“It will take commitment, give everything, be offensive to create a show and try to score goals, that’s what people expect here.” Julien Stephan announced the color at the end of last June, when Racing had resumed training.
The program could seem ambitious for a team, which had laboriously won the maintenance in Ligue 1, on the final day against Lorient.
But mid-season, the new Strasbourg coach believes that the objectives are perfectly met. Racing turns to Christmas truce in 10th place with 26 points and a late match to play in Clermont.
“The first objective was to restore confidence, underlines Julien Stéphan. Because at the start I was quite marked by the lack of confidence that there could be in the group. Then, the second objective was to restore the link with the public and there, it is the health situation that allowed us to do so. The third objective was to score as many goals as possible with a team naturally looking forward. We play football for that. And then to be pragmatic in sequences and at times, when the situation does not allow you to score many goals, it is always to try to put one more than the opponent in spite of everything to win as many matches as possible. and points “.
10 points ahead of the red zone
At mid-season, Racing displays the second most prolific attack of Ligue 1 (34 goals scored, as many as Rennes and five less than PSG), having inflicted some spanking on his opponents at the Meinau in particular. He is ten points ahead of the red zone.
Many lights are green and what seduced Julien Stéphan the most is the progress displayed by his team, who had taken only four points over the first five days of the championship.
“Beyond the balance sheet, I appreciated the evolution of the team, both individual and collective development, welcomes the young Racing coach. Players have progressed, the team has progressed. She now has a fairly strong philosophy, she seeks to attack and score goals, it’s interesting. Confidence has developed over time, also play benchmarks between them, even if they have been playing together for a while. But maybe there were a little different ideas to put in place. “
Julien Stéphan does not jump to the ceiling and remains legitimately cautious (“This is only a mid-season report, we are not going to boast about all of this”), because Racing, like many Ligue 1 teams, will attack in January 2022 with a reduced squad. Center-back Alexander Djiku will play in the Africa Cup of Nations with Ghana, as will likely Senegalese striker Habib Diallo.
Precautions on recovery
And the staff members keep their fingers crossed that the coronavirus does not invite itself again, as in the summer of 2020, in the Strasbourg locker room. “We will take all possible precautions during these few days of rest, we communicated about this with the players, specifies Julie Stéphan. We will take all possible precautions on our return on the 28th by working in mini-groups, by doing the necessary tests and hoping on the 29th to have everyone on the ground “.
Racing will attack the year 2021 with a trip to Montpellier on January 2 in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France.