A slight awakening in the negative on the banks of the Moselle and temperatures which should panic the meters in the afternoon with a dizzying peak around 0 degrees announced at the Saint-Symphorien stadium. Once is not customary, Météo France joins the reference statisticians to present this 17th day of Ligue 2, the last of the first leg.
Enough to give a little more relief to the start of the year for Pau FC who, from the start, will hit the hard times. After FC Metz, 4th, this Saturday, it is the surprising Dunkirk squad, 3rd, which will arrive at Nouste Camp next Friday. “We're in the swing of things straight away, to say the least,” admits Nicolas Usaï, who however starts in zero-complex mode: “Let's be very excited and enthusiastic. »
The editorial team advises you
The editorial team advises you
“Will and self-sacrifice”
This is precisely the message delivered to his troops by the Pau coach, who tried to optimize as best as possible an ultimately pleasant end-of-year break. Thanks to the last success of 2024, 1-0 against Ajaccio, the PFC gave itself some air and used it to freshen up its chakras. Usaï, ill and absent for this meeting, also confessed to wanting to come back with full of energy. On the pitch, this took the form of just one week of vacation, with the team having pushed a few days after Ajaccio, with intensity, to keep in good shape.
Once present for the restart, the contract seems fulfilled and it is a group tinged with “a lot of will and self-sacrifice” that Usaï has prepared to make the long diagonal towards Metz. With, however, a big stone in the shoe. Or two: the absences of Antonin Bobichon and Khalid Boutaïd, not the least important elements of Pau FC since the start of the season…
The first suffers from the right ischio since the match against the ACA, the second from the left quadriceps. No duration has been communicated on their unavailability. But immediately, in addition to reviving the question of winter reinforcement in attack with regard to Boutaïb, it is a call to other attackers to take their chance. “It’s an opportunity for others, without the old one,” smiles Nicolas Usaï, always waiting for favorable signals in this area.
The battle in the middle
In midfield, without Bobichon or Beusnard, who should not return to 100% until next Monday, it is towards Antoine Mille that all eyes will turn. “He has his cards to play,” says the coach, satisfied to have seen him respond to the current competition. “He is still discovering this level but is present in our usual system and can also go back a notch. I expect him to assert himself even more decisively. »
It will take at least that for Mille, who will also be in charge of set pieces, to take on the Metz challenge this Saturday. Because in his area of the field, the midfielder will be dealing with serious clients: Gauthier Hein, former best player in Ligue 2 last season, Benjamin Stambouli (ex-Montpellier, PSG, Tottenham, etc.) and Jessy Deminguet (on loan from Strasbourg) arrived in Lorraine last summer to give control to a collective which has only one objective, to return to Ligue 1.
As a result, FC Metz occupy the first two places in Ligue 2 in terms of possession stats, successful passes, and demonstrate a great capacity for forward projection. “It’s very technical and experienced,” says Usaï. “It will absolutely be necessary to hinder them in their launches and their direction of the game, to put them under pressure before they make a difference. It's not even a subliminal message to my guys, I clearly warned them! »
Causing problems for the big guys
In its hood, Pau FC can however count on an extra soul likely to bring it big in a Saint-Symphorien stadium announced to be well stocked for this last match of the holidays. His ability to cause problems for big guys. Winners of Lorient, capable of muzzling Paris FC, the Béarnais demonstrated that they could raise the cursor when the poster required it, which the opposing coach perfectly targeted in his pre-match.
A Stéphane Le Mignan is all the more cautious as his team, certainly still undefeated at home and which has not bitten the dust in the last five days, remains on “difficult performances, with less precise collective play. I hope for answers this Saturday. » And if the real answer was Pau who provided it?
