Over a fortnight ago, Plymouth Argyle confirmed the arrival of Ayman Benarous. The 21-year-old, formerly of Bristol City, signed a deal following a successful trial period, and was able to join his new teammates as a fully contracted player on the recent tour to Austria. And as a former Bristol City player, he wouldn’t have been too perturbed by the various red and white national flags waving in and around Innsbruck.
I’ll be honest, this is one of the most difficult pieces I’ve had to write in quite a while. As far as I can recall, not since Argyle loaned Lino Sousa from Aston Villa has a player arrived at the club with so few senior minutes. Benarous has played just 682 in his career (to contextualise, five minutes fewer than Adam Forshaw managed at Argyle last season alone), all of which came in 12 appearances in the 2021/22 season. Drawing any conclusions about his style of play, or his abilities, is borderline impossible on that basis.
Still, it’s not as if I’m doing anything else during pre-season. So let’s take a look at Benarous, assessing his career to date, and seeing if we can take anything at all from the stats he’s posted.
A troubled history
Look up Benarous on whichever search engine takes your fancy, and you won’t be hit by too many relevant results. His Wikipedia page has a section on his Algerian descent, and how his father owns a popular takeaway in Bristol. Upon further research, that should be in the past tense, as “Quigley’s” has now shut down, much to the disappointment of drunk Bristolian students at a loose end on a night out. But we’re not here for chippies, we’re here for football, so I’ll move on.
Alas, a search for Benarous does return some results about his career, but not many are particularly pleasant. As has been covered at length since he arrived at Argyle, he’s had awful luck with injuries throughout his career, culminating in him missing three crucial years of development, and game time.
As you may well already know, Benarous suffered a footballer’s worst nightmare in 2022: an anterior cruciate ligament rupture. An injury like that can often be enough to completely alter a player’s career at any stage, let alone when they’re only 18 and in a key development phase. Benarous’ rehabilitation was predictably long, and he slowly made his way back to fitness…before, unbelievably cruelly, he suffered yet another ACL rupture.
Having been through one of the most hellish injury spells I’ve ever come across, Benarous took part in pre-season training at Bristol City last summer. However, even that would prove to be a false dawn. In August 2024, he suffered a hamstring injury in a development game, and it turned out to be incredibly serious. He only returned to training in April and Bristol City, totally understandably, didn’t find themselves in a position to offer him a contract extension.
Benarous last played a competitive game in April 2022. To put that into perspective, it was on the same day Argyle lost 5-0 to Milton Keynes on the final day of the season to miss out on the play-offs. Ryan Law, Luke Jephcott and Steven Sessegnon were in Argyle’s lineup that day, with Romoney Crichlow and Finley Craske amongst the substitutes. It feels like it was from a different era and, in many ways, it absolutely was.
You can never be sure how a player will return from a single serious injury, and whether they’ll be the same player they were before the incident. Three serious injuries? You may as well flip a coin. Of course, taking the player on trial made complete sense for Argyle, and I’m encouraged by the noises coming out of the club about his abilities. Head coach Tom Cleverley praised Benarous’ performance in various fitness tests, suggesting at least that he didn’t spend much of his rehabilitation in his dad’s chippy.
For Argyle’s sake, and even just on a human level, I hope Benarous is indeed over the worst of his injury concerns, and that he can rebuild his career at Home Park.
Anything from the stats?
Regular readers will know I love to throw numbers in wherever possible. Usually, there is plenty to take from a player’s stats, and we’re often able to draw firm conclusions about their playing style and abilities. Naturally, I’m led to wonder whether there is anything we can take from Benarous’ numbers from the time he did get on the pitch at Bristol City.
If I’m completely honest, the answer is probably “no.” Benarous has only ever played 12 senior games and, as we’ve established, they all came several years ago. 682 minutes isn’t really sufficient to judge a player’s season, let alone his full career. Any inferences we can make from his stats across those minutes ought to be taken with a significant pinch of salt.
Nonetheless, I’m still a nerd, and that’s not going to stop me taking a little look at the numbers. The first thing I’ve noticed will sound familiar: Benarous loves a battle. Across his senior career to date, Benarous has won an average of 6.07 ground duels per 90 minutes. He’s another arrival this summer who ranks highly compared to Argyle’s crop from last season, placing behind only Ibrahim Cissoko.
| Player | Ground Duels Won per 90 |
| Ibrahim Cissoko | 8.17 |
| Ayman Benarous* | 6.07 |
| Darko Gyabi | 5.32 |
| Caleb Roberts | 5.16 |
| Adam Forshaw | 4.98 |
| Joe Edwards | 4.92 |
And it’s the same story with fouls. Again, only Cissoko won more fouls per 90 than Benarous, suggesting he has no problem putting his body on the line for the cause.
| Player | Fouls Won per 90 |
| Ibrahim Cissoko | 3.08 |
| Ayman Benarous* | 2.51 |
| Matty Sorinola | 2.25 |
| Darko Gyabi | 2.15 |
| Adam Forshaw | 1.97 |
| Morgan Whittaker | 1.75 |
Where am I less convinced? Well, he hasn’t yet shown his ability to be strong in possession. His pass success across those 12 games was 66%, which is below Argyle’s figure last season despite them playing hoofball for much of the campaign. And even though he’s shown a willingness to get involved in duels, he hasn’t necessarily won them convincingly. His ground duel success rate of 46% is below what you’d hope to see from a combative midfielder.
Of course, there are so many variables that could lead to any of those stats changing. You’d expect Benarous to have more time on the ball in League One, so his passing success will surely improve. As for winning duels, what will his fitness be like? In many ways it’ll have clearly improved since he was 18, and in others it’ll have very obviously regressed. Facing lower-level opponents will help, but will it be enough?
Will any of it be enough? Ultimately, as I mentioned at the start of this section, drawing any conclusions from these stats is probably a futile exercise. If you think the last few paragraphs have been a waste of time, I wouldn’t blame you. However, if there is anything to read into the stats at all, Benarous will know where he should be looking to improve. He’s had three years to mull it over.
Weighing up the reviews
In the absence of any significant quantitative data, perhaps some qualitative data can point us in the right direction. Whilst Benarous hasn’t played senior minutes since 2022, plenty of people inside and outside of football have spoken about him in that time. And encouragingly, nobody seems to be able to throw a bad word his way.
Argyle themselves seem convinced. In Benarous’ announcement article, Cleverley’s words included “Ayman is a young player with brilliant potential and has impressed us all since he came in to train with the squad. He was highly thought of at Bristol City but unfortunately had bad luck with injuries. He’s shown everyone here during the last week the talent he has at his disposal.” Sure, Cleverley was hardly going to say he’s signed a dud, but they’re nice words nonetheless.
His most recent manager at Bristol City was Liam Manning, although of course Benarous never played a single minute under the now-Norwich City gaffer. Despite releasing him at the end of his contract, Manning was full of praise for Benarous.
In a Bristol Live article, he’s quoted as saying “I have a huge amount of admiration for him in terms of the toughness, the resilience, and how he’s dealt with the injuries. He stays so level, he’s been so mature about it all and realistic, I think as well. I’ve got nothing but admiration for him as a person. His career won’t define who he is, I think it’s a part of his life, part of his journey, but he still harbours ambitions of playing and rightly so.”
Perhaps even more encouragingly for Argyle fans, Manning has referred to Benarous showing talent on the training ground. In the same article, Manning claimed “the little flashes of him when he was fit and training with us, he looked kind of like the type of player I’d like.” It backs up the reviews from Argyle’s own coaching team as to how Benarous applied himself during his trial.
Those on social media will also be aware of how Bristol City’s fans feel about the player. There has been no animosity, no harsh words or warnings about his abilities, just a level of respect for Benarous. It’s been an acceptance that, whilst things didn’t work out for reasons beyond his control, Benarous clearly has ample ability, and most hope he can succeed elsewhere. He’s clearly well liked, and that is surely good sign.
Of course, this is all delightful to hear, but actions speak louder than words. None of the above parties, Cleverley in particular, have anything to gain from badmouthing Benarous. It’s also worth noting that we should always proceed with caution when dissecting fan reviews. Ask Walsall fans what they thought of Dan Scarr, or put the same question to Portsmouth fans on Sonny Bradley, and their answers certainly won’t match the reality of what we saw at Home Park.
Ultimately, what Benarous does on the field will determine his success. Let’s hope he really is over his injury issues and shines, rather than simply becoming the next Jose Baxter.