Ismaël Bennacer-Curator of the Van Gogh Museum
Ismaël Bennacer’s ‘mad genius’ is not a myth.
Ismaël Bennacer- born to North African parents, bred in the Proevençal city of Arles, a historic settlement situated on the banks of the river Rhône – is slowly transforming into the midfield pillar of Stefano Pioli’s AC Milan. Arles is a small city located in the region of Southern France which is famous for being the home of Vincent Van Gogh during part of his life. Perhaps you might have heard of Vincent Van Gogh, a dutch post-impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. The first thing to be said about his paintings is that it was revolutionary. It was a new kind of art.
So is Bennacer, and watching him dribble past multiple players with belief goes back to the expressionism and cult of madness Van Gogh painted in his pictures. The Algerian midfielder made his professional debut for Arles-Avignon aged 17 and was later scouted by Arsene Wenger who brought him to North London. He was a regular in their youth teams but lack of a clear pathway to the first team pushed him to secure a permanent move away from Arsenal, joining Empoli in the summer of 2017. He enjoyed great success in the 2018–19 season as he became the only Algerian player to be named AFCON Player of the Tournament in the 21st century.
Style of Play
In the current landscape of modern football, midfielders that are proficient in retaining possession under pressure and break opposition lines with progressive passes from deep have become integral. The 22-year-old possesses tremendous composure to dribble out of tight spaces and can hit defence-splitting passes from deep which enables his side to completely outfox the opposition’s press. The Algerian midfield technician has an impeccable understanding of his teammates’ positioning and movement which helps him to effortlessly shuttle across the pitch without breaking Milan’s defensive shape.
At Empoli, Bennacer was employed as a single pivot at the base of a three-man midfield which considerably benefitted from his passing range during transition situations. But, his skillset was largely restricted due to Empoli’s less expansive approach in build-up play. At AC Milan, Stefano Pioli sets his team up in a 4–2–3–1 shape which largely plays to the strength of both Bennacer and Franck Kessie. The midfield double-pivot shape offers better defensive solidity and more license for Kessie and Bennacer to alternate their runs from midfield with one holding and the other one roaming. Here in the graphic below is Milan’s basic lineup, with Bennacer slotting in as the right-sided central midfielder of the double-pivot.
On the one hand, we have Van Gogh and his expressionism which became one of the best avant-garde movement in Europe in the early 20th century. It had the image of his “madness” etched onto it. The straw man historians want to deconstruct is the myth that Van Gogh’s genius lay in his “madness”. And on the other hand, we have Bennacer who displays the exact “madness” that Van Gogh possessed in his art. I would certainly argue that this so-called “madness” present in his footballing mastery, is what distinguishes him from the rest. This probably sounds like a dangerously romantic way of putting it, but here’s the thing, I’m a firm believer that in football, creativity and madness can be held together despite the implicit tension that exists between them. Modern football is increasingly becoming more robotic and regimented in its approach, and players of Bennacer’s ilk are novelties.
Bennacer racked up the second-best pressure regains in Europe’s top five leagues in the 2018–19 season while playing for Empoli. His defensive dexterity is highlighted in his capability to win the ball back higher up the pitch. The Algerian is competent at defending compact spaces and is a tenacious ball-winner. Bennacer possesses extremely quick feet and a low centre of gravity which permits him to cause turnovers in midfield, close down passing lanes and suffocate the opposition’s second-phase build-up. The Rossoneri midfield stalwart’s defensive proficiency is evident from the below graphic.
Coaches lay a greater emphasis on training their team to progress the ball through narrow spaces, as opponents have mastered the art of blocking central channels and maintaining high levels of compactness while defending. This repudiation of space places further prominence on players like Bennacer who can thread line-breaking passes through the tiniest of spaces. As you can see below, Bennacer dinks a perfectly weighted ball over the top for Ibrahimovic, who then brilliantly lays it off for the onrushing Kessie to finish. Udinese were defending compactly and making life difficult for Milan to break the block, but allowing time on the ball to creative players like Bennacer will ultimately backfire as possess hawk-eye vision.
Room for Improvement
Bennacer can be quite erratic at times defensively as he over-commits in pressing sequences which can leave gaps centrally for opponents to exploit. It is quite ironical in a sense, as it is the same “erratic” nature of him that propels his offensive numbers, which also exposes his team during certain situations. His eagerness to win the ball back higher up the pitch does backfire when he’s up against opponents with quick feet and close control.
To be more clear, this erratic nature of Bennacer is by no means a pedantic and misleading representation of his potential and footballing brain. A problem, if you could ever call it that, is that he requires a certain bit of fine-tuning in the defensive aspects of his game. History suggests that the line between creativity and madness is a fine one and the ones who can consistently walk on this fine line are anomalies.
In 1922 the psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn published The Art of the Insane which was clearly inspired by expressionism and a cult of madness that goes back to Van Gogh himself. You don’t need to subscribe to the 1960s views of Laing and Foucault to understand this fine line. Rather, I’d hope you can agree, one needs to simply concur to the fact that grey areas exist. To conclude, Ismaël Bennacer is still young with plenty more years of continental football awaiting him, and I can clearly envision a future where he continues to develop further, along with this constantly evolving- fun to watch AC Milan side.
