PROFILE | Inconsistency continues to hamper Amine Gouiri at Rennes | OneFootball

24-year-old Lyon Academy product Amine Gouiri is playing his third season with Stade Rennais after the Brittany club smashed their transfer record to bring the then-France U21 international from Nice in exchange for €28m. Although this sum is beyond his control, it is increasingly difficult to justify Rennes’ outlay for Amine Gouiri given his struggles to lead the line for Les Rouge et Noir.

It is also hard to describe the areas in which Gouiri has improved in recent years since his switch from the Allianz Riviera to Roazhon Park. With Les Aiglons, Gouiri logged 47 goal contributions (28 goals, 19 assists) in two seasons. In Rennes, he has 41 in 97 appearances. Recently, Gouiri featured most of the time as a centre-forward or a second-striker, when Rennes could rely on Jérémy Doku and Désiré Doué to wreak havoc from the left wing.

Both of them left for greener pastures – Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain – while Rennes also parted ways with Martin Terrier and the essential Benjamin Bourigeaud, leaving Gouiri with the responsibility to shoulder a broader part of the team’s goal-scoring burden. Thanks to his flair and skillset, Gouiri retains the ability to score out of thin air, as demonstrated by his stunning solo goal against PSG, where he dribbled past Danilo Pereira before drilling one in Gianluigi Donnarumma’s top corner with the outside of the boot.

Gouiri is also flourishing under the tutelage of Algeria head coach Vladimir Petkovic, in the aftermath of his nationality switch. The France-born striker registered four goals and two assists in his last six AFCON qualifiers with Les Verts. Unfortunately, such a prolific output is nowhere to be found in Brittany.

Crunch time approaching for Gouiri

After a convincing pre-season and a remarkable performance in Rennes’ 3-0 rout against Lyon on Matchday 1, Gouiri hit a slump again, seemingly unable to strike a functional on-pitch partnership with a swathe of players brought in during the summer. It took three whole months for Gouiri to find the back of the net, against a surrendering 10-man Saint-Etienne side.

His former head coach, Julien Stéphan, said a couple of times how he expected more consistency from Rennes No 10, reminding him that on-pitch performances dictate the managers’ choices of personnel. His successor in the Rennes dugout Jorge Sampaoli sounds way less lenient: “I hope he can become an attacking leader but, so far, he’s not.” Will Gouiri answer Sampaoli’s call before Rennes runs out of patience in him?

GFFN | Bastien Cheval