Scouting Report: Yacine Brahimi (Latest Arsenal Target)

Arsenal seem to be lining up for a big money move to sign the Algerian attacker Yacine Brahimi from FC Porto. The 25 year old only joined the Portuguese at the start of this season after impressing with stints in France and Spain. Brahimi has stated that his idol was Zinedine Zidane and he would try and emulate the French legend in the streets of France as he grew up in Paris. While he has sparkled in various leagues, it could be time for him to work under another Frenchman, Arsene Wenger who could make the move to sign the coveted attacker.

What does he bring to the team?

The 25 year old primarily plays in the attacking role and has been deployed as winger for most of his career. Yacine is right footed but like most wingers in this day, he plays on the opposite flank and cuts in to make a run in at goal. He is adaptable to play at other positions and has featured in a more central attacking role when required by his team.

His greatest asset is the ability to dribble with the ball; he is blessed with technique and control and has been known to make marauding runs down the flank and cutting in on goal. The other great feature of his runs is that he does not get fouled a lot of times, showing that he can evade the tackles and he can put the ball in for his team mates more often than not.

However that should have been the case but his final product is not the best and often his runs end up producing nothing special for his team mates. That is one place where he really has to work on, he has the pace and ability and if he does provide that final ball properly, he could really cause a headache to may defenders.

Another place for him to work on is his shooting which often lets him down, he also has a really poor shot conversion ratio and his poor finishing has been a let-down quite a few times for the Algerian. Brahimi is not the finished article under any circumstance, he can be considered as a Bolasie or Zaha, he has the tricks up his sleeve but he needs to know when to use them and just how to become a better finisher and producer with the ball, he often reminds people of a young Theo Walcott who would run but would not be able to finish.