How do you play maintenance when you are not (at all) ready like the Girondins?

It was destined to happen eventually. The slope had become too slippery with the seasons due to the endless sporting degradation of the Girondists since the last title in 2009. Then what had to happen happened. Bordeaux is playing well this season. After finishing 14th and then 12th in the last two years, the club is now in
16th place in Ligue 1 and he is only five small points ahead of the red zone with five days remaining in the championship. Like a visionary
Jean-Louis Gasset He had warned at the start of the season by observing the general condition of the Marines and whites – “watch out, others have burned their wings in the past” – and asked everyone to be very vigilant.

The current situation gives him the reason, although surely he had not foreseen the terrible black streak that his team has been experiencing since the end of January. A series of 11 losses in 13 L1 games. The dynamics are catastrophic in this final sprint and today worries at its highest point all FCGB fans while King Street, the investment fund that owns the club, has just announced its departure from the club. But beyond this observation, now there is a question: How will this team mobilize and behave, which is not entirely prepared to play maintenance? Some teams know from the start of the season that they will fight to the end for their skin, this is the case today for most direct competitors.
of the Girondists (Dijon, Nîmes, Lorient or even Brest), although they certainly did not imagine being there at the end of April.

Girondins de Bordeaux: What does the withdrawal from King Street mean and what possible scenarios? https://t.co/f6iQcZZy46 via @ 20minutesBord pic.twitter.com/3wUyO6aKuF

– 20minutesbordeaux (@ 20minutesbord) April 23, 2021

Become aware of the situation very quickly.

On the one hand, Jean-Louis Gasset has been repeating for several weeks that his players have “become aware of the situation” but on the other, that he does not believe they “feel the weight of the decline”. However, it could be the time before it is too late while waiting to find out what happens to the club off the field. This Sunday afternoon at the Moustoir (3pm), Girondins will play a six-point match against Merlus in a very concrete context of course since the King Street announcement on Thursday. “It is even more difficult when you are not used to playing at the bottom of the table. I remember that in my time we were in this situation without really realizing it, we had to be on the edge of the red zone to react and sometimes the reaction comes too late. We had really been on the brink of disaster, ”explains the former Marine et Blanc guard. Frédéric Roux, member of the team that had escaped on the last day of 2004-2005.

Those who say they are “concerned about the lack of reaction and collective revolt” of the current team recalls that the maintenance operation fifteen years ago had undergone “many discussions and a strong voice from the leaders.” This was in particular the aim of last week’s “family reunion” in Haillan where the players made a pact to try and save the club before saying goodbye. Gernot Rohr, he too had a career to maintain with Girondins in 1996:

I think there are three things to put in place quickly in these types of situations: having a coherent speech, hardening the training on a physical level so that it feels very hot and above all, for this particular team. , to find the tactical solution to stop scoring goals [13 buts encaissés lors des quatre derniers matchs]. »

Frédéric Roux adds that there is also the solution of self-management, “it was a bit our case” in 2005. Problem, if the Bordeaux wardrobe “is not Baghdad and there are no clans as in Koh-Lanta »Says midfielder Yacine Adli, there does not reign either
the best atmosphere in the world, according to Laurent Koscielny.

The heart before age or experience.

By not having a team prepared to play maintenance, Jean-Louis Gasset intends to rely on the many experienced players that make it up (Costil, Mexer, Benito, Sabaly, Baysse, Koscielny before his injury, De Préville, Briand or Ben Arfa). However, during the last meeting, he established the young Tom Lacoux. Again, it is not easy to follow. In any case, for Gernot Rohr in this situation, “it is not a matter of age or experience because the main thing is to have fighters, warriors like guys like Lizarazu, Toyes or Grenet in my time. “

“You have to trust players who have the culture of the club, the love for the jersey. Guys you can count on, trustworthy and who stay calm to avoid anything that is sent off and penalties at those times, ”adds the current Nigeria coach. Always so effective, Yacine Adli seems like this: “We must stop hiding! I am not afraid of relegation and I am doing this job to play these kinds of matches, even if, of course, fighting for Europe is more enjoyable. “

The command course, always a good solution.

In an attempt to re-mobilize his team, the Bordeaux coach has decided to take him to training this week. This Thursday, the Girondists took the direction of Ploemeur a few kilometers from Lorient to prepare for Sunday’s meeting. For Gernot Rohr and Frédéric Roux, “it’s a good thing”. The first “would not have gone that far” but recalls that in 1996 “he went out one day a week in the area with his players to clear his mind.” The second also had the right to a command training course in the final stretch, a “good solution to avoid too much external pressure, from the media and especially from the fans.” He just hopes “it’s not too late!” “.

The two men are also without a coach change at this point in the season, when few coaches would have resisted such a series of results. For Rohr, it is “in principle because I sympathize with my colleagues, although sometimes, in the short term, it can work. It is above all a question of dressing room and not of the coach ”. Roux puts on a cape: “For me, that’s not the solution at all! I don’t see what effect this would have today, five days before the end. We should already find the right person, then he will not necessarily meet the group all of a sudden, he may be operational two games from the end. ”