Lucas Noubi - Another Belgian star in the making? by Vishwa

Lucas Noubi – Another Belgian star in the making? by Vishwa

Lucas Dominique Noubi Ngngokam, a center defender, joined Belgium’s Standard Liege youth team in 2015 from Royal Excel Mouscron, a professional football club in Mouscron, Belgium. Noubi joined the Belgian side at the age of ten and had to fight his way up the ranks before becoming a top and promising prospect for the club. Lucas made his professional top flight debut with Belgium’s Standard Liege in a Division 1A match against RFC Seraing at the age of 16, after spending six years with the youth team.

Lucas was born in Belgium to Cameroonian parents. Noubi chose to represent Belgium’s youth international team in their respective nations. Noubi has played for Belgium’s U15, U17, and U18 international teams, and he captained the U17 Belgium squad in the 2021-2022 season.

Having spent nearly two seasons with the Belgium side since the beginning of the 2021 season, with consistency, calmness, precision, and involvement, as well as the desire to grow into a complete defender in modern football, Noubi has demonstrated traits of improvement, maturity, and respectful morals in his quest for the badge. Defending is no longer about clearing and tackles; it is about holding on to the ball and picking out passes and position transitions in order to receive the ball back and participate in play making, and Noubi has shown significant improvement in this area over the last year. Being a centre back Noubi looks upon to act as an inverted full back by taking the ball up the field and make passes to defeat multiple opposition numbers, he is active in order to try and elevate the play and put an extra number in the opposition half and increase pressure.

Stading at 180 cm (5’11”). Lucas Noubi plays as a centre back, but depending on the situation, he frequently drifts down the left sideline. He is calm and composed when defending or applying pressure, but his lack of concentration in the game has frequently cost the Belgian, leaving him outmatched in defensive duels, and his lack of positioning awareness has made him an easy target for constructed moves such as one vs two or wall passes. When the opposition applies pressure, the defender has enough ball knowledge to move out of the way and escape the trap; however, when the second ball arrives, the defender remains flat footed, causing him to lose concentration and positioning awareness, resulting in mis-passes and clearances that could be avoided.

Noubi is a player who is not afraid to take risks and sticks to his defensive duties; he is aware and has the IQ to track passes made by opposing players; however, he reacts late and is found double-minded most of the time when challenged, giving the opposing player enough time to react and retain possession.

Noubi is always looking for ways to contribute to the build-up play, which is why he moves out of his position range as a CB. He has an urge to move up the field with the ball, but he is limited by his position on the field. He moves towards the left touch line, tries to bring the back line in to cover up the space for possession transition, but when he tries to take on the opposition players with the ball at his feet, he is limited in terms of space and time to make the next move. Noubi is a very skilled player; despite his brief top-flight career, he demonstrates high levels of intelligence, IQ, when to use his physicality and to what extent he must use it; nonetheless, his positioning and inability to stay focused in the game frequently taunt him. When given possession, he allows his opponents to increase their pressure on him.

The accompanying image demonstrates how the defender’s lack of concentration puts his team in danger. When Lucas receives the ball from his fellow defender, he immediately turns away from the opposition player’s first line, but as he does so, he makes a casual touch and goes flat foot, causing the ball to run away from him and the opposition player to win the ball before Lucas can react and go for it. It is the small moments that makes special moments in a game.

Another instance where the Belgian loses track of the game despite making top efforts in his game, he makes his run with the ball trying to open up space in the midfield as he makes his move towards the full back in the touch line, but as he sees the opposition midfielder trying to read the move, Lucas makes the pass to the attacker running in the gap; however, the opposition player was able to get a touch on the ball before it goes towards his teammate, this happened because of timing and precision of the pass. The opposing player was able to read this because Lucas had the body language of a passer, which is typically easy to read. Instead, he might have prolonged the play, enticing the opponent player to attack before completing the final pass.

The 18-Year-Old is an ideal balance of height and physicality. He is powerful, agile, and has a never-give-up attitude; he possesses the speed to recover from a duel. He has everything it takes to be a true centre back in modern football, but most importantly, he is willing to work and win back possession in every single duel, regardless of position on the pitch, rather than clearing and putting the team in safe hands at that time. Lucas is very good at reading moves and breaking down the position’s build-up play, which is why we rarely see him make a last-ditch tackle; however, he appears to be a little lazy when covering spaces or closing down on a player, which causes him to commit unnecessary fouls or harsh tackles. His attacking posture may be lacking, but he has done an outstanding job defensively, as he plays a critical part in stopping counters and switch passes that could release opposing players. The Belgian defender is good in making tactical fouls when required to prevent the move from becoming dangerous and also preventing himself from getting booked, He has to improve his positioning and awareness in order to be more efficient in aerial duels. The Belgian teenager’s only defensive weakness is his placement for aerial duels, and he must find a method to avoid becoming distracted or lazy in high-pressure situations.

On this occasion, Lucas analyses the opposition’s pass and makes his run, hoping to close down on the player, but his double-mindedness after starting his run puts him out of position, giving the opponent additional opportunity to exploit the space Lucas leaves behind. By the time Lucas gets the ball, the attacker has had enough time to beat him with a touch and release the winger on the sideline.

After Daniel Van Buyten and Dante, Standard Liege has created yet another star in the form of Lucas Noubi. Despite his young age, he is an incredible raw talent who will only blossom with more game time and experience. Considering that awareness, IQ, and fighting until the end are the players’ key abilities, if the player finds a way to improve his decision making in various areas such as making the final pass, switching the area of play, and participating in offensive duties, and work on his positioning, awareness during off-ball duties, and manages not to lose concentration, he will be able to grow significantly and find his way into Europe’s top 5 leagues.