Surprisingly third in Ligue 1 after three games, Nantes hopes to continue its momentum against Reims on Sunday (5:00 p.m.), relying on a largely unchanged but transformed squad.
The “new faces” of the Canaries at the start of the school year often had an air of déjà vu.
Matthis Abline, the biggest transfer in the club’s history for 10 million euros, from Rennes, Tino Kadewere and Nicolas Cozza wore the yellow and green jersey last season.
There have been some “real” recruits, free or almost, like Johann Lepenant and Sorba Thomas loaned by Lyon and Huddersfield, or Jean-Philippe Gbamin, recruited on a free, but Antoine Kombouaré is relying, for the moment, on a surprisingly stable framework.
While the coach had proclaimed at the restart that the time of goalkeeper Alban Lafont or midfielders Pedro Chirivella and Douglas Augusto on the banks of the Erdre was over, these executives who remained on the quayside are making the best of a bad situation.
“The good start to the championship is because they have remained with this desire to have a great season, and then to no longer repeat the disappointing results, the disappointing matches, and especially the maintenance acquired in the difficulty of previous seasons”, Kombouaré even advanced.
– Effective in both surfaces –
“We had a longer vacation than usual (…) So now I’m ready to start a new season with the same state of mind as usual,” Chirivella explained at a press conference, denying any frustration with his status quo.
“No, honestly, no. I am a player who is loved by the club, by the coach. So why be upset? (…) I always said to my family: if the worst thing (that could happen to me) is to stay in Nantes, that’s very, very good,” he added.
Even if the content still has a lot of room for improvement, Nantes is no longer the timid and often porous team of last year.
“What we have improved is the ability to defend better in the middle,” noted the Kanak technician, even if his team concedes “far too many crosses” and set pieces for his liking.
“We are strong, but at some point we will end up cracking,” he added.
“Even if sometimes it’s not a pretty sight, we want to become a team that scares, that is not easy to play against. And I think that’s what we showed in the three matches,” added Chirivella.
“We are effective in both areas, which has not been the case for a while. The key to football is to be stronger than the opponent in both areas,” he added.
– Reims, first big test –
With 38% possession of the ball on average, Kombouaré also acknowledged that his team had to be “able to hold the ball a little more, especially in the opposing (half of the field)”.
But “I am pragmatic, if our team is capable of causing harm and above all of being effective by playing in this way, why deprive ourselves of it?”, added the coach, the opposite of the “Nantes style game”.
After the trip to Toulouse (1-1), and the victories against promoted Auxerre (2-0) — ending 10 consecutive defeats at the Beaujoire — and at Montpellier (3-1), Reims will be “the strongest team out of the four we have had to play,” admitted Kombouaré.
The Champenois, who took four points against Lille (0-2), Marseille (2-2) and Rennes (2-1), are “an athletic team, who like duels, who run a lot. They have very good players (…) and we will have to play a great match, (to be) a great Nantes team on Sunday”, he said.
With the prospect of then facing the other two promoted teams, Angers and Saint-Etienne, a positive result could launch the Canaries towards a finally peaceful season.
hap/sm
