the difficult confirmation of Will Still

“Lens, as obvious! Talented and unifying tactician, Will Still is the new coach of Racing. Accustomed to early records and significant performances since the start of his coaching career, the Belgian-British signed a 3-year contract in Artois. here is what RC Lens announced on June 10. After finishing the Ligue 1 season in sixth place and seeing his coach Franck Haise leave for Nice, the Artesian club has launched a new page with Will Still. Former assistant to Oscar Garcia in Reims, the English coach had been the Champenois to maintain in style during the 2022/2023 season before confirming last year by going for a ninth place in style. Landing just before the end of the season, he had paid for his desire to leave, he who proclaimed his wish to join England (Premier League or Championship) from the winter of 2024. If he got closer to the Perfidious Albion, It was in the north of France that he set down his luggage and the beginnings were convincing.

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Maintaining Franck Haise's 3-4-2-1 and bringing his touch without distorting the team, the Belgian-English coach launched the season perfectly with victories against Angers (1-0) and Brest (2-0) in Ligue 1 and in the first leg of the Europa Conference League play-off against Panathinaikos after more than an hour at ten against eleven (2-1). However, the return was more complicated. Beaten 2-0 in Greece, RC Lens quickly said goodbye to the European Cup and had to concentrate on Ligue 1. The start of the season was also marked by the abortive departure of Kevin Danso for AS Roma itself if the Uzbek Abdukodir Khusanov took over the interim role perfectly and found a place in the team in the same way as the recruits M'Bala Nzola, Anass Zaroury, Hamzat Ojediran and Malang Sarr. The young Rémy Labeau-Lascary also has his chance under the orders of Will Still. Reshuffling the cards with a new dynamic, he has however seen it run out of steam since…

Lens broken down in front

If the draws which followed against AS Monaco (1-1) and Olympique Lyonnais (0-0) were nothing to worry about, they broke the dynamic. Over the last 10 Ligue 1 matches, Lens has only two victories against AS Saint-Étienne (2-0) and FC Nantes (3-2) for 5 draws and 3 defeats in the shocks against Lille (2 -0), Pareis Saint-Germain (1-0) and Olympique de Marseille (3-1). Sliding in the rankings and finding themselves ninth before facing Stade de Reims (8th) this Friday for the 13th day, Lens would be inspired to pull themselves together to show themselves capable of playing more than on a weak stomach. If the team has one of the best defenses in the championship with only twelve goals conceded (only PSG, Monaco, and Lille do better), Lens has only scored 13 goals (only AS Saint-Étienne and Le Havre do worse). A clearly identified offensive problem that Will Still will have to resolve.

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For the moment, Przemyslaw Frankowski (3 goals) who is responsible for taking the penalties and M'Bala Nzola (2 goals) are the only players on the team to score more than one goal. A real problem that Will Still must quickly correct. However, the main person concerned is not worried as he mentioned at a press conference: “there is a lot of frustration. But we put things in context. We arrived 5 months ago, there were things in place for 5 years, which we admired from afar. We have to adapt to the changes in the club, but we have interesting content. We lost 3 games in the season, against LOSC, Paris and OM. There are budgetary realities… There are no fire alarms to pull either. But it's up to us to focus on the reality of things, it's good to play well, but there is efficiency to be found. But everything won't fall into place overnight.»

Having to find the few adjustments which will allow Lens to regain momentum, Will Still knows that this will not be so obvious with a team which had automatisms anchored with Franck Haise. However, he announced that the metamorphosis was currently underway: “times change, people change and so does football. Some things are no longer the same. The club was built on a system of play with principles based on a squad that was made to play like that. A process underway, but it will take as long as it takes before everything works.» The next test against Reims will therefore be the perfect opportunity to see if Lens is evolving in the right direction. A match with a particular taste for Will Still who finds his former club: “Reims is the club that allowed me to get into Ligue 1 and that believed in me. I will always be grateful to Reims. Reims is a great team, it's a challenge for us, but I don't have any more emotion than that of playing against my former team.» A good Ligue 1 coach over the last three years, Will Still is at an important moment in his new challenge, it is up to him to reverse the rather negative dynamic of recent weeks…