Lille – Stade Rennais: Sampaoli maintains the mystery
At the end of his first pre-match press conference, Jorge Sampaoli did not reveal much about his plans for his baptism with Rennes, against Lille.
Twenty enjoyable minutes are not necessarily twenty prolific minutes. Friday noon, at Roazhon Park, Jorge Sampaoli appeared in front of the press, on the same seat as ten days ago, but this time without his president Arnaud Pouille and his sports director Frederic Massara. The coach was only accompanied by a translator, who was initially unemployed while Sampaoli tried to answer the questions himself, in French!
The effort is notable and appreciable for the first non-French-speaking coach of Stade Rennes. But this start in French followed by a conference in Spanish produced the same result after a quarter of an hour: there is not much to remember from this first speech.
An eleven defined but not revealed, what about the system?
Let's start with what we learned: “The most important thing is the culture that I instill in the players” tells us Sampaoli, very keen to remind us that the face shown by his new foals against Lille would be his priority. “Courage” expected against LOSC, a message sent to his locker room, and an expected speech for a coach taking over a team in depression.
As for the men who will start on Sunday at 3:00 p.m., the Argentinian has already identified them, almost all of them, but did not want to reveal his eleven, so as not to give any clues to Lille. Just like his system. “It doesn't matter if we defend with 5 or 4, whether we play 5-4-1, 4-4-2, I try to instill in each player a cultural way of playing now. Afterwards, we try to develop more ideas”. The state of mind, again.
Defense advantage
However, some clues have been sown. Steve Mandanda should continue in goal, and keep his armband. In good shape since the start of the season and present in front of the press, Ludovic Blas should also start, unlike Adrien Truffert, who is suspended. In defense precisely, this is where the heart of the project will be located for this start if we are to believe the technician.
“I think my team will especially need control. We worked to avoid suffering counterattacks from adversaries,” he confides. For a liberated and offensive Stade Rennes, we will have to be patient. But on the eve of this first meeting under the Sampaoli era, the mystery remains as to the reaction of this Stade Rennes, in a very pitiful state.
