The Greens will remain no matter what happens at the bottom of the Ligue 2 standings, regardless of the result of their match this Saturday afternoon at the opening of the 2nd day of Ligue 2. With the 3 penalty points that it does failed to erase last weekend, a victory would only allow them to return to the positive, while with a draw or a defeat, the pressure would be even greater in the weeks to come. Saint-Etienne footballers would see many competitors already taking their distance in the standings.
Faced with the emergency, Laurent Batllès should present a much less ambitious game plan than during the trip to Dijon. The AS Saint-Etienne coach wants to set up a system with three central defenders with 1 piston on each side. A system that only works with great physical density and impeccable collective communication. Today, it may finally be too early to make it the basis of the Greens’ game: “It is possible that I do something much more rational and that I wait a little bit for players to arrive so that I can start again on a system that may be ours”.
“No technical skills”
By returning to a more traditional device for the reception of Nîmes, with probably 4 defenders and a less convoluted game animation, Laurent Batllès plays the security card. He also proves that he is capable of questioning himself. You have to be patient anyway, defender Jimmy Giraudon warns: “I experienced it in Troyes with the coach and it took a while to get going. It’s a system that requires a lot of effort, a lot of concentration and technical mastery. In Dijon we don’t have had this technical mastery and that’s why we were put in difficulty defensively”.
The Greens are finally today in a predictable situation: that of a team from which immediate results are expected when it almost started from zero less than two months ago.
ASSE-Nimes, live from 2:30 p.m. on France Bleu Saint-Etienne Loire with comments from Jérémy Marillier, Olivier Roché and our partners fromIn green and against all.