Bradley Locko: From Paris To Première
Bradley Locko was one of the breakout stars of French football this season, following Brest’s historic qualification to the Champions League last season under Éric Roy, a historic season that the French left-back was a vital part of. But why exactly was Bradley Locko so influential for the French side last season?
The Streets Of Paris.
Locko began his career with Montrogue FC, a Parisian-based side, but before that, the Frenchman was a part of multiple different academies in the Paris suburbs, including the likes of CA Vitry and US Ivry, who are currently both owned and managed by French star Kylian Mbappe. The French left-back got his big break eventually, signing for Stade de Reims. Locko spent his first year at the club playing for the Reims reserve team.
In August of 2021, Locko made his first appearance as part of the Reims’ first team, a squad that at the time featured such talent as Wout Faes and Hugo Ekitike. The Frenchman would go on to make a further 33 appearances for the club before the arrival of notorious Belgian boss Will Still saw the minutes Locko was seeing at the start of the season start to gradually decrease, with the Belgian favouring Thibault De Smet at left-back.
Following his departure from Reim’s to join Brest on a permanent deal a little over a year ago for a reported fee of only 500,000 euros, Reims may live to regret their decision. Locko is currently one of the most sought-after young players in Europe, with clubs like Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest keen on his signature. The 22-year-old was named in the Ligue One team of the season last season, alongside names like Leny Yoro and Kylian Mbappe.
” You signed for 4 years this summer with Stade Brestois… It’s part of my development, I know that this is where I’m going to progress. After my loan spell, I spoke with the coach and Greg Lorenzi, I didn’t ask myself any questions. Brest corresponds to what I need to continue to grow in good conditions.”
Bradley Locko in an interview with Stade Brestois 29 news.
Often times players need the right environment to reach their true potential, and Locko knew that Stade Brestois was the perfect environment for him to thrive, following his decision to join Eric Roy at Les Pirates, the 22-year-old has gone on to make 33 appearances for the club, with the Frenchman starting all 33 games. Close to the end of the season last season, Brest was among the best defensive teams in Europe when it came to goals conceded, and Bradley Locko was a vital part of making that happen, with the left-back boasting the most successful defensive actions in Europe for fullbacks 21 and under.
When Eric Roy became head coach of Les Pirates, the French club were far from in a good situation. With the club teetering around the relegation zone, the job that the former Watford manager has done is nothing short of brilliant, and this brilliance involved a plan to unlock Bradley Locko’s full potential. The French manager deployed two different setups throughout the season, both with utilised full-backs in different ways.
Bombardier- The Wingback
The first system encouraged full-backs to bomb forward, becoming wing-backs by deploying a three-back defensive setup, quite similar to an Antonio Conte setup. Roy would deploy his midfielders, Lees Melou and Magnetti, narrowly to allow Locko the space out wide to bomb forward. The most interesting thing about this system is the fact that there was no right back deployed, with the right back in Lala being moved to form the back 3. This meant that the Frenchman was the only fullback in this system.
Allowing Locko to bomb forward like this meant the French fullback was always on hand to whip a ball into the box, this is why the Brest fullback ranked highest out of any player in Ligue One for crosses into the box.
The Back 3 formation is not one that Eric Roy tends to utilise, with the French manager preferring to set his team up in a Back 4 formation, This puts Brest’s fullbacks in situations where they have to deal with attackers in 1 on 1 situations, despite this, Les Pirates are still amongst the best defensive teams in the league, keeping the second most clean sheets in Ligue One behind OGC Nice, with 15 clean sheets. Despite the amount of pressure Locko faced in this system, he did not yield, with the Frenchman ranking highest in Defensive Duels for fullbacks under 21.
Eric Roy’s use of the Back 4 formation meant that in transition, Brest would employ an incredibly high defensive line, this high block isn’t a suicidal one compared to one the likes we see from Ange Postecoglu’s Tottenham, instead, Brest utilises their high defensive line to keep their opponent as far from their goal as possible, due to this setup, Brest’s wingers will usually occupy the wide areas, waiting for the midfielders to funnel the ball out wide, this leaves the fullbacks, like Locko, to act as almost midfielders, teetering around the final third in a system that looks like something akin to this
This Tactical Setup meant that offensively, the French fullback would play as an inverted full-back similar to the role Destiny Udogie plays at Spurs, this fact was only affirmed statistically. Locko ranked amongst the best fullbacks in Europe when it came to Take-Ons and Successful Take-Ons attempted, Progressive Carrying Distance and Carries into the final third, the Frenchman also ranked in the 80th percentile for Progressive Runs Made. This fact is also reflected by his heatmap, courtesy of Sofascore.
Looking at his heatmap, Locko was mostly utilised as a bombing wingback akin to Federico Dimarco at Inter Milan, however, you can also see that the Frenchman likes to move closer inwards towards the midfield in certain scenarios.
Bradley Locko is one of the most complete fullbacks in the game today at just 22 years of age, it comes as a short surprise that there are so many clubs vying for his signature, at just a 12 million euro market value according to Transfermarket, the Frenchman would also come at an affordable price, despite Stade Brest’s recent Champions League qualification.
According to a report from Football Insider, Liverpool is one of many clubs interested in the 22-year-old’s signature. With Liverpool veteran Andrew Robertson about to hit 31 years of age, Michael Edwards could view Locko as a potential long-term replacement for the Scotsman.
Tottenham Hotspur is also set to be one of the clubs potentially interested in placing a bid for the player, according to recent reports. With the similarities between the signing of Locko and the signing summer of Destiny Udogie, Spurs could be looking for a long-term backup to the Italian to add to their strength in depth this Summer.
With all these vultures swooping around the player, Locko will most likely not be focusing on any external rumours currently. With the 22-year-old gearing up to represent France in the Olympic Games in the upcoming weeks, while any dealings will potentially be stagnant for a time, there’s undoubtedly going to be movements for Bradley Locko in the future.
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