Team Focus: Wide Men Keep Saint Etienne’s Euro Dream Alive

“They aren’t combinations we’ve worked on; it’s more about feeling.” Romain Hamouma’s summary of his Saint Etienne team’s attacking verve at Metz on Saturday was almost as encouraging for the future as the goals themselves that sunk Ligue 1’s bottom club. Having struggled to find the back of the net for much of the first half of this campaign, there’s a growing sense that Les Verts are starting to get some rhythm at just the right time.

Having scored only 2 in the first 4 Ligue 1 games of 2015, the 3-2 weekend win at Stade Saint-Symphorien means that Chrsitophe Galtier’s men have netted 8 times in their last 4 matches. The thrilling 2-2 draw against Marseille at the Geoffroy-Guichard just under a month ago was the catalyst for this, with Sainté forced to wriggle out of their inhibitions after Marcelo Bielsa turned a game that they had control of on its head with the successful introductions of Michy Batshuayi and Romain Alessandrini. As befits a club habitually so fuelled by history and adrenaline, the recovery of that “feeling”, as Hamouma put it, with Mevlut Erding’s late equaliser, could well turn out be a genuinely pivotal moment in their season.

There are now nine league games to go – with the not-insignificant extra of a Coupe de France semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain on the horizon too – and Galtier’s team are handily placed, a point behind Monaco in 4th and even, for the more ambitious amongst their support, 5 behind 3rd-placed Marseille.

Their run-in, and especially their next month, is a tough one with trips to Monaco and Lyon to come, but there is at least the sense that they are back in control of a campaign’s demands that had threatened to swamp them. Elimination from Europe and the Coupe de la Ligue has almost helped, according to Galtier. “Playing only once a week has helped us to get some freshness back,” he said post-game on Saturday.

The return to form of some of his key protagonists has certainly seemed to bear out that theory. Hamouma is a case in point. On Saturday he became just the sixth player to deliver 3 assists in a single Ligue 1 match since 2010 (the others include Olivier Giroud for Montpellier and, earlier this season, Caen’s Julien Féret). It took the 27-year-old’s total for the season to 8, double his tally from 2013/14 and winning him a rating of 9.33.

The lack of goalscoring contributions from midfield has fettered Sainté’s push towards the top three this season, and Hamouma has been a big part of that, having only scored 2 to date, after netting 9 last season. Yet his creative side is making up for it. Having delivered just 2 assists (and no goals) in his first 14 matches this campaign, he has now supplied 6 assists (and the 2 goals) in the following 13. Only Marseille’s Dimitri Payet (11) has created more goals than Hamouma now.

Hamouma and Payet, in fact, have plenty in common. Both prefer to be liberated in a central advanced role, as a de facto number ten, yet both are highly effective in delivering from wide areas. The versatility of Hamouma’s palette shone through at Metz, as he started on the right wing and drifted infield to create the goals that won the game (see WhoScored’s average player position map). His dribbling helped to cut open the home defence (3 were completed, to add to an average of 2.1 per match for the season), allowing the space to supply some of his 5 key passes on the day (1.9 average for the season).

He is not the only wide player shining for Les Verts in recent weeks. With Ricky van Wolfswinkel (5 goals) not having scored since before the winter break and Erding (6 goals) only beginning to recover his form and sharpness recently (3 in his last 7 Ligue 1 appearances), Max Gradel has stepped up to fill the void.

The former Leeds player has been buoyed rather than fatigued by Ivory Coast’s triumphant Africa Cup of Nations campaign. He has an average WhoScored rating of 7.6 (against a season average of 7.16) since coming back from Equatorial Guinea, and his smartly-taken opener on Saturday means he has scored in each of Sainté’s last four league games. It is already his best return since arriving in Le Forez in 2011.

The three of Gradel, Erding and Hamouma could be Galtier’s dream ticket for the rest of the season. At Metz, their movement was key to Sainté winning the game, with both wide players moving in from their starting positions to closely support Erding, with the full-backs François Clerc and Franck Tabanou doing their bit to hold the width.

Galtier has another secret weapon to add to the mix. Yohan Mollo – known as ‘The Ronaldo of Le Rocher (the Rock)’ in his time with Monaco – has often frustrated down the years, but has also made useful contributions since the turn of the year. Despite just a 14-minute cameo at Saint-Symphorien, Mollo scored the decisive third goal for his team, which was his 4th in 9 Ligue 1 matches in 2015 so far. This spell alone has equalled his best-ever goals total for a Ligue 1 season, simultaneously showing both what he could be, and what he has not been in the past.

Mollo has pace to burn, and good vision – he averaged 3 key passes per game during Les Verts’ Europa League campaign, bettering the 2.9 per game he averaged with Nancy during 2012/13. He has his part to play in the home stretch of this season. With Benjamin Corgnet still yet to register this season after scoring 7 (2 assists), somebody needed to pick up the slack, and Mollo is.

A collective effort has always been the essential element of all Galtier’s greatest moments at the Geoffroy-Guichard. With so much attention on the top three at present, Saint Etienne might just have the cover they need to make a late run at the podium.

Can Saint Etienne secure an unlikely finish in Ligue 1's top three this season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below