He first came out of the woods, for the first time, at the beginning of 2024, in an interview for The Teamduring which he had long displayed his slices of Ligue 1 memories, « this championship of dizziness, of speed, everywhere » having stuck images in his mind for life during his time on the OM bench, from March 2021 to July 2022. Then, his name then came up in chatter, in Lyon and Lille, but it is finally where he has always been most comfortable, in the middle of a delicious bazaar, Jorge Sampaoli made his return to France, a little over ten days ago now. Spoiled, the Argentinian even woke up Thursday morning with his feet and nose in the snow, which hasn't stopped his head from smoking since he left his boxes in Rennes, 13e of Ligue 1 before the weekend and which looks, for the moment, anything but a collective this season. Sampaoli, sitting between Arnaud Pouille and Frederic Massara during the defeat against Toulouse (0-2), before the break, quickly made this observation too, admitting in his first public speech that « the first priority is to be a team » and emphasizing the need to « transform suffering into security ». Sunday, in Lille, its Stade Rennes will be on the gridiron for the first time.
The first thing here is to rejoice at the return of Jorge Sampaoli to the Ligue 1 table, he who had managed to make his adventure at OM a fairly fascinating series to follow. All the episodes had, of course, not been as stunning as loops at Luna Park in Cap d'Agde, but Sampaoli had been able, over the months, to understand perfectly in which championship he had entered. Ligue 1 is not an easy wave to tame, and to succeed in standing on his board, the native of Casilda, who has always behaved more on the sidelines like a Željko Obradović than like a Carlo Ancelotti , had evolved his creation to become an oiled control machine, superior in hourglass management and past queen in reducing the events of a meeting in order to generate as few matches as possible. ping-pong style transitions. Returned by a battle at the Vélodrome against Lens, Jorge Sampaoli said « that many teams [seraient] better than [son OM] » in that game, and what followed was more than intriguing to follow, between the evolution of Pau Lopez's role in the goals, that of the eccentric wingers and the multiplication of midfielders – in his wildest dreams, the movie buff Argentinian would only start that.
At the end, the other loco had succeeded in its bet: at the end of a second part of the season marked by several notable matches, such as a victory in Lens at the start of 2022, but also a C4 semi-final lost to Feyenoord, Marseille finished second in Ligue 1, with big defensive statistics (38 goals conceded, third best defense in the championship, but 39.00xGA generated, less than PSG, with less than nine shots per match conceded), and a high average ownership rate (61.7%).
Second most used player that season behind William Saliba, Matteo Guendouzi has not forgotten and agreed to re-discuss the good old days.
What did you know about Sampaoli before working with him at OM?
I knew him like everyone else, a little from his past experiences, in particular the fact that, shortly before, he had been the coach of Argentina. Before signing for OM, I had also spoken with some players who were already in the squad and I had only heard positive things about him. When I arrived, it connected very quickly. I quickly felt that we would have a great relationship. Already, because his playing philosophy corresponds to the way I see football. I knew it was going to suit me, that I was going to have fun. I also quickly became attached to the man, who is always behind his players, who always tries to get the most out of them, and honestly, as a player, you want it to work with him, because he puts everything the ingredients for.
Your season has been sequenced into two phases. To what extent did the match against Lens have an impact on the game plan?
I don't know if it was really this match that changed things, but what is true is that at the start of the season, we had a very offensive approach. The reason is simple: the opposing teams didn't really know how to play us, our style. There was still a lot of space on the pitch, we could put more people in our offensive phase and we also scored quite a few goals (12 goals in the first 6 matches, Editor’s note). The match against Lens was the first where we saw an opponent perfectly rely on our approach to hurt us. And little by little, we saw the other teams fall back a lot more, forming lower and lower blocks, and that also had an impact on our approach. It was a mix: our opponents were more and more afraid to come after us, because they knew that we had the technical quality to release the balls, explode quickly forward and, in reaction, were waiting for a transition or a set piece to sink us.
Sampaoli was still afraid of transitions, right?
Yes, a lot, and he is right, because all the Ligue 1 teams had this strength. They still have it, in fact. It's a championship where many teams have powerful, fast, explosive profiles in these offensive transitions. When you seek to control, it is the threat that can put you in difficulty and that's what we tried to reduce with adjustments, like the height of Pau Lopez or the use of Dim' (Payet, Editor’s note) in false 9, which brought additional quality to control the matches. The more you have possession of the ball, the less opportunity for expression you offer your opponent and the less you expose yourself. The more the season progressed, the more we gained in balance with the loss.
Do you remember a summit?
The return match in Lens (0-2), without doubt, which is, I think, one of the best performances we achieved with Sampaoli. Total control, from start to finish. But overall, as the season progressed, we had a lot of fun with this playing philosophy. We had control, we felt full of strength, but it involved a lot of repeated ranges during the week in training. Each player knew exactly where they should position themselves. Before receiving the ball, everyone knew where the others were on the pitch, which spaces needed to be attacked. We almost, sometimes, knew how to play with our eyes closed and we felt that it could frustrate certain opponents not to succeed in recovering the ball from us, to be forced to be withdrawn into the area. In any case, we all had a lot of fun collectively, but individually, above all, many players have progressed thanks to this season with Sampaoli: Cengiz Ünder had a great year, Dim' Payet had on or one of his best seasons at OM, Bouba Kamara, William Saliba, Valentin Rongier in a very specific role, me…
However, we also have the feeling, sometimes, of a gap between your collective pleasure and the pleasure taken by the OM supporters.
I know it could have been frustrating, yes, but if we're honest, once again, we faced a lot of very grouped teams, and it's not so easy to score against such compact blocks. Even at home, it could have been frustrating to face so many buses, but overall, I think it was beneficial, all the same.
What do you ultimately keep from Sampaoli?
An exceptional meeting, and it really hurt me that he left at the end of the season. It was very, very, very, very strong. And the marker, we come back to it, is that you can ask all the players present in the squad that season, everyone had fun. Sampaoli makes you want to believe in his philosophy, in his vision of football, and he also had, I think, the perfect pieces to respond to it. I was already watching a lot of Ligue 1, but I'm going to follow Rennes' matches even more now, that's for sure. It's great for the championship that he's back, and I know it can do something big if all the players agree to follow him.
The work is big and Jorge Sampaoli knows it, Rennes dancing with an average possession rate of 50% (50.5%) and being the Ligue 1 team which has created the fewest big chances this season (13) for 12.9xG generated (13e championship total) and 14.7xG conceded (6e). Faced with the press, Friday noon, after having let out a few words of French, the Argentinian nevertheless said: « I have confidence that the team will be more aggressive. Generally, a change of coach generates something, and the important thing, at the moment, is that the team manages to apply our ideas. More than the system, it is necessary to develop a culture and, as in Marseille, there will be a need for a certain control to protect against opposing offensive transitions. This culture, this idea of play, must become a religion. » What will its Stade Rennes look like? We will have to wait several weeks to decide. What we know, in any case, is that we should quickly see a goalkeeper used high enough, so as to generate a numerical superiority on the restart against the first line of opposing pressure and to be able to control the depth of more efficient way.
Example of the use of Pau Lopez during the Jorge Sampaoli era at OM. The Spanish goalkeeper was then averaging just under 48 balls touched per match and playing very high. During this match in Strasbourg, he had a total of 68 balls, including 6 in midfield.
Before visiting a potential house, Jorge Sampaoli said that Mandanda was quite « brave » to be this goalkeeper – this season, however, he is the goalkeeper who attempts the fewest passes (28) and the one who touches the fewest balls (less than 30) per match among the men with gloves in Ligue 1 – and he will be interesting to follow, given the past between the two men, the future of their collaboration. Ludovic Blas, the only sun in the gray area, for his part, detailed this: « He told us the things he had seen during the match against Toulouse and, as with every change of coach, a dynamic begins. With him, there is a lot more talking, there are more voices, breaks in the sessions to properly assimilate his ideas, his desire to have better control and to react more quickly to losing the ball. Now, I've seen worse groups than the one we have, there's a good mentality, and I just think we were unlucky in certain situations. The arrival of new staff can help us find what is missing. » Come on, time for the curtain to rise.
Lille Rennes prediction: Analysis, odds and prediction of the Ligue 1 match
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