Stade Rennais is moving to a Bollaert stadium where only 5,000 people will be able to go this Saturday evening (9 p.m.) for the 20th day of Ligue 1, due to the new health measures. Faced with Lensois who are four points behind them, Rennes will want to prove that they are able to beat a direct competitor to Europe, after the defeats against Lille, Nice and Monaco in December.
Solve the problem of efficiency in both surfaces
After the defeats in December, one constant is obvious: Rennes dominates, but Rennes concedes too many goals in their weak times. Bruno Genesio hopes to remedy this at Lens: “We have worked this week on the defensive aspect, I think it’s also a matter of mentality: we have a team that plays good football, which likes to play football, and we have to continue to develop and encourage that. . But we also have to be able to like to defend a result, to win 1-0 by defending a little lower sometimes, by being more united, a little less beautiful in the game, but more effective in both surfaces. We worked well on this this week, especially on the defensive aspect. In the dueling aspect too, in the aggressiveness aspect, in the ground and aerial duels, because we know that on Saturday it is a dueling match that awaits us against this team from Lens.”
Against Lille, Nice, Monaco and recently in Nancy, Stade Rennais has always had possession, always shot more than the opponent, but conceded defeat each time. During the three Ligue 1 matches, Stade Rennais lost to direct competitors. Not easy going for Bruno Genesio, who is not particularly worried: “All defeats are very hard. We don’t like to lose, we’re all like that. But there are defeats that are more worrying than others. They are, because we missed the opportunity to gain points, to settle permanently at the top of the table. But in any case in the game, in the content, overall, there are still a lot of good things happening, and we must continue like that.”
Gaëtan Laborde in search of success
If he improved the team upon his arrival at the end of the summer, Gaëtan Laborde shines a little less since his last goal in Lorient at the end of November. The third top scorer in Ligue 1 (nine goals), is lacking in efficiency over the past month. Bruno Genesio: “The confidence of an attacker is paramount. We can talk about Serhou too, even if he plays less. It also goes through training, through training situations where we must be successful, so that when these situations occur in a match, the attacker has enough confidence and conviction to convert them into a goal.“
Over the last five games, Gaëtan Laborde has obtained very few chances. If he still expends himself as much, as evidenced by his second place in the ranking of kilometers traveled in Ligue 1 this season, the number ofexpected goals* by Gaëtan Laborde amounted to 1.3 over his last five matches (0.26 per match), against 8.6 out of his previous fourteen (0.61 per match) in Ligue 1. And if he had scored against Paris and Lyon at the start of the season, the ex-Montpellier remained silent against Lille, Nice and Monaco .
Will Stade Rennais and his center-forward succeed in reversing this trend against Lens? It will be necessary to relaunch a positive series in a capital month of January for the rest of the season.
*The “expected goals”, ie the probability that a shot ends in goal according to the characteristics of this shot and the events leading up to this shot.