Hatem Ben Arfa (English)

There are rumors in the last days regarding the alleged interest of Barcelona for Hatem Ben Arfa, the number 9 and leader of OGC Nice, currently fourth in Ligue 1.

Who is he?

PHYSICAL ASPECT

Ben Arfa is 29. He was born in France on March 7, 1987, in Clamart, near Paris.
He is 1,78m high and weighs 74 kg.

He is an explosive player, able to reach his maximum speed almost instantly. He is also capable to stop suddenly. Those qualities will prove very important for how he drives the ball, as we will see below.

Once launched, he is able to maintain his speed during at least 30 meters. When he has to overtake an opponent, he often uses his arms to prevent the defender from grabbing him.

Ben Arfa has very powerful hips. He is able to change suddenly the direction of his body, both standing and running. Of course, sometimes he cannot avoid slipping.

He resists well to the physical challenges, it is rare to see him fall because of this. He uses his back a lot to effectively protect the ball.

Not much can be said about his aerial game, because it is a phase of the game he is not involved with the way he plays in his current team.
 
 

TECHNICAL ASPECT

Ben Arfa is left-footed but uses the right foot frequently at any stage of the play, to control, drive - during his runs - dribble and finish.
 
Normally he controls the ball with his left foot, with the foot area that best suits him according to the orientation of his body and where the ball comes from, although he prefers the outside of his boot. 
If the ball comes strong from the left, he likes to control with his right foot leaving it in perfect condition to play it with his left foot.

He uses to control the ball by stepping on it when he receives it looking at his own goal and he cannot turn. He stands up very straight when pressed from the back, stepping on the ball and offering it to the one pressing him from the front. When that one tries to steal it, Ben Arfa passes the ball on to his other foot very quickly and then repeats the process if necessary. Sometimes it goes wrong for the required speed and the high number of opponents who press him.
If he can turn, he slows the ball with his right foot while rotating and then starts driving it towards the opposite goal with his left foot.
 
When starting with the ball controlled, he pushes it with the outside part of his left instep and alternates if required with the inside of his right foot, depending on the placement of the adversaries he finds on his way. He is able to change the direction of the ball on every touch, once tilted further to the right, once to the left, zigzagging between opponents. However by going so fast he sometimes loses the control of the ball.
 
In addition to eliminating rivals while running with the ball, leaving them behind, Ben Arfa uses 3 main dribbles when facing a defender on 1 to 1:
 
- The sudden breakthrough to the left with the outside of his left foot. He does it very suddenly, exiting very fast towards the outside. Then he places his body between the ball and the opponent.
 
 
 

 
- The "croqueta". Much longer than Iniesta's one. Starting from exactly the same body position as for the previous dribble, he throws the ball to the right with the inside of his left foot, and once the ball is beyond the reach of the opponent, he controls it with the inside of the right foot. Then his acceleration allows him to overcome the rivals. 
 
 
- The "Cruyff move". Since the opponent already knows that Ben Arfa will come out very strong on the right or the left, he therefore tends to anticipate any movement of the frenchman. Ben Arfa takes advantage of this by moving to one side, drawing the defender towards there, and once the movement of both has started, he passes the ball behind his standing leg to go to the other side and thus fool the opponent. He can do it towards both right and left.

 
 
His passing skills are great but not extraordinary. For short ones Ben Arfa uses both the exterior and the interior of the foot. It is common to see him using the outside left part at the end of a long run.
He does not give a lot of of medium-range passes, in which the ball spins a lot because he gives effect with the inside of the foot. This makes the pass very nice, but not very tense and therefore not very fast.
It is rare to see long passes from him, for which he hits the ball from below with the instep.
Ben Arfa uses the medium and long-range pass to change the orientation of the game horizontally, almost never vertically.
When he overtakes the defense on the left wing, he sends a tense and strong cross with the interior of the boot, with some spin. When he overtakes the defense on the right wing, normally close to the goal line and inside the box, he usually lobs the ball above the defense, towards the far post, and thus hits the ball from below with the right instep.

His shot is not very powerful but is usually very well placed. Normally he shoots after runs that lead him to one side or the other of the goal, inside the area. In both cases, he shoots usually not very high or directly on-the-ground near the far post, with his left foot if he comes from the left and vice-versa. If he shoots after entering the right edge of the area running towards the center, he will use a lot of spin towards the base of the left post.
When he can shoot from in front of the goal, usually just outside the box, he does it far to one side or the other of the keeper, with a tense shot but with some spin.
That shot is a lot like the one he uses when he sends the corner kicks and free kicks from the wings to the area looking for the header of a teammate. 

TACTICAL ASPECT

Hatem Ben Arfa is a very vertical player. He receives the ball and starts gaining meters, with several-touches runs, during which he corrects the orientation at every touch if necessary. He is able to run, stop, and run again. He spins around quite often. 

 

He dares to attempt dribbling in clear numerical inferiority, 1 vs. 2, 3, 4 or even 5.




 

If there is space at the the back of the opponent, he will generally throw the ball there and then win the race.

His current team, Nice, coached by Claude Puel, uses a 4-3-1-2 system. 
In this scheme Ben Arfa alternates between the position of "10" (in yellow in the snapshots) with playing as right forward, although with a lot of freedom (in red in the snapshots).

 


 

 

  

If he plays as a 10, he is very mobile and visits all three lanes - right and left wings as well as center - to receive the ball. He tends to visit more the right side from where he can cause a lot of damage to the opponent. 

 

There, in the "half-space" or close to the touchline he feels comfortable. He will try to overtake on the exterior or to run inside + on-the-ground diagonal pass to the forward.

 
 

His favorite area is the right edge of the box, from where he can enter and take-on whereas the defense fears the penalty. 

  

As both number 10 and forward, he often receives the ball looking at his own goal.

  

Normally the teams in the French league will leave time and space to turn around. But if he can't, either he gives continuity to the ball circulation with a simple pass, or he will step on the ball as we have seen before, and then do something "Neymar-like": he will start a curved run back and inside, U-shaped, towards the contrary goal.

  

  

When the ball is still in the development phase, 35 meters from the goal, and Ben Arfa decides to pass horizontally, there are two possible situations.
If he passes the ball to a teammate who is moving. Then he himself does not move after giving the pass.
But if he passes to a teammate who is standing, as soon as the ball leaves his boot Ben Arfa starts a long diagonal run to go and give a passing option in front of the one who received the ball.

  

  

Ben Arfa does not have a large pass range neither an extraordinary vision. He trusts more his runs with the ball at this feet than his long passes. He does not break reach his forwards with long aerial passes. If he passes vertically he will do it with a short or medium on-the-ground pass.

Therefore he always prefers to run and get closer to the goal and to a potential receptor, who he can passes to with a short touch.

  
 

NUMBERS

We can see that Ben Arfa is a number 10 but not looking for the “killer” pass. He wants to unbalance the opponent with long runs and a lot of take-ons. He is a vertical player and once he receives the ball he only thinks in reaching the opponent's goal.

All this is reflected in his statistics.

He is the player with most take-ons attempts in all Ligue 1, with 7.5 take-ons attempted per 90 minutes, and the fourth most successful dribbler per 90 minutes with 4.6. This means a 62% success rate, very high especially if we consider that he has no problem in trying to take-on even in clear numerical disadvantage.
But where do those take-ons take him to?
When he finished his runs he usually takes the shot, with 2.9 shots per 90 minutes, rank 21 of Ligue 1 and scores 0.6 goals per 90 minutes, sixth in Ligue 1.
As for key passes and assists, he gives only 1.0 and 0.2 per 90 minutes respectively, ranking 137th and 81st in Ligue 1.
Therefore the numbers confirm he likes to attack alone, with dribbling and shots, but his teammates do not benefit -at least directly- from his work.

WHERE WOULD HE FIT IN BARCELONA?

Assuming that Luis Enrique will continue with the 4-3-3, the three forward positions are occupied by the MSN. Therefore Ben Arfa would come to be a substitute for ... Messi. His "natural area" is similar to the "right wing-right interior" position of the Argentinian, at least when this one does not deepen his position towards the center. Ben Arfa could attack on the right wing or towards the center with diagonal runs while Suarez goes to the right.

If Luis Enrique puts Messi behind two center forwards, Ben Arfa can play as the right forward as he is does in his current club, substituting Neymar and Suarez.

But beyond "where", it is his way of playing that raises more doubts regarding his adaptation to Barça. He is currently the star of his team and can play almost always individually. He takes advantage of the spaces that the French league allows and usually succeeds in doing so.
In a context of open spaces, as we remember from the end of 2014/15 season, he would fit in the squad as a sub for Messi and even for Neymar on the left wing.
But in a context of long passing strings against very tight defenses, he would need to refrain his natural instincts. He is a player who goes from 0 to 100 once he receives the ball, looking for verticality. Would he be able to combine, find free spaces, mix horizontal and vertical? Does it make sense to ask him for certain things while he stands out greatly doing other ones?
Maybe he could be the solution to be used when Barcelona cannot open the opponent defense, using his dribbling qualities. But Neymar and Messi can also do this, and better than him since they are the two best dribblers on the planet.

We will know soon if Hatem Ben Arfa finally comes to Barça. If he does, Luis Enrique will have to find him the right spot and right use. Wait and see!