Albion Analytics: Reviewing Olivier Boscagli's game

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The defender's numbers make for excellent reading.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2025-08-06T07:00+01:00

Olivier Boscagli came through the youth ranks with Nice. 📸 by James Boardman.

Fabian Hurzeler strengthened his defence for the new season with the arrival of Olivier Boscagli from PSV Eindhoven.

“We like his versatility — he can play in several positions,” Hurzeler said of the defender. His appearances at PSV were split primarily at centre-back (166), but he filled in a left-back (19 times) and defensive midfield (13 times) too, much in the way Albion academy graduate Benjamin White played a versatile role during his time here.

Boscagli spent six seasons at PSV Eindhoven, moving there from Nice in 2019, having graduated from their youth set-up, and enjoyed plenty of success in the Netherlands.

He won the title in 2023/24 and successfully defended it last season, with PSV in 2023/24 the best title-winning team in Eredivisie history (91pts, which broke Ajax’s 89 from 1997/98). Boscagli was part of a defence which conceded only 21 goals in 34 games that term.

Two Dutch cups and three super cups also came in his time at PSV, and he has only finished outside the top eighth in a league season once in his career — 11th with Nice in his breakout season aged 16. Such has been the domestic success of Boscagli’s teams, he has made a combined 36 appearances across the Champions League and Europa League.

Olivier Boscagli joined Albion from PSV. 📸 by James Boardman.

The 27-year-old has developed a reputation for stylish line-breaking and fantastic passing numbers. In each of the past two Eredivisie seasons, he has played the most progressive passes of any player (363 last term, 374 in 2023/24), while he returned a phenomenal six assists from centre-back when PSV retained the title last year.

He proved that on the final day when PSV won the title away to Sparta Rotterdam. Boscagli set up the opening goal for Ivan Perisic with a deep, back-post cross.

Boscagli ranked among the top ten percent of Champions League centre-backs last season, per game, for passes attempted (79.8), progressive passes (7.8), interceptions (1.9), long passes attempted/completed (15.8/11.5), and switches of play. He has shown a penchant for a defence-splitting pass, too, ranking sixth in the Dutch top-flight in 2024/25 for through balls (12).

Since 2018/19, Boscagli accounts for five of the eight instances of a PSV player attempting 100+ passes in a Champions League or Europa League game: 102 and 105 vs Sturm Graz in 2023/24; 104 vs Rangers in 2023/24; 111 vs Panathinaikos in Nov 2020; 110 vs Girona in Nov 2024.

The Frenchman made over 200 appearances for PSV. 📸 by James Boardman.

He may be slight for a central defender (5ft 11in) but Boscagli is no slouch when it comes to duelling — even if his super-strength is his on-ball contributions. Last season he won 34 of 43 challenges contested against dribbling opponents, an excellent success rate of 79.1%, while his aerial duel success rate has exceeded 60% in the past two terms.

A sign of his intelligence of when to step in and when to sit off, plus his clean tackling technique, is that Boscagli has won more fouls than he has committed in each of the past two seasons.

The past two seasons have been the best in his career too for availability, clocking over 3,400 minutes across all competitions in both.

All things considered he is in the form of his career after a knee injury kept him out for over 300 days and 40 games from April 2022 to February 2023. And he did not cost Brighton a penny to sign.