Lassad Nouioui Callup on the Horizon?

Just when you thought our options up front were becoming clearer, another striker has entered the frame. The player in question is the Marseille born Lassad Nouioui, who signed his first top division professional contract with Deportivo La Coruna at the ripe age of 23 two weeks ago after arriving from Chateauroux. The Ajaccio product has started two games in La Liga and is yet to score but was cheered off the field by the Depo faithful both times he was subbed off. It doesn’t take too many looks at him with the ball to see that he has some real potential. He may be a late bloomer of sorts but he’s picked quite a time to make his presence known to the Tunisian technical staff.

Tall and leggy (6′2), his build and skill set remind me of a poor man’s Van Nistelroy. Considering how clinical and accomplished the Dutchman is, that’s definitely not an insult to Lassad. I reference Ruud because Nouioui seems to welcome the comparison in this video by saying his name and Berbatov’s. I don’t speak Spanish but from what I pieced together he’s essentially saying he has a similar style and models his game after them. That’s certainly not a bad place to start.

I caught the second half of his game against Valencia on Sunday and was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. While he hasn’t didn’t showcase any of Ruud ruthlessness (he hit the post in his first game but thats the closest he’s gotten so far), I did see elements of Berbatov’s excellent hold up play. He is not as elegant and fluid in his movements as the Bulgarian but his dribbling is better than you would expect from someone with his frame and his first touch and ball coverage were notable.

Update

I just got to watch the first half of the match right after I finished writing and I think I was harsh to say he wasn’t as elegant as Berbatov. He may not be as good as Berbatov right now, but he’s definitely elegant on the ball. The GoalTV commentators couldn’t stop talking about him.

So inevitably the question is this: If he keeps this up, do we call him up for the Kenya match? For me there’s only one answer and its a resounding yes for a few reasons:

1. Under Lemerre people rightly complained about the European selection bias in the squad. What they were really complaining about wasn’t so much the fact that the players were mostly on European teams or had European backgrounds themselves, it was that we were picking bench warmers over domestic starters not based on merit but only because they played in foreign leagues. Thankfully, this doesn’t apply to Lassad or the majority of our current expats.

2. We don’t have many players with his profile. Aside from the young Hichem Essifi and Ben Dhifallah (I don’t consider Chikhaoui a centre forward no matter what Lemerre wanted to tell us), we don’t really have the tallest strikers. Some people salivate at the thought of an Allagui/Chermiti pairing up front but the quickness of both players doesn’t make up for the lost muscle. Both these players would likely be more effective matched with a physical presence in attack. In the last few NT games, Chermiti has been employed as somewhat of a left winger or wide left striker and he’s just looked misplaced. He’s not a guy the plays with his back to goal. He thrives when the ball is played into space ahead of him so he can exploit his speed and leave defenders wondering where he went. If he has a big man to take the attention of him and play off of, he would benefit greatly. Its not a stretch to say that Allagui would too.

3. He’s already said he wants to play with us and made the declaration recently when all the press has been inquiring about his nationality (early tv reports have announcers calling him a player of Moroccan decent). This article will show you his heart is in the right place. He sounds genuine to me. Plus he has been was in touch with Habib Mejri well before he signed the pro contract, supposedly having sent him 3 DVD’s of his games with the Depo B team (I say supposedly because I obtained the information from the Tunisie-Foot forum where someone wrote about meeting up with Mejri and discussing Chikhaoui and Nouioui).

Now a lot of people in Tunisia are going to complain that its too late to incorporate a new player to the already unseasoned mix. However, Coelho has already prepared for this in that he’s publicly stated his rationale on making additions to the team (80 percent of untouchables and 20 percent leeway to take players who are in form). Lassad would simply fit into the latter category.

I’m not saying we should start him or anything. The match in Nairobi would be his first in Africa and the perhaps his first in such heat and altitude. Grouped with ten other players who are unfamiliar to him in such an environment is not what you would call a recipe for success. Yet taking him with us on the trip would be a great way of getting him to meet the team and make some connections. It also never hurts to have a tall player on the bench who has been described as “deadly” (if you believe wikipedia). If he can acclimatize quickly, I have a strong feeling that he could become a very important player for us.

In Other News

- Youssef Mouihbi is running again and is aiming to be back for the last couple games of the season for Club Africain by his own admission. Best of luck to him!

- Tunis is in full derby mode. If you’re going to the “classico de la capitale”, I am very jealous. With the city rivals within one point of each other at the top of the table this late in the season, it’s going to be an intense match to say the least. A championship is potentially at stake.

- A word of caution to Esperance, Club Africain and fans alike: Etoile is only four points away from the top spot and there’s six games left. Nothing has been decided. All I know is that its going to be a thrilling end to the season like last year and I’m going to enjoy every second of it!