In Lille, there are players that we had imagined would be starters and that we saw little of when they joined, like Blas and Jota. “For me it was mostly wingers, not inside players that I needed to help balance the team,” justified Jorge Sampaoli. Enough to suggest that the two attackers will have to work hard to find a place in the Argentinian coach's system of three central defenders…
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Jordan James, for his part, can legitimately believe that he will finally be entitled to a little light, and probably from the reception of Saint-Etienne on Saturday November 30 (5 p.m.).
The 20-year-old Welshman, a national team starter but in the cellar with Rennes, played the entire second half in Lille. His record playing time with SRFC, he who had disappeared for two months and was not even on the scoresheet against Toulouse before the break.
Given the competition…
In the North, the defector from Birmingham (English D2, against around 5 million euros) showed more than the competition, already in terms of accuracy, in a sector of the environment where the yield of the profiles available has been low from the start season, where the complementarities and the overall technical level are of interest.
Without being brilliant either, James was one of those who recovered the most balls (5, five times more than Kamara whom he had replaced), and he at least tried to play forward, which which in this team is not exactly a habit. “He brought energy and personality by bringing the ball up to the attackers, it’s a good start, he did a good job”dropped Sampaoli.
The Argentinian, who at least did not remain with both feet in the same shoe when noting the problems of the Kamara/Matusiwa duo chosen at the start (Santamaria remained on the bench), surely saw that James could help a little in the slump.
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The reasons why the Welshman was away from the team previously still remain a mystery. But maybe now James' story with Stade Rennais will begin.
