Team Focus: Changes Needed if Bordeaux are to Return to Former Glories
"Joueurs sans fierté, Virage Sud deserté". Few Ligue 1 goals this season have been scored against such an uncomfortable backdrop as Cédric Yambéré's recent winner for Bordeaux versus Guingamp. The 2009 champions should be full of optimism right now, still enjoying the first year in their brand new Mahmut Atlantique stadium. The image of that damning phrase (meaning 'players without pride, (so) Virage Sud deserted') on a banner draped across thousands of empty seats as Yambéré's header hit the net in front of it was an arresting one, particularly in the context of France's excitement over its excellent new and renovated stadiums ahead of Euro 2016.
All is not well at Bordeaux. 2009 and the heady heights of the Champions League quarter-finals already seemed a long way off, but this campaign has been a chastening one. Any buoyancy engendered by the move has been nipped in the bud pretty quickly. The build-up to the Guingamp game, December's first, had been a tense one, with the club's leading supporter group Ultramarines meeting president Jean-Louis Triaud in the days before the match to voice their displeasure at the club's direction.
The Ultramarines said in their statement that followed the meeting that coach Willy Sagnol would be given "the benefit of the doubt, for now," but it's clear that the former France right-back - much like a number of other Ligue 1 coaches, including Lyon's Hubert Fournier - have work to do before Christmas to make sure they have a future in their current post after it.
Ostensibly, at least, Sunday's draw at high-flying Angers was a step in the right direction. The last visitors to the Stade Jean Bouin, 2011 double winners Lille, lost there and when Diego Rolan opened the scoring for Bordeaux just before half-time, it was the first goal past Ludovic Butelle since the one scored by Gelson Fernandes of Rennes in the Brittany club's 2-0 victory over Stéphane Moulin's side right back at the start of November. Angers have shut out Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon, last season's top two, since then.
Yet this was a display that was symptomatic of continuing convalescence, rather than complete recovery, on the part of Sagnol's team. The win over Guingamp is their only one in the last seven matches, and it showed. Bordeaux never looked like building on Rolan's opener - which was expertly queued up for him by the veteran Jaroslav Plasil - which was one of only three efforts they had on goal all afternoon. Angers, who for all their qualities are hardly flamboyant having scored at a rate of less than a goal a game this season, had a comparatively plentiful seven attempts from less possession (47%).
It's reflective of a tentative Bordeaux, who consistently struggle to show real personality away from home. They average 11.3 shots per game, which leaves them pretty much in the middle in Ligue 1, as the 11th most prolific, but away from home, that figure drops to 8.7. Only Reims (8), Bastia (7.9) and Montpellier (7.7) get fewer shots away on the road.
In terms of taking the bull by the horns, so much relies on Wahbi Khazri, who had their most threatening effort other than Rolan's goal at Angers - a curling shot that was well tipped away by Butelle. The Tunisian midfielder remains the Girondins' outstanding player, rating 7.43 for the season and registering six assists and netting a further four goals. Yet he has not had as many attempts at goal this season pro rata either, with his efforts per game dropping under an average of two for the first time in his top-flight career (1.8 this season so far).
To credit Sagnol, he adjusted his formation to make his side more attacking, moving from the habitual 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3, which was a successful experiment in the Europa League curtain call against Rubin Kazan - producing 20 shots, 12 of which were on target - and was thus continued with at Angers.
There had to be a change to make up for the lack of goals from Bordeaux's forwards. Rolan, who by his own admission has suffered from a truncated pre-season after returning from the Copa America, hit 15 in 28 Ligue 1 starts last season, but his goal at Angers was only his second so far this domestic season. The switch in shape could have been made for him; it got him back on the scoresheet against Rubin and a second straight goal has put him in a great spot to get on the sort of run that his team need him to.
A lot weighs on Rolan. Cheick Diabaté can be almost unplayable on his day, and his goalscoring ratio is excellent, but he has never started more than 17 Ligue 1 games in a season since arriving in 2010 due to recurring knee problems. The imposing Malian only has four starts to his name this season and no goals to boot. Isaac Thelin, meanwhile, is scoreless in two starts this campaign.
In the past, many would have seen Henri Saivet as the solution. The academy product was extensively compared to Thierry Henry in his youth but now, at 25, has been one of the team's standouts after converting to a defensive midfield role, an unlikely switch, but one that has seen him an average rating of 7.33.
This revelation, and the switch to 4-3-3, authored partly in response to Saivet's absence with an ankle problem, have both been successes by default, which takes us back to the heart of some of the Ultramarines' grievances. The lack of investment has left Sagnol to make do and mend. If Bordeaux are to edge anywhere near to old glories, or even if they are to entertain their suffering public, there are some big choices to be made by the board.
Are Bordeaux beginning to show signs that they have turned a corner? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
