A six at youth level, his minutes in senior football have come as an eight, where he has the freedom to move between both boxes, linking play with his passing and breaking it up with tenacious defending. Johann Lepenant is an up-tempo player, which makes up for his relatively small stature. He is a very nimble athlete – able to twist and turn to suit the situation, and quick over short distances – but lacks strengths in contact. He definitely has room to fill out his body over the coming years.
Most of what he does on the ball is executed at quick tempo too, his passing in particular. He is adept at creating angles to receive the ball at any level of the pitch and is able to control it with clean, positive touches that often lead directly into his next action. His technique is compact and crisp which, when coupled with his good awareness and vision, enables him to punch the ball into different zones. At youth level, he consistently showed excellent passing over range too when receiving the ball in deeper areas. In general, Lepenant’s mobile passing provides an efficient, effective method of progressing possession.
That tenacity is a big factor in Lepenant’s defensive skillset too, and it makes up for his lack of physicality. He has a very good work ethic, cconstantly pressing, recovering and engaging with the ball which is reflected in his league-leading defensive metric outputs. He reads and reacts to play very well, impressive for his age, and uses his sharp accelerations to compress space quickly.
But he is often too quick for his own good, especially when engaging in duels. His own tempo is used against him, with simple touches eliminating him from situations. Slowing down in approach, simple improvements in technique and a bit more robustness in contact would make Lepenant a very effective ball-winner, even at the higher levels.
There are similarities between Lepenant and Maxence Caqueret: diminutive midfielders and prominent youth internationals that make up for their lack of size with high-level, up-tempo tenacity. He could certainly play in Ligue 1 right now, and will do so in the near future, and there is little to suggest that Lepenant couldn’t reach the levels Caqueret is currently playing at.
