Vieira has youthful Strasbourg looking up after Coupe de France cruise | Eric Devin
Strasbourg, the newest member of Todd Boehly’s BlueCo enterprise, looked to have reached their nadir over the October international break. The team had won just once, in a hardly convincing derby performance against Metz, in five games, and after being beaten at home by Nantes in the league, endured further embarrassment at the hands of the German second division side Karlsruhe in a 3-0 friendly loss.
The summer’s raft of (mostly) expensive signings under the auspices of BlueCo looked out of their depth in Ligue 1, blunt going forward and unstable at the back. Patrick Vieira’s early experiments with a three-man defence had been abandoned, but to little effect, with the team sliding towards a relegation scrap and a match against Paris Saint-Germain looming following the break. There were even questions, on the back of his prior dismissal from Crystal Palace, as to whether Vieira was up to the task of moulding a young team to be potent in attack and as defensively sound as is required in France’s top flight at present.
Maignan and Milan show statements and protocols will not end racism
Read more
Now, three months later, and off the back of a seven-match unbeaten run (and one loss in 11), those questions have evaporated. The match at the Parc des Princes, despite being a 3-0 defeat, was perhaps the genesis. A specious penalty helped the hosts open the scoring, but Strasbourg hardly blinked, showing great valour in their response, and probably should have levelled the match moments later, with Lebo Mothiba’s goal narrowly flagged offside.
Mothiba (now cruelly lost for the season with a serious knee injury) was on target in the team’s next match, however, as they showed plenty of determination to draw against Rennes on the road, the South African scoring 10 minutes from time. Home draws against Clermont and Marseille followed and though the results were not of the highest quality, the performances were solid, showing increased cohesion and marked improvement on the part of a very young side.
In midfield, Junior Mwanga (20), who had played just 20 minutes in the season’s first two months, has become a regular, his industry dovetailing seamlessly with the intelligence and experience of Ibrahima Sissoko, another player who was rarely used in the season’s early going.
Abakar Sylla celebrates after opening the scoring against Clermont. Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images
Further forward, Dilane Bakwa (21) has also become a vital player on the wing, able to switch flanks readily, his industry freeing Ângelo Gabriel (19) and creating space for Emanuel Emegha (20).
Bakwa and Mwanga, signed from Bordeaux for a combined €20m (£17.1m), both look well situated in the team now, and their blend of graft, skill and commitment embodies a fighting spirit that has been at the core of Strasbourg’s improvement. But it may be Emegha, just back from a knock which kept him out of the team’s first two matches of 2024, along with the defender Abakar Sylla, who have shown the most improvement, allowing the team to not only pull well clear of the relegation scrap, but to perhaps dream of Europe.
A mobile and aggressive presence and a willing runner to boot, Emegha had started the season as Vieira’s first choice in attack, but he struggled at times to take his chances. Now his confidence looks restored and with three goals and an assist in the team’s recent run, he has become a linchpin of the attack.
The centre-back Sylla, meanwhile, has shaken off an uneven start to the season which saw him dropped, and is now fostering a strong relationship with his positional partner, Lucas Perrin. Strong in the tackle (only two players in the league are averaging more per match) and with a fine ability in the air (see his last-minute winner in Lorient), Sylla is, at 21, still far from the finished article, but is looking increasingly confident and along with the rest of the aforementioned quartet, is helping the team reach expectations.
This was underscored on Sunday by the team’s latest victory, a thoroughly dominant Coupe de France triumph away to fellow top-flight side Clermont. With youngsters Moïse Sahi Dion and Marvin Senaya in the team, Strasbourg roared to a confident 3-1 win, with Bakwa, Sylla and the academy product Habib Diarra on the scoresheet. For the second week in a row – following the team’s impressive draw away to Marseille – Vieira praised his side while also underscoring the need for continued improvement: “The collective performance was really good, but when we see the number of clear chances we had, we can almost be frustrated not to have scored more goals. That said, the objective was to qualify and we’ve achieved that.”
Sign up to Football Daily
Free daily newsletter
Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Patrick Vieira gets his point across to his youthful side. Photograph: Nicolas Tucat/AFP/Getty Images
This improved collective play has been at the heart of the team’s turnaround, and the manager hasn’t been shy about mentioning this, but he himself deserves no small amount of praise for their play over the last few months, his combination of praise and the need to continue to aim higher striking just the right balance. The players becoming accustomed to Ligue 1 has helped – seven of the club’s signings hadn’t played in France’s top flight before joining – but more than anything, the patience of Vieira has made the difference.
Despite frustrating results, Vieira has never blamed his players. He stood by them, acknowledging the need to take a longer view with a team that features eight regulars aged 21 and under. His patience, personal touch, and willingness to give advice have been integral to the growth of the team. Vieira admits his side may be callow but is hardly lacking in eagerness, saying in a pre-match press conference: “I have no worries about the team’s state of mind. There is a real sense of humility. It’s a group that wants to learn and progress. That’s my goal and that of the staff – to constantly challenge the players.”
The centre-back Ismaël Doukouré concurred, saying: “He is very attentive; he knows that we have room for improvement and he pushes us to the maximum.” That willingness to push his young players without having too firm of a hand speaks volumes to Vieira’s acumen, on and off the pitch.
The form of surprise packages Brest and Reims means that a tilt at Europe is far from a given, but with the progress shown by Vieira and his young side of late, it would be foolhardy to limit expectations.
Talking points
There will be no repeat champion in the Coupe de France this season, as Toulouse lost in dramatic fashion to Rouen on Sunday evening. Down 3-2 in stoppage time on the road, Le TéFéCé scored a late equaliser, taking the match to penalties. Both sides scored their first 11 from the spot, Abdeljalil Sahloune scored Rouen’s 12th but the Toulouse full-back Gabriel Suazo missed his side’s attempt, continuing the trend of upsets this weekend.
Toulouse were one of a trio of Ligue 1 sides to be knocked out by lower-tier opposition, with 2022 champions Nantes and Reims ousted by Stade Laval and Sochaux respectively. Other sides advanced, but not without a struggle, as a near full-strength Nice needed an unlikely double from Morgan Sanson to get past Bordeaux, and Lyon worked hard to beat 10-man amateurs Bergerac on Friday.
Finally, a word for PSG. We’ve talked ad nauseam about the work being done by Luis Enrique, but it’s becoming more difficult to argue that he hasn’t affected a culture shift with the capital side’s approach to developing young players. Granted, US Orléans are hardly world-beaters, and his side were up 3-0, but in introducing a trio of 17-year-olds (yes, Warren Zaïre-Emery counts, despite his experience), rather than handing 20 minutes to some of the €140m of talent on his bench, Enrique continues to place faith in youngsters, underscoring the importance of talent development, too often been an afterthought in the QSI era. Not every young player who comes through the academy will blossom, but at least the Spaniard is giving his charges a chance, something which was not the case often enough in the recent past.
This is an article by Get French Football News
Follow Eric Devin and GFFN on X
Pos Team P GD Pts
1 PSG 18 30 43
2 Nice 18 8 35
3 Brest 18 12 34
4 Monaco 18 9 33
5 Lille 18 10 31
6 Reims 18 1 29
7 Marseille 18 7 28
8 Lens 18 2 26
9 Strasbourg 18 -4 24
10 Rennes 18 3 22
11 Le Havre 18 -1 22
12 Montpellier 18 -4 18
13 Nantes 18 -10 18
14 Toulouse 18 -7 17
15 Metz 18 -12 16
16 Lyon 18 -13 16
17 Clermont Foot 18 -14 14
18 Lorient 18 -17 12