Nice – Stade Rennes: New resolutions, but still disappointment
Despite a rather good hour of play, Stade Rennes once again lost yesterday for its first of the year, in Nice.
When it doesn't want, it doesn't want. For the first Ligue 1 meeting in 2025, Stade Rennes lost, once again away from home this season. In Nice, the SRFC faced the Aiglons undermined by injuries, but devilishly effective when the Rennais offered them the opportunity to do badly, sometimes even on a plateau.
Offensively more enterprising
To properly approach the year, let's start with the positive: less close to the apathetic image it had during the first part of the season, Stade Rennes was generally on par with OGC Nice, far from Roazhon Park.
Rennes took possession of the ball (54%), shot 10 times for 5 shots on target, scored twice, and was more enterprising, more focused on the offensive, because also very quickly with their backs to the wall after the Nice opened the score in the 11th minute. But it was Nice who scored 3 goals in 3 shots on target in the first half, and it was Rennes who again finished the match with the fewest duels won (46%).
Still so crumbly
Symbol of this physical domination, Evan Guessand reminded Mikayil Faye that adult football was played in a duel. Twice, on the first and third goals, the Rennes defender was eaten by his opposite number, reminding us of all the limits of a three-way hinge including the pass accuracy statistics (around 90% for Faye, Ostigard and Hateboer) cannot mask the impression of brittleness, and the difficulties in playing forward, such as covering one's rear. Yesterday, Franck Haise's tactic of playing behind the defense bore fruit with each opening.
Jorge Sampaoli's stated desire to control, stabilize and maintain balance through play comes up against the weakness of this hinged triptych, far from reassuring. Constantly on the back foot, the trio found themselves cornered on the second goal, offered by Steve Mandanda on a plate to Sofiane Diop. 2025 gives Mandanda one more year, and while the arrival of Brice Samba could turn into a winter soap opera, the starting Rennes goalkeeper has once again shown his limits. With 39% successful passes, he struggled to restart, to the point of restoring Nice's lead at a decisive moment. A scenario which demonstrates, if it has not already been done, the need to change the goalkeeper in Rennes.
Is 3-4-3 more effective than 4-2-3-1?
It was therefore individual errors from Faye and Mandanda which sank Rennes in Nice, and this is one less reason to hope to capitalize on the positive points for the Breton club, always punished for its deficiencies, whatever they may be. The pistons were however still interesting, at the origin of the second Rennes goal, the James-Matusiwa duo in the middle was effective, at the start of the action on the two goals, and Blas like Kalimuendo were decisive.
For an hour, the 3-4-3 was satisfactory, and it was curiously after the expected switch to a 4-man defense at the hour mark and the entry of Seko Fofana that Rennes lost its offensive arguments , its balance. Asleep for the rest of the game, SRFC was unable to take advantage of their good return from the locker room rewarded with a goal. Enthusiastic, determined and not hiding, Fofana showed his presence, although a little messy in this role of free electron in the middle. Finding the right place for the new recruit will likely coincide with his return to 100%. Until then, Rennes will have to find a way to plug its leaks, while the matches progress, and Frederic Massara's transfer window turns out to be a failure. The main thing remains the disappointment: once again the SRFC did not take a point this weekend.
