Toulouse have a long and proud history in French football, having won the Ligue 2 three times and qualifying for the UEFA Champions League after finishing third in the top flight in 2008. However, in recent years, the club has struggled to maintain its status as a top-flight team and was relegated to Ligue 2 in 2020. The club have bounced back in impressive fashion and earned a promotion to Ligue 1 this season after finishing first in Ligue 2 in 2021/22. They are currently 11th on the table with 32 points from 25 matches played. The team is five points behind Reims and 11 points clear of the danger zone. We will take a look at the stats showing how Toulouse have managed to sustain themselves in the French top flight.
Overall performance in the league
The viz above shows the percentile rank of the team’s stats in comparison to other teams in Ligue 1 in 2022/23. They possess a decent rank with respect to scoring goals, opposition penalty area entries, key passes, opposition xG per shot, recoveries per 90, and passes per defensive action. The team has won nine, drawn five, and lost 11 matches and has found plenty of success going forward in the top flight. The team can improve in areas such as pass accuracy, shots per 90, and achieving success while putting pressure on the opponents.
Toulouse in attack
Toulouse have been scoring goals for fun and have plenty of firepower in their squad. The team has ten different players who have gotten on the score sheet, with major contributions coming in from players such as Dallinga, Van de Boomen, Aboukhlal, and Rafael Ratao, who have combined to score 25 out of the 41 goals. The club is one of the six teams that have scored more than 40 goals in the top flight so far and ranks sixth in the league in terms of goals scored per 90 minutes (1.71).
The above xG map shows that Toulouse have been successful in penetrating the six-yard box frequently. This has resulted in decent form for the team. They will definitely look to draw motivation from their ability to score goals to sustain their newly-found momentum and climb further up the table. They have scored most of their goals from around the six-yard box. They have also managed to take quite a few shots on target from outside the box. They are successful in taking shots from hazardous locations inside the penalty box, which raises their xG. Toulouse have an average xG of 1.63 this season and an average of 41.8% shot accuracy, taking 11 shots per 90 minutes. They are ranked second in the league for xG per shot (0.15), ahead of PSG and Marseille, who are the top two teams in Ligue 1. They have plenty to boast about going forward.
Defensive actions
The graph above depicts the stats for Toulouse’s defensive territory in Ligue 1 in 2022/23. They have 37.8 interceptions per 90 minutes. It indicates that they are involved in a lot of defensive actions in the defensive third. The team gives up 12.2 fouls on average and wins 58.7% of their defensive duels. The team concedes 1.8 goals on average, which has been a reason why the team is not complete this season. They have conceded 45 goals in the league so far. The team has blocked a total of 79 shots in all matches and has fared poorly in other departments while defending. Most of their blocks have come from outside the penalty box from long range, which is an indicator of gaps in the middle of the park that allows other teams to penetrate much more easily. They have conceded ten goals in their last five outings, which shows their poor form in defence.
Last time out in the French top flight
The above viz shows the shot map for Toulouse from the 2019/20 Ligue 1 season. The team were relegated to Ligue 2 following the end of the season, having scored only 21 goals from a total of 288 shots in the top flight. They were also ranked last in terms of xG per shot. It can be seen that the reason behind their downfall has been worked upon by the club, and now the team is scoring for fun and has one of the best xG per shot in Ligue 1 this season.
Overall, Philippe Montanier’s men have not been able to find the right balance between scoring and conceding. The team has been a threat in the future, but it has yet to grasp the defensive requirements of the French top flight. The team will look to stay in the top tier and hopefully make it into the European stages in the coming seasons.
Visuals via TFA data viz engine
