Scout Report: The Tunisian midfield destroyer out to inflict more misery on England

Tunisia start their campaign at the 2018 World Cup against England looking to avenge their 2-0 defat to the Three Lions at France 98’. This summer will mark Tunisia’s first appearance at a World Cup finals since 2006 and Nabil Maaloul’s side have been handed a tough draw.

After Monday’s encounter with England, Tunisia will play Belgium before concluding Group G against minnows Panama. Tunisia have not progressed from the group stage of a World Cup in four previous attempts and their hopes of changing that that are slim.

They can take solace from the fact England are relatively unpredictable at major tournaments, disappointing more often than reaching their immense potential. Gareth Southgate has tried to implement a new fearless approach to England’s play and it will be up to Tunisia to disrupt that on Monday night.

England have been tipped to start Dele Alli, Jesse Lingard and Jordan Henderson in midfield for their World Cup opener, which will place a lot of pressure on Tunisia’s defensive midfield pairing of Ferjani Sassi and Ellyes Skhiri.

The former plays his club football in Saudi Arabia, while the latter emerged as an important player for French side Montpellier. Skhiri finished last season as Montpellier’s second highest WhoScored rated player (7.13) and the onus will be on the 23-year-old to flourish against England.

Skhiri was actually born in France but committed his international future to Tunisia at the start of the year after electing against trying to represent the country of his birthplace. He only made his first-team debut for Tunisia in March and has only been capped five times, but he could already prove their most important player on Monday.

No player aged 23 and under won possession in the middle third more times than Skhiri in Ligue 1 last season (143), which bodes well for his chances of disrupting the flow of England’s passes into Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling.

Skhiri hasn’t opened his account at international level, but did score four league goals for Montpellier last season and could prove an added goal threat for Tunisia during the World Cup. Don’t expect the defensive midfielder to pop up with a goal from close range, instead preferring to do damage from outside the box.

31 of the 39 shots Skhiri attempted in Ligue 1 last season were from outside the box and it’s no surprise that three of his four goals were as a result of a shot from distance. In fact, only a handful of players scored more Ligue 1 goals from outside the penalty area than Skhiri last term.

Predominately, however, Skhiri’s first instinct will be to marshall Tunisia’s back four and prevent England from carving out any meaningful goalscoring chances. It will be difficult for the north African side, but they have a chance to upset the apple cart given England’s recent performances at World Cup finals.