Proven at the international level, the new coach of the Blue took control of a women’s team for the first time in his career.
A first date and many discoveries. The castle of Clairefontaine, the ecosystem of Les Bleues, a whole new workforce, and an unprecedented position at the head of a group of players, and not players. The challenge is daunting for the former coach of Saudi Arabia, who has never coached a women’s team. “I have four daughters at home”he first joked during his presentation, before acknowledging: “You don’t behave the same way with a female group as with a male group.”
“Hervé will have to adapt”, abounds Patrice Lair, current coach of the Girondins de Bordeaux women’s team, who has gone through several men’s and women’s locker rooms, and who exchanged with Hervé Renard after his appointment. He thinks above all about communication and preparation just before the meeting. “In the locker room, there is a time when the girls change, prepare individually, whereas with the boys you can be there all the time, chatting, giving tactical instructions, reviewing things”he explains.
“Adapt your language”
The management of a locker room can indeed change if it is full of players. “There is a completely different approach in management, especially in the use and weight of words”notes Olivier Echouafni, coach of the Bleues between 2016 and 2017 and today on the bench of Quevilly-Rouen. “There is also a question of sensitivity and emotion that you have to know how to manage well.”
The coach has already thought about how he will convey his messages and his motivation, especially during the powerful talks for which he is known. “It may be necessary to use a little less aggressive language, we will see to adapt”he explained in an interview with all sports Tuesday. “But sometimes they will have to be able to hear that they are wearing the jersey of the France team, and that it is an honor”he assured.
Should Hervé Renard also expect differences in terms of play and physique? For Lair, “it’s another football”. “It’s less powerful, it goes slower, we can see the technical mastery a lot more”, he says. An opinion not necessarily shared by Olivier Echouafni. “In terms of play, day-to-day work, there is no difference. We tell ourselves that we have athletes in front, not men or women.he believes. After supervising his first sessions, Renard was able to get an idea of the qualities of his group, and the work to be done in the months to come.
“There may be, exceptionally, slightly shorter training sessions, but on the number of sessions and the workload, it’s the same.”
Olivier Echouafniat franceinfo: sport
The expectation is all the greater as for his first experience at the helm of a women’s team, Hervé Renard takes over the reins of one of the best selections in the world. But nothing to worry about Patrice Lair: “He will arrive in a group with a lot of qualities, among young people as well as among those he will bring back. There is potential, and his profile is interesting.”
Hervé Renard has indeed a solid experience of the international level and the functioning of the selections, he who has trained five different selections (Zambia, Angola, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Saudi Arabia) for men over the past fifteen years. He will also be able to rely on his deputy, Eric Blahic, already present in the previous staff, who knows the group and how it works. “He will help him to be immediately able to manage his squad”, assures Patrice Lair. And adapt as easily as possible to this new environment.