“The change of coach doesn’t explain it,” said Lille’s Sofiane Boufal on Saturday night, struggling to put his finger on just how his team’s fortunes have taken a U-turn in the space of four days. “We’ve always worked hard.” There’s working, though, and there’s working the Frédéric Antonetti way.
Even if the 54-year-old was born over 1,300km from Stade Pierre Mauroy, in the village of Venzolasca on the northern tip of Corsica, he and his new club appear startling well-matched. Lille lost their way this season under Hervé Renard, with the football his team produced the polar opposite of his sparklingly bright trademark white shirts.
Antonetti is a no-airs-and-graces, altogether more brusque type, not bothered about appearances and closely in tune with the city’s working, union stronghold roots. Lille’s latest win - their second this week - against high-flying Caen strongly embodied these values.
To win at the Michel d’Ornano requires organisation and grit, and Antonetti’s new team had plenty of both. They also - Renard might argue - had the touch of luck that had eluded them in recent weeks. Even Florent Balmont’s injury withdrawal after half-an-hour panned out nicely for Les Dogues. Balmont was replaced by the more ‘spiky’ Mounir Obbadi who, while not having the greatest game, did the dirty jobs well, having made one tackle and interception apiece and played four long balls, in a game where directness was an asset.
Taking the last decade of French football history into account, it was unusual for Lille to decamp to Normandy as underdogs, but they played the role smartly and with humility. While it’s too early to claim a revolution is afoot in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Antonetti’s message is getting through. Lille have taken six points from two matches against much higher placed sides - after beating Saint Etienne on Wednesday - by playing sensibly and economically.
If goals change games, then it’s a cliché that’s particularly true in Ligue 1, which is especially circumspect. It’s even more the case for Lille, who were the division’s lowest scorers before Antonetti arrived. Even now, after the relative bounty of three goals in those two wins, they have scored a meagre 11 in 17 league matches to date.
In a sense, Antonetti was lucky. His debut on the bench was in a visit to Angers, the promoted side who have become, improbably, Paris Saint-Germain’s dauphin. Everything that could go wrong for Lille did. They lost 2-0, failed to get a single shot on target and had Renato Civelli sent off for a high boot deep into the second half.
Two aspects of that miserable evening did Antonetti a medium-term favour. Firstly, it made him quickly understand just how bad things were for his new team. Secondly, Stéphane Moulin’s side reminded him how far you can get in this season’s Ligue 1 with a relatively simple formula. Defend diligently, be direct, and make the most of your chances. In playing to their strengths, Angers have risen to second despite scoring less than a goal per game so far, though they have the division’s second-best defensive record, with nine conceded.
The margins are fine - Lille themselves have only conceded 12, meaning that the team in 13th - they were 18th when Antonetti took the helm - has the third-best defence in the league. It was clear that a few tweaks were all that were needed to make an underachieving, albeit capable, squad effective.
As an outsider, Antonetti was well placed to make those adjustments. He knows that the current group can’t hold a candle to 2011’s double winners - containing the likes of Yohan Cabaye, Adil Rami and Moussa Sow - quality-wise, and that it’s time to face reality and move on. Earn the right to play good football rather than put the cart before the horse will be his strategy, as it was at Saint Etienne and Rennes before.
Crucially, the buy-in from his players seems to have been almost immediate. With star turn Boufal serving a ban, Antonetti used Yassine Benzia wide on the right against Saint Etienne in midweek, a position the former Lyon striker has admitted he is not keen on playing in.
It worked a treat, though, with Marvin Martin’s excellent long pass finding Benzia in the right-hand channel to smash a magnificent volley past Stéphane Ruffier for the crucial winner. Neither player was hugely effective under Renard - largely because of injury - but Antonetti drew the best from them by getting them to play specific roles, and to follow his instructions to be direct. Benzia’s goal was one of three efforts against Sainté, all of which were on target.
In a great bit of carrot and stick psychology, Antonetti then rewarded Benzia by playing him in the centre-forward role at Caen, as Boufal returned on the right. After playing an inside-right role against Les Verts - see WhoScored’s player average position chart - Benzia led the line at Caen, with the wily Boufal as a de facto support behind him.
Benzia again delivered a star display in Normandy, finishing Djibril Sidibé’s cross for the first at the end of one of the finest counter-attacking goals you will see this season, before rattling in the second.
Civelli’s return was crucial too, and his partnership with Adama Soumaoro was the bedrock which saw Lille through, particularly in the closing stages when Caen pushed after pulling one back through Andy Delort. Again, the pair kept it simple, making an astonishing 29 clearances between them. Civelli made no tackles and Soumaoro only two, showing Lille’s determination to play safe and cut off the danger at source.
Hard work is a given, and Antonetti has left his men in no doubt over the workrate required of them, but his Lille are already more intelligent than their early season incarnation too. Those twin approaches are a handy formula in a Ligue 1 season, which is very open below top spot.
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