World Cup Preview: #26 Senegal
Previewing Senegal's chances at the World Cup
Continuing on with previewing each of the 48 teams in the World Cup today, we are taking a deeper look at Senegal.
Senegal is on one of the best runs of anyone in international football. They are coming off a win in the Africa Cup of Nations and have not lost a competitive match since AFCON 2023. This is their fourth appearance at the World Cup, but they are in a really difficult group with Norway and France.
For those who do not know, I have my own International Ratings, which I have built over the years, and you can find them here.
At the end of this series, I will post my final rankings before the World Cup begins. In addition, I will be simulating the World Cup, which will likely be released the week before the tournament starts.
I will go in reverse order of my rankings, starting with my lowest-rated team and working up to my top-ranked team.
This will simply be a breakdown of each team. I will save my analysis for how they match up with each team for my group previews, which will come out a little closer to the week of the World Cup.
In case you missed it, check out my previous previews:
How did they get here?
African World Cup qualifying is really difficult. All countries are split into groups of six, with the top team in each group automatically qualifying for the World Cup and the top four second-place teams advancing to a second-round playoff.
Senegal finished top of their qualifying group by two points ahead of DR Congo, and it was not easy. There was a point near the end of qualifying where they were down 2-0 to DR Congo, but completely flipped the match in the second half, winning 3-2. If that didn’t happen, they very well could have missed this World Cup.
Senegal Stats
All data is from Footystats.org
There is a reason Senegal won the Africa Cup of Nations and basically hasn’t lost a competitive match in 90 minutes since the 2022 World Cup.
A lot of it has to do with their defense. Since the beginning of 2023, they have kept 21 clean sheets, 15 of which have come in their last 18 matches.
Since the 2023 AFCON, Senegal has allowed only 0.73 xG per 90 minutes and the fewest shots, behind only Morocco.
Senegal is a fairly possession-dominant team, holding over 60% possession in both World Cup qualifying and AFCON this winter. That doesn’t mean they can’t play direct, though, because they also led AFCON in fast break shots and had 31% of their passes going forward.
They also led Africa in World Cup qualifying, averaging 15.3 shots per 90 minutes.
While all of these stats are impressive, Senegal's average opponent rank is 104.35, so take these numbers with a grain of salt.
Senegal Key Players
All data is from transfermarkt.com
Note: This is the projected roster, not the official one.
Senegal is one of the most talented teams in Africa, with pretty much all of their players playing in one of Europe’s top five leagues.
The main names who have been the cornerstone of this side have entered the back end of their careers, but there is a lot of exciting young talent taking over.
Their attack is a bit frightening, led by Everton’s Iliman Ndiaye.
Everton wasn’t the best attack in the Premier League this season, but Ndiaye is a pure baller who can play a multitude of positions.
He’s one of the better 1 v 1 dribblers in the Premier League and really helps free up space for their other attackers.
There is a lot of talent in Senegal’s midfield, but their most important player is Papa Gueye. He scored the match winning goal in the final of AFCON and actually led Senegal with three goals in the tournament.
He’s been massively important to Villarreal this season as an all around midfielder and will play a very important role for Senegal at this World Cup.
image via Scout Lab
Senegal Tactics
Like I mentioned above, Senegal is a very possession dominant team and their manager Pape Thiaw puts a huge emphasis on playing through the middle of the opposition.
When they build up it is typically in a 2-3-2-3 formation with both of their wingers tucked into the half space with the fullbacks having the option of pushing forward to provide width.
When they do reach the final third, the main goal is to overload the middle with the focus on their wingers making runs in the half space.
Even though they have been dominating the ball in Africa, Senegal has a lot of pace on the break and can hit you quickly. Here they win the ball centrally and then quickly move the ball into the final third, crossing it centrally to Pape Gueye who scored right at the top of the 18 yard box.
Defensively, Senegal will press high man to man, but more often than not, you are going to see them sit in a 4-2-4 or 4-4-2 mid to low block with a high line to reduce the space inbetween the lines.
