Meet Michael Olise, the conductor of France’s mighty offense
Olise leads the tournament with five assists, playing a central role in France’s attack
France’s Michael Olise nearly had the goal of the World Cup.
In a match against Sweden on Tuesday, a deflected pass soared upward toward the forward, who was unguarded in the scoring box with his back to Sweden’s goal. He spun around, tracked the ball, and — body parallel to the ground — unleashed a daring bicycle kick. The ball ricocheted off the far post, denying him a spectacular goal with a high degree of difficulty, given his distance from the goal and adjustments he had to make to shoot. France went on to win, 3-0, anyway.
Not surprisingly, “Michael Olise” started trending globally on social media platforms, with over 150,000 mentions that, as of Wednesday morning, have appeared in the social feeds of 1.8 billion users. If you have been watching the World Cup and had not yet heard of Michael Olise, chances are you have now.
Olise — featured in NGN’s World Cup preview as a player to watch — is an all-world footballer and a prolific scorer. But for Team France, he’s the conductor of the team’s high-powered offense featuring three other explosive forwards: Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, and Bradley Barcola.
Positionally, Olise has played the right center position in the middle of the pitch for France, where he can receive passes, orchestrate the tempo of the game, and find teammates with through balls — passes made into open space and between defenders — to set up scoring chances.
The graphic below shows where Olise has primarily played during France’s first four games; he’s the dot circled in red, with red lines showing all the passes that have come his way.
Olise, playing in the middle, has unleashed his and his teammates’ strengths. He leads the tournament with five assists, three of them for Mbappé — whose six goals tie him with Argentina’s Lionel Messi, who has played one fewer game.
The graphic below shows the progression of play leading to Olise’s assist on Mbappé’s second goal against Sweden on Tuesday. Olise receives a pass from Barcola, cuts sharply to his left and makes a left-footed through pass to Mbappé for the score.
Not only does Olise govern the pace of the game, he’s also one of the hardest workers on the team. He averages 50.5 sprints per game, the highest of anyone on France’s team in this World Cup.
Data analysis provided by Brennan Klein, director for Northeastern University’s NetSI Sport research group.
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