BE CONTENT WITH THE LITTLE YOU HAVE.
“Knowing how to be content with what you have: that’s being rich.” Lao-Tzu – ASSE
The Final Countdown by Micheline (from the count): Updated at 11/24/24 – MAINTAINED -17 POINTS “Hello Kids. I see everyone is laughing, because the match was mediocre. As I often tell you, I don't know anything about football. So I don't care about mediocrity, all I see are the 3 points in my bowl. Well, there's still a lot missing, but things are progressing. And as long as things progress, that's fine with me, because all that matters is staying in Ligue 1, the kids. And who doesn’t actually agree with that?”
Hello Groupies!
Your cowboy @JossRandall42 is back for his 297th column, but I must tell you that faced with the poverty of this ASSE-MHSC, he hesitated for a long time. I hope that my followers will forgive me, in particular those who like the length of my columns (@Jupra42, @Nicostpaul), but having little to say apart from the sovereign cliché “the main thing is the three points », This time it risks being shorter than your last marital explanation. That’s saying something.
Yes, I am therefore imbued with a tone that seems to come from the dry cleaners as it seems so detached, to tell you that once again, without the renewed atmosphere of the Chaudron, without the very beautiful tribute to Rachid, without the friends and without the mulled wines during the match, I would have been as bored as the last apple in the apple pie on Saturday.
And if this match of our ASSE was as nice to watch as tomato sauce on a wedding dress, we will all have to be satisfied with the little we have: a victory, and three points which leave us – as surprising as that may be appear – in transition times for the moment, to consider remaining in L1 at the end of May.
CHAPTER 1: FEAR IN YOUR Stomach
Among the two things that I will remember from this ASSEMHSC, the first is the poverty of the overall technical level (on both sides in fact). Sad to make you regret a rainy Sunday in the suburbs of London. Afterwards, should we be surprised? The ranking of the two teams before the match was probably not due to chance.
My friend #LaGonfle @zoeducayla told me that in the second half, he even had fun counting the consecutive number of successful passes in the green ranks, and that he never managed to exceed three, and that It made him give a caribou bellow, stopping him dead in his tracks!
And I understand it. Because it’s true that it stings the eyes.
But since I am, like you, a supporter of our ASSE, I still refuse to believe that these guys are that weak. However, I exclude from this alarming observation perhaps BOUCHOUARI_POTTER, the repeat of Justesse which confirms the good that we think of him for several matches (by the way we are all also very happy that he validates his correct match with a goal, finally!!) and PIERRE_EKWAH_MA GUEULE_QU'EST_CE_QU'ELLE_A_MA_GUEULE, the part of which I will return to later.
How then can we explain this balloon which seems to burn our feet? Those missed simple passes? These clearances which must go in front (or at worst), and which end up *behind us* in a corner? It's just crazy.
We knew that our squad would be just right for L1, but is it really that good? A doubt haunts me, or rather I find it hard to believe it.
Likewise, how can we explain this second half, attacked correctly and finally as ASSE had to play a home match against the bottom of the championship. And that our Greens sanction with a goal. And then… and then nothing behind. Nothing nothing. Everyone steps back, accepts domination by tightening the wheels and returning all the balls to an opponent who didn't ask for so much.
Because between gypsies, we are not going to draw cards: no one puffs their chest today at the simple observation of the three points collected. Obviously it's more important than everything else, but everyone is aware that if the game had ended at 1-1 or 1-2, no one would have been able to cry foul.
I just hope that this technical indigence, and this tactical fear seen for 30 minutes in the second half is *ONLY* explained by the famous “stomach fear” which often accompanies teams in difficulty. But if one of you ever has other explanations to put forward, I am enclosing a stamped return envelope with this column, I will gladly give you a shout out.
CHAPTER 2: COMMUNICATION VASES… BUT IT ALWAYS LEAKS ELSEWHERE! – ASSE
We will therefore all try to quickly forget this match on Saturday, and this team of that day, which seems to flourish like cow dung reaching the end of its run.
But I still want to give you the second idea that came to me after this ASSEMHSC, and it relates more to the way the team has been playing for a few matches, and on a tactical level.
So yes, I know that many of you consider my tactical analyzes with as much skepticism as in the eyes of a peacekeeper to whom you promise to only stay double-parked for two minutes. But to these, I can only recommend enough to go and have their orifice dilated at the Greeks, and I will still give you my reflection as profound as a thought from Paul Valéry.
For some time now, I have been watching the performances and especially the positioning of PIERRE_EKWAH_MA GUEULE_QU'EST_CE_QU'ELLE_A_MA_GUEULE with the acuity of an eagle observing a reckless lamb that strays from the flock. Apart from a certain technical ease (the boy knows which end the matches ignite!), his descent between the two centrals is obviously not unrelated to the best performances of our defense for some time. No stranger either, on Saturday, to the first “proper” match of YUNIS_DIESEL_HUMIDE. It must be said that EKWAH does half of his job, and that our grandpa is objectively more comfortable in a 5-man defense, where there is less ground to cover.
But there, on Saturday, and especially in the second half, it was no longer a defense that slides with three in the axis in the defensive phase, it was a real defense with five, very low, which accepted the waves.
Because one of the consequences of this system is that someone ends up missing in the middle, and that to play in 5-2-3, you need two midfielders of a level and a kill greater than this. that we have. You also need two wingers who help your two full-backs, who are already average, but who have suffered even more.
Because of the 3 offensive players, what about the work in difficulty, apart from the obscure role of SISSO_COQ_EN_PATE?
We who thought we had found a form of balance with this new role of the 6, have we not in fact generated a new imbalance elsewhere? ….
And let's not forget that it was Montpellier opposite…
Finally in the middle, it's two times in a row that JOSS_RAN_DALL'OGLIO has made this double change, with the same result: failure. As much as I understood the replacement of LOUIS_MOUTON_DE_PANURGE, in real decline in performance for two matches, I did not understand that of BOUCHOUARI_POTTER who seemed to me to still be doing well in his match.
In any case, at a time when our ASSE no longer had control of anything, this double change by a player who does not have the L1 level, and the other who at least does not have it yet, n brought no additional mastery. Failed coaching.
IN CONCLUSION: BE CONTENT WITH THE LITTLE YOU HAVE
Friendly Green supporter, one thing is certain: if your idea is to see the game and a flamboyant ASSE team that masters its subjects, well I only have one piece of advice: run and buy an iron from Amazon and you will come back.
I will conclude this column as I began it: for the moment we must be content with the little we have, namely the three points taken.
However, I am like you, all this annoys me a little, witnessing the endemic impatience which sometimes pollutes my sense of rigor. But this year's objective is simple: to stay in Ligue 1, whatever the path, whatever the pain that still awaits us.
By imagining a better future, with other ambitions and other objectives in the heads and plans of our new owners. Because I suppose they see the same shortcomings as we do. Let's hope so because as I concluded each of my columns or almost, it is written with a chisel in the marble of our destiny: without significant reinforcements in a month, we will shit sea urchins until May.
Then the gates of Heaven are apparently promised to us. Infinity is like a trampoline: it's just its limits that pose a problem…
