Meet Rayan Cherki, the ultimate highlights player

Rayan Cherki’s name has been flying around the rumour mill for… well, about 3 years now. He’s one of the most technically gifted playmakers you’re ever going to see, but his work rate and desire to leave Lyon for a team that’s going to make him run more are both very much in question.

Due to Lyon’s current financial situation, he’s likely to finally make a move in the summer. The club has spent quite a bit more money than they bring in, and are being threatened with forcible relegation from Ligue 1 if they don’t get their accounts in order very quickly. And with Manchester United seriously in need of attacking talent, Thursday’s Europa League quarterfinal might function as a bit of a job interview.

Before we get into what makes Cherki really good and what his red flags are, you should watch some highlights. Because this man is, more than any other player we’re likely to talk about on this newsletter, a Highlights Player. He even admits it himself.

“Football is less watched because it's more robotic,” Cherki said in a press conference, as relayed by Tonic Radio in France. “I want to give spectators pleasure and bring back the football of yesteryear."

All that pressing and rest defense shape shit is boring. Give me some flicks and tricks.

I think Cherki is really cool and I wish there were more pure entertainers in football. But this is a newsletter about analyzing transfers, and whether or not they make sense — at a certain price, or just at all. Several teams will understandably decide that there’s no price at which they’d be interested in a guy who thinks that tactics are boring, and who his club chairman called a “little asshole.”

“Green bars” is a meme in the soccer analytics world for the data visualizations on FBRef, in which higher percentile rankings in a particular statistical category are represented by a chart where the bars get increasingly larger and darker green the better a player’s numbers are. Cherki’s popping green bars in the attacking categories, but what about the defensive ones?

RED BARS. SO MUCH BLOOD.

So Cherki is a Lyon-trained Frenchman of North African descent who can play left wing or central attacking midfield, has insane highlights, and has a terrible defensive work rate. My man is going to need to do some serious work to beat the “Hatem Ben Arfa regen” allegations.

I’ve never met either person and can’t speak to their attitudes. Maybe they’re very similar, and maybe Cherki really does not have the mentality to become a superstar in a top league. But a look at his data from this season suggests to me that Cherki is a pretty significantly more talented playmaker than Ben Arfa ever was, and is probably worth the risk to somebody.

He’s the best creative passer in Ligue 1 and the Europa League, period. He’s whooping everyone’s ass.

Cherki is a genuinely two-footed player. He passes with his left foot 56% of the time, with only two players in Ligue 1 having a more even balance between their right and left. He takes set pieces with both feet, and he’s an elite corner taker. His Ligue 1 key passes map is spicy.

And the Europa League one might be even more impressive, given the lower volume of minutes and arguably higher level of competition. This is absolutely absurd output in just 768 minutes.

Cherki also has 7 goals in Ligue 1, but from a pretty low volume of shots and total xG. This is unsurprising from a player who’s been very open about disliking how much of football is about simply scoring and preventing goals. It’s a shame, since he’s a really high quality finisher.

If a coach could get him to care more about getting into good shooting positions and taking shots, he might be one of the best attackers in the world. But paying big money for a winger/10 who takes quality shots this infrequently feels completely insane, even if he is a world class playmaker.

So, who should buy him? I would say someone who’s very desperate for an injection of quality, or someone who knows the rest of the team does so much to maximize his strengths and mask his weaknesses that the downside risks are limited.

The team that fits the first category best is Manchester United, who are in a serious pickle at the moment. They have a very small number of Champions League caliber talents, and they have an owner who does not want to spend money. They should be taking risks on potential bargain guys with high ceilings in the vein of Cherki.

In the second category, I’d say Real Madrid fit the bill. They’re loaded with guys who can score goals, press, and win the ball back in midfield. They lack a creative dynamo. There’s no better team to let Cherki be Cherki and get all of the benefits with almost none of the consequences.

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