A diminished Stade Brestois hosts FC Nantes in the Coupe de France while eleven matches could follow until February 22 if Brest qualifies this Wednesday and finishes in the Champions League play-offs. A sequence of meetings beneficial to the young people at the training center, especially during the Cup where rotation is often prioritized? “There should be two or three in the group” revealed this Wednesday, confirmed Éric Roy, deprived of Le Cardinal, Coulibaly, Haïdara, Amavi, Martin and Lees-Melou. Some “young people” train regularly with the pros and six of them (Kanté, Diop, Botz, Irié, Le Guen and Geraux) have already made at least one bench this season, in L1, Champions League or Coupe de France. But none have yet obtained even one minute of playing time. Before the match against Lyon, Éric Roy explained this: “The young people, when they come with us, they have to prove. At one point, I too, I moved up (from young people to the first team of OGC Nice) and I had Jules Bocandé who said to me after training: “You, you do sh… Jules!” “That’s also how you convince a coach.”
“Let them be more greedy”
Director of the training center, Nicolas Mariller believes that “these sessions with the pros must be an accelerator of progress. But if today they don't play more, it's because they are still missing certain things. It's up to them to step up a gear and show even more personality and character when they have the chance to be seen, continues Mariller. What I expect from them is that they are more greedy. During the assessment carried out after the Youth League, we felt that there had been an awareness among some, who realized the steps to take.
A year ago, Stade Brestois bought the Pen Helen site (two fields) for 375,000 euros with the ambition of initiating work to build new changing rooms at the training center. The structuring of the latter would be a big challenge internally, where the ambition is to bring out more young people. According to our information, Brest is also looking, in the Cité du Ponant or its surroundings, for a third site exclusively dedicated to its center to move into category 1.
The likely team
Coudert – Zogbé, Chardonnet (cap.), Ndiaye, Pereira Lage – Fernandes, Magnetti – Del Castillo, Faivre, Salah – Sima; Substitutes: Bizot (l.), Lala, Camara, Doumbia, Ajorque, Baldé + “two or three young people”. Coach: Éric Roy.
France
