Lassana Coulibaly may not be a household name, but the Mali international has the potential to form an important part of the backbone of Steven Gerrard ’s side at Rangers over the coming season.
The Liverpool legend will not expect the new addition to replicate his performances from his heyday. Coulibaly is not a footballer who has shown any knack for the spectacular, but instead he is a man that Gerrard will hope forms a foundation of a solid defence, performing a similar role to the one that Olivier Ntcham does at Celtic.
French football has specialised in producing a string of energetic central midfield players in recent years in various different shapes and sizes, from Ngolo Kante at Chelsea to Paris Saint-Germain’s Adrien Rabiot.
Of course, Coulibaly is far from that standard, but the principles of his game remain the same: win possession and use it simply.
Don’t expect a player who will take the ball and make Rangers play from deep, but do expect a combative figure who can prevent the opposition from threatening.
He arrives at Ibrox with a decent pedigree for a young man who celebrated his 22nd birthday in April, having made over 60 appearances already in Le Championnat.
Signed on loan from Ligue 1 side Angers, this is simply the latest chapter in a young career that has already forced the midfielder to adapt to many different situations both on and off the field.
He was first spotted by Bastia playing as a 17-year-old play at Feyenoord’s academy in Ghana, and the Corsican side were sufficiently impressed to snap him up on a youth contract.
So quick was his progress with their reserve team, he made his top-flight debut in France little more than 12 months later on the opening day of the 2015-16 season, shortly after his 19th birthday. Three games in, he had his first goal, taking advantage of a goalkeeping error to seal a 3-0 victory over Guingamp.
Finding the net, however, has not been a forte of the Bamoko-born player, who has only two career goals to his name. Instead, he has steadily carved a niche for himself as a typical Ligue 1 midfielder, a player whose strengths lie first and foremost in the physical side of the game.
At Bastia he was asked to plug gaps in numerous areas of the field, turning out on the wing occasionally as a defensive measure to stop opponents playing. It was a tactic that rarely enjoyed much in the way of success.
Instead, he found the centre of the park his natural habitat. Here he can show how well he breaks up play, while he has the energy to get forward and support the attack when called upon.
By the time he finally signed a professional deal with Bastia in the summer of 2016, he had 15 Ligue 1 matches behind him and the following season he played 29 times in the league, 24 from the start.
International honours followed, with his Mali debut coming off the bench against Benin in a 5-2 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier. He has played on another nine occasions since.
Relegation, however, forced Bastia into financial difficulties and they were forced to sell Coulibaly, one of their most promising players, to Angers in an ultimately failed attempt to stave off debtors. They raised €2 million with the sale.
Life proved to be more complicated at his new club, though on paper it should have suited Coulibaly as Angers favour a 4-3-3 formation that puts a premium on physicality.
His time started promisingly, but the week after he opened his account by scoring against Lille, getting up impressively for a player 5ft7 to head home a corner, he dropped to the bench and was rarely used from the start thereafter.
A lack of tactical discipline and consistency was one of the reasons given for the demotion.
He had been signed to replace captain Cheikh N’Doye, who had left for Birmingham City, and who was an immense defensive player with little interest getting forward aside from set-piece situations. Coulibaly, on the other hand, was far more eager to push on, which left the defence unprotected if he did so recklessly.
Despite a reputation as a good learner and a willing worker on the training ground, head coach Stephane Moulin preferred the greater consistency offered to him by other members of his squad and rarely turned to him again.
Glimpses of his quality were shown, though. He was one of Angers’ star players as they went to Paris Saint-Germain for a midweek match in March and came very close to upsetting the champions, going down to a 2-1 defeat but playing very well.
It is that type of performance that Gerrard will hope to make the norm at Ibrox. If he can do, Rangers fans will not only learn Coulibaly’s name very quickly, but they will be belting it in songs from the stands, too.
