cutting across the ball with the mostly the outside of his boot, no matter the angle, which often leads to a lack of precise placement and conviction, yet he’s still able to generate an impressive amount of power and accuracy – enough to find the net on occasion. Close-range shots are also quite weak, with a purely open-bodied approach, but one where he lets the ball hit him, and so doesn’t prioritise placement much at all.
Defending
Pressing and counter-pressing
Koné is unrelenting in his pressure out towards whomever is in front of him. An absence of scanning means he can be quite reckless, yet his aggression towards ball-holders has been successful in forcing early decisions that have worked in his team’s favour.
His technical approach, however, too often disregards his opposite number, and is made worse by his narrow body shape and the way he fixates his press towards one, narrow direction. This is further impacted by his ball-watching, which sees him leave spaces exposed deep in midfield and allows him to be easily bypassed, especially given that he chases the ball’s literal path, rather than assessing the space and anticipating the ball’s next movement.
Especially during counter-presses, he too frequently feigns to curve his press using his cover shadow only to detach from it, which dismantles his approach play and thus sees him fail to suffocate his opponent in any meaningful way.
Man-marking and zonal coverage
Ball-watching is what allows his opposite number to frequently drift away from him into simple pockets of space, which makes it easy to expose the space to the side and then behind him in quick succession. The lack of accountability for the space left open between the lines makes it easy for many players to dribble directly past him.
Similar to earlier, he too easily neglects opponents’ movements forwards from deep without communicating it to his teammates. His back-tracking lacks in intensity and awareness and leads to his opposite numbers having the chance to push into space, and even the box, free of pressure, since his retreats begin to gravitate towards the ball-side, which have then led to several big opportunities being conceded.
His most intense retreats mostly occur down the line or in situations where he’s already in direct contact with the opponent, and so has a greater incentive to keep up with play.
Tackling
The above prevents him from engaging in close-quarter scenarios very often yet his tackling technique can be very good. He’s equally aggressive in his challenges from just about any angle, but without overstepping the mark.
He spreads himself well, albeit square-on, and is light enough on his feet to be able to shift his body in a fashion far superior to the way he is otherwise. Well-timed standing lunges and his willingness to hurl his body across his opponents at any given opportunity are the main ways in which he most effectively dispossesses them.
Right-footedness, though, again negatively impacts him since lunging with this side of his body towards the left side means it takes fractionally longer to shift his body across, it reduces his stretch, and makes it harder for him to recover from.
Set-pieces and aerial ability
For someone with such a low centre of gravity, Koné stands at a surprising 6ft1, which has helped make him a solid aerial competitor. He puts his upper-body strength to great use in many of the duels he puts himself up for and has a good enough leap to consistently win headers against strong opposition.
This isn’t utilised much in either box, though. He can struggle to keep tabs on his opponents at defensive set pieces, like in open play, so instead has been made to man the near post or the edge of the box. The same being the case during attacking set-pieces.
Conclusion
Right now, Koné appears best-placed to be a link player as part of a midfield three, but a role just off of a sole number six seems potentially optimal given his ball-progressing skills.
The brands of football showcased by both the Bundesliga and, more specifically, Marco Rose’s potential successor Adi Hütter, are aspects that could help move Koné up a few more gears since his most dynamic and devastating plays often come in attacking transitions, of which there are plenty to feast upon in Germany.
The fact that his rawer traits could certainly improve in the very near future marks his ceiling at a very high level already, especially with certain areas displaying untapped potential (e.g. his creativity), and the fact that his skillset could be well adapted to various game states. So, there’s definitely the possibility that the twenty-year-old could reach the heights of Champions League football eventually.
However, his fleeting concentration span and involvements in play, or lack thereof, with and without the ball, will likely be huge, deciding factors in whether or not even bigger sides take a gamble on him, given the fixation on work rate in today’s game. Right now, the notability of Koné’s lacklustre work rate is all too noticeable when he’s having an off-day, which could be a persistent deterrent, especially if the few defensive qualities he possesses don’t translate to a higher league, where players and teams could more intelligently pinpoint his flaws.
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