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Scouting: Said Benrahma

The Algerian ace causing chaos in the Championship.

By Potential PuntsPublished 4 years ago 3 min read
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Picture Credit: Google Images

A cog in Brentford's attacking trident, Said Benrahma operates as a left winger acting mostly as an inside forward. A very technically gifted player and still young, aged only 24, Benrahma should be playing Premier League football make no doubt. With the likes of Bryan Mbeumo and Ollie Watkins also in Brentford's attacking line-up, Benrahma has many outlets for his outstanding creativity. Most definitely a creator more than anything else, let's see what makes the Algerian so valuable to The Bees.

10 goals and 7 assists for Brentford's 2019/20 league season comes to a goal contribution every 162 minutes, with Benrahma having played 2,700 league minutes. You'd expect his numbers to continue this upward trend were the Championhip to have continued rather than be stopped due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the free-scoring Brentford side, Benrahma scored a hatrick against Hull City in a 5-1 smashing and also bagged 2 assists in a smashing of Sheffield Wednesday which finished 5-0 to The Bees. This should come as no surprise however, with Ollie Watkins having scored 22 league goals and Bryan Mbeumo scoring 14. Mammoth scoring numbers and what comes as even more of a surprise, is that strike partner Ollie Watkins has assisted Bryan Mbeumo 4 times, Sergi Canos 3 times and Mathias Jensen 3 times. No surprise Brentford have scored the joint most goals in the Championship with 64 then, a total of 1.7 per game.

But enough about the other players, Benrahma is considered the player that brings the flair to Brentford with his stunning dribbling ability. A monster 3.1 dribbles per league 90 places Benrahma second in the league in that metric. Partner this with 2.2 key passes (quantified by a pass that leads to a goalscoring opportunity) per game, you can see that Benrahma has the potential to drive the ball up the pitch and create goalscoring chances for his team. His key passes per 90 also places him 6th in the league in that metric. 3.7 of Brentford's 14.3 shots per game means Said is contributing to 38% of shots per league game. Monster output in the Championship.

Valued by Transfermarkt at £9.45m, Benrahma would cost a little more, with a transfer to Arsenal being touted in January 2020 for £20m. Benrahma could easily slot into many starting eleven's in the Premier League, but Brentford could demand a pretty penny for their Algerian star. Were they to achieve promotion, you could argue that Said could stay in his comfortable surroundings and fight for Premier League survival.

Alternatively, Arsenal could come back in and try to claw Benrahma to The Emirates, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang expected to leave in the summer of 2020 and Alexander Lacazette not impressing in the 2019/20 season. Benrahma would bring a lot of creativity from the left hand side, but would be challenging academy graduate Bukayo Saka for a starting berth. With the youngster impressing and being courted by some of Europe's elite clubs however, Arsenal would be wise to play the Englishman over the Algerian.

A transfer abroad could be on the cards for Benrahma, with an interesting outlet being Real Sociedad. With Martin Odegaard breaking through this season and becoming Sociedad's creative force, Benrahma could fill that hole once Odegaard's loan move comes to an end in the summer of 2020. Whilst Said would be required to operate more centrally, filling in the #10 role once the Norweigan goes back to Real Madrid. He wouldn't cost too much either.

A move to Roma could be on the cards for Benrahma, with Arsenal interested in Dutch winger Justin Kluivert. Benrahma would be a straight swap for Kluivert, and would perhaps fit into The Giallorossi setup with little difficulty. With the likes of Edin Dzeko in front of him too, he'd be supplying his creativity to one of Europe's elite but ageing strikers. None-the-less, it'd be a progressive signing by Roma.

It can definitely be concluded that Benrahma is one of the Championship's best players, so keep an eye on his career path in the follwing months.

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About the Creator

Potential Punts

I’m a massive football fan interested in statistics! I hope you all find the new scouting content to be interesting, and I’ll be posting as often as I can. Hope you all enjoy the content!

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