There was not really a match between Bordeaux and Clermont, Sunday August 8, on the first day of the French football championship. The brand new promoted to Ligue 1 won on the Girondins field (2-0), after dominating the meeting (19 shots to 10, 56% possession of the ball).
A suprise ? Not sure. First of all because the Bordeaux team is not the most formidable opponent at the moment, after a failed 2020-2021 season and an eventful change of club owner. But this result is primarily due to the fact that the Auvergne team, which “Came out of‘good preparation, after beating four Ligue 1 teams ”, did not hesitate to develop “An uninhibited game from the start”, as Thomas Bonnavent, author, with Maxime Mianat, of the Big pound League 2 (Hugo Sport, 2020) and presenter of Winamax FC, a show from the sports betting site.
1 – Clermont is the first team to win in its very first Ligue 1 match since Guingamp against Martigu… https://t.co/h22LnHoDw8
Possession of the ball, attacking style of play assumed until the end … it is the trademark of the “little Thumb” of Ligue 1 (the team has the smallest budget, 20 million euros) and neophyte to this level. This is especially the credo of his trainer, Pascal Gastien, a former midfielder who went to OM (1988-1989), who worked on the bench in the lower divisions: Niort (2009-2014), then Châteauroux ( 2014-2015), before joining Clermont in 2017.
“It would be suicidal to change”
“His playing philosophy is to play and have fun, summarizes the striker Terence Makengo, who played under his orders in Berry and evolves today in Delémont in the Swiss fourth division. It requires technical requirements, football intelligence and physical abilities. “
This method allowed Clermont to finish third attack in Ligue 2 last season (61 goals) and second in the championship. “When I was there, vsit happened to the defenders to lose dangerous balls, remembers Mathias Pereira Lage, now in Angers. He never yelled at them: on the contrary, he urged them to take risks! “
“From a very young age, I have been interested in tactics, particularly Ajax in the Netherlands or Guardiola in Barcelona”, explains Pascal Gastien.
“If we have a chance to get out, it’s by playing. Our team was designed like this. It would be suicidal to change, assures Pascal Gastien, who, at 57, has had time to mature his convictions. From a very young age, I have been interested in tactics, especially Ajax in the Netherlands. What Guardiola did in Barcelona is also a source of inspiration. ” First a trainer, Gastien could not imagine settling on a Ligue 1 bench: “I stayed fifteen years in Niort, and circumstances made that I took over the first team in CFA”, in 2009. Same thing in Clermont where, arrived in 2016 to lead the new training center, he settled on the bench a year later, when Corinne Deacon was appointed coach of the French women’s team.
The experience with young people was used to build the project. “We need to train players for our team, because we don’t have the means to buy our best players”, indicates Pascal Gastien. As a symbol, it is the young Mohamed Bayo (22 years old), born and trained in Clermont, who scored the first goal in the history of the club in Ligue 1.
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“The graduates often bring a breath of fresh air”
Also from Auvergne training, Pereira Lage, who left the club in the summer of 2019, describes a “A strong group year after year, to which a few recruits stick”. These are identified in particular for their “Want to touch the ball. It is an essential element of our recruitment ”, develops the trainer. For this 2021-2022 season, only two players have arrived (Arial Mendy and Elbasan Rashani). With the exception of Bayo, who has two years of contract left, all executives have extended.
However, the workforce could lack experience. Before this season, they were only four to know the Ligue 1 – including Johann Gastien, son of, passed through Dijon. “But they have the experience of playing among themselves, says Thomas Bonnavent. In the locker room, there are executives who have a long career. “
In recent seasons, the promoted Brest, Lens, Lorient or Nîmes have escaped thanks to a daring game. “There was a ‘nothing to lose’ side, of carelessness, confirms Bernard Blaquart, ex-coach of Nîmes (between 2015 and 2020), returned to Ligue 1 in 2018 with the Gard club. We weren’t calculating. We were a bit like Clermont, with low resources but offensive intentions. “ The Nîmes “Crocs” had finished ninth in the championship and sixth attack the first year of their return to the top flight.
“The graduates often bring a breath of fresh air, concludes Blaquart. We saw it with Troyes, who had a great match against Paris ” during the first day of Ligue 1, August 7 (2-1 victory for PSG). Chance of the calendar, Clermont returns to the Aube club on Sunday August 15 (at 3 p.m.), for its first at home in Ligue 1.