Idrissa Gana Gueye, the “machine” of PSG, must run at full speed to finally launch diesel Senegal, a disappointing favorite who attacks against Cape Verde, in the round of 16, the knockout phase of the CAN, Tuesday in Bafoussam . Impressive against Bayern Munich in the Champions League ten months ago, the Lion of Teranga received this nice compliment from his coach Mauricio Pochettino: “I told him he had been a machine“, for his propensity to pick the ball at the feet of opponents.
If in Cameroon all the mechanics of the Senegal team do not run completely at full speed, “Gana” remains one of the essential cogs, in a role “more offensive than at PSG“, he explains himself to AFP. Rudi Garcia, champion of France in Lille with Gana Gueye, loves “his volume of play for ball recovery and his level of pressing to win the ball at the opponent’s feet“. “A lot of players work on trajectories and interceptions, he goes looking for the ball at his feet, it’s a real quality“Garcia told AFP.
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This aggressive hunt, “basically it’s something i hated when i was little“, says Gana. “I liked to touch the ball more, I was more in number 10. But when I returned to Diambars, there were two very strong number 6s who did this job, I found myself a little on the bench, sometimes behind left, back right, and I saw that’s what worked“, continues the Parisian. “So I told myself that I was going to do like them, that I was going to work, the physique in training and above all to watch my teammate“, he adds.
His model was “Matar Fall, and even today when I see him I always say thank you. I was trying to copy what he was doing, how he was going to get the ball at the opponent’s feet“. Idrissa Gueye has “started to like it, and to play. And I kept working in that direction because I knew that’s what was going to work for me as a number 6. Now I like to get the ball at the opponent’s feet and then distribute and advance the game“.
He always remains calm, even when he has little hiccups
At the Diambars football school, he also played a whole season in central defense, but this time it was too low for him. “It’s true that at one point I was complaining, I went to see Jimmy (Adjovi-Boco, one of the founding directors), I told him : ‘I don’t like to play in the center of defence, I don’t touch the ball enough, I find it too easy‘”, recalls Gana. From that distant time, “he has made great progress“, salutes for AFP Fred Bompard, ex-assistant of Rudi Garcia at LOSC, where Idrissa Gueye landed at 17 from the Diambars Institute.
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“He is able to run for a long time, continues ‘La Bompe’. During recovery, he has always been like this, in harassment, he will look for the ball at the opponent’s feet“And all that with few faults.”He always remains calm, even when he has little hiccups, assures AFP Adjovi-Boco. For me, he is the ideal teammate“. Gana, his middle name, the first name of his grandfather, the one that is flocked on his jerseys, “is a wonderful boy“, for Bompard.”I loved working with him, he was much younger, and he was already a quiet force. He never got angry, always lucid.”
“Warning ! He is a good footballer, emphasizes Bompard. He’s not a last pass player, but he still participates in the construction, in support. It is very important, especially in a team like Paris which makes the game“, like Senegal. “We don’t just need artists to make a team“, notes for AFP the president of Diambars, Saer Seck. Idrissa Gueye evolves rather in the register of “warrior“, believes Adjovi-Boco, “but even if he makes mistakes, you will never see him in a fight, never in stories“. A perfectly tuned machine.
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