SM Caen will travel to Dunkirk this Monday evening without returning from its infirmary even if outings are planned for the start of 2025. If the midfielder Yann M’vila don’t touch the ball yet, the defender Valentin Henry and the attacker Kalifa Coulibaly thus appeared in training this week. “These are adapted sessions. It’s good that they can touch the ball,” explains Nicolas Seube. “Lamine Sy also is good. He feels good. He is enthusiastic about the recovery and will be available at the beginning of next year.” These three players can hope to return at the start of 2025, however the unavailability of Brahim Traore (Muscular problem) is a source of more questions. Added to this list of absentees is uncertainty concerning Godson KyeremehA decision will be made during the session this Sunday, the day before the match, for the Caen striker.
It is therefore with a reduced workforce in defense (Sy, Henry, Traoré), as in previous weeks, that SM Caen will challenge one of the best teams of the season at home.
Nine different defenders established in fifteen days
This is nothing new. Since the start of the season and even before the first whistle in the championship, Nicolas Seube has had to deal with a full infirmary, a situation to which was added the transfer of two full-backs (Hugo Vandermersch et Ali Abdi). No less than nine different defenders (Vandermersch, Meddah, Bolumbu, Thomas, Traoré, Ntim, Abdi, Lecoeuche, Gaucho) were established by the Caen coach in fifteen days. A figure which rises to ten if we add the entry during the match of Héliohdino Tavarès. The Caen defense has only been carried over from one match to the next three times in fifteen days. And the defensive combination presented in Laval (1-0) was the tenth usednot that the Caen coach hesitates in the choice of players but that he has to deal with injuries. In fact, of the four starting defenders, only two (Romain Thomas and Quentin Lecoeuche since his recruitment) have been present on each match sheet. Still happy that no suspension was to be deplored.
“It’s an observation, it’s factual but we can’t hide behind that”
Nicolas Seube is obviously aware of this state of affairs but the Caen coach does not take refuge behind this observation. It also does not prevent him from demanding more defensive rigor from his players and from erasing his errors which cost so much against Rodez (3-3) and Laval (1-0). ” “From the moment we don’t have all our strength, this inevitably impacts the team’s course of action. A season is normally made up of absences. Now the major problem is that it lasts, these are long protocols. Today, we are missing a professional right-back and the one who comes behind is not a full-back. The difficulty is in the power of rotation in all sectors of the game. expands the Caen coach. And to continue: “aToday, the balance of a team must be based on healthy competition. It’s not that they aren’t good players but some lack the experience to make up for it. This changes a lot in the ability to perform. Afterwards, it is an observation, it is factual but we cannot hide behind that but it is one of the explanations of the team’s capacity to have positive results. But I am firmly convinced that even with that we are capable of achieving results with that.”
Senegal
