France: Ligue 2:
Le Havre- Clermont (written today 09.45 UK time)
I was big on Le Havre last early season and spoke in detail about their signings and potential last July/August and those notes are reproduced at the foot of this email. Not for the first time they blew a good promotion chance with a mid season blip after a solid start, but came on strong at the end of the campaign to force their way into the playoffs and nearly going all the way. Of the players I highlighted below, 17 goal striker Jean-Philippe Mateta has now completed his loan and left for the Bundesliga for a 10m transfer fee, but the rest are still here , at least for the time being, including wizard Zinedine Ferhat (pictured) who has had four goals and 20 assists (not a misprint !) last season. I am surprised there has not been more concerted transfer interest in him. Defensively they look solid and have conceded just one goal in four league and cup starts, recording back to back wins after two draws, they were always going to have a few cobwebs to blow away after their extended 17-18 season and coming so close and in very dramatic circumstances and given all that, it has been a very promising start to the new campaign. They have struggled in previous years to make the most of home advantage, but are 18-8-2 here since February 2017.
Clermont continue to overachieve on a small budget in what is a rugby area and have had a tough week, playing Saturday , Tuesday, Friday. They lost the first, 3-2 at home to a strong Metz side , leading 2-0 with an hour played and having central defender Florent Ogier sent off late and winning comfortably at third tier Laval in the cup, a ten hour round trip (ten played in both, two other players also made the long midweek journey). The visitors have lost a LOT of talent from last season goalkeeper Paul Bernardoni, central defender Thomas Fontaine and Nicolas Gavory have all moved on , the trio only missed 8 games between them in 17/18, striker Ludovic Ajorque has been sold and veteran forward Remy Dugimont is sidelined meaning they are without their 32 goals (25 and seven assists) contribution, which over 59% of what Clermont scored.
1.75 units Le Havre -0.75 ball 2.40 asian line/Sportmarket.
Havre AC : Thuram, Balijon - Bese, Moukoudi, Mayembo, Bain, Camara, Coulibaly - Fontaine, Ferhat, Lekhal, Youga, Bonnet, Basque - Assifuah, Thiaré, Bazile, Gory.
Clermont Foot : Jeannin, Patron - Albert, Kavdanski, Laporte, N’Simba, Ogier, Phojo, Sissoko, Soares – Douline, Gastien, Iglesias, N’Diaye, Pereira Lage, Rajot - Ayé, Bayo, Honorat.
Good Luck.
Written August 4th 2017
I only went with one game last week (Tours-
Le Havre) to get the Ligue 2 campaign rolling and I was pleased with it, not because
Le Havre won 3-0 , that was the bonus, but because the content was really on the ball , I will reproduce that in full as I am covering both teams today and have
highlighted some of what I feel are the more key lines of comment ..........
Tours had Denis Bouanga on a year long loan last season and he was a revelation, scoring 16 goals and adding six assists from midfield, he scored in 8 of their 10 wins, had an assist in another and is going to be very hard to replace, after returning to his parent club and being heavily touted for a big(ish) money move.
The hosts have made a habit of starting recent campaigns slowly and won just 1/11 through the opening three months last season, 3/14 in 15-16 and 3/15 in 14-15.
Today they will also be without last season's second top scorer Cheick Diarra and, of the six forwards named today, four are inexperienced and/or not really goalscorers and have four goals between them at this level, the two others have good scoring potential for L2, but one of those only signed on Tuesday and the other has had issues and is an out and out winger anyway. It just feels that yet again, Tours will need time.
Le Havre have been amongst the promotion favourites for the past few years, but tended to also start slow themselves, before finishing strongly , they have placed 8-4-7 in the last three seasons, missing promotion by one goal in 2015-16. Last season felt like it might have been the one, as they finally got that solid start winning their opening two games and being top three at the end of October, but they lost their head coach which was disruptive and as a result,their way. They did win their last two starts by a combined 8-1, which includes a 4-0 win here in Tours on their last away outing, that was only 11 weeks ago and will give them recent and positive memories of the game when they step off the team bus this evening. They sold left back Ferlan Mendy to Lyon for a massive fee and got 20 yo striker Jean-Philippe Mateta from the same club on a season long loan, he is very well thought of and the type who could take Ligue 2 by storm.
I found this interview with his agent from earlier this year, I think it is interesting as it gives you an insight into his young career and how teams like Lyon can perhaps take a longer term approach than their Premier League counterparts ...........
"Despite the short playing time he had with the first team, he is a player who has made a lot of progress. I had the opportunity to see all the matches he made with the reserve and some practice with the pros, and he is a player who has really evolved. On that side, we are very happy, because that was the program we had planned. We know that we signed a long contract (five years), and that the aim was to prepare him at the highest level. For a player coming from National, there are stages to cross. He is in a first stage to continue training him, to teach him the very high level, to allow him to progress physically, to have him train with very great players like Lacazette, Fekir, Valbuena, or Nkoulou who have a great experience. He learns from day to day, we are in this first part of the project. "
"It must not be forgotten that he had only one year of training in Chateauroux before coming to the OL. It is a player who is not yet "finished", even if I think he would play in other clubs of Ligue 1 because he really has qualities of striker. He has not yet been able to show that he could score goals and was still more ready than that. There was a discrepancy between the expectations of the general public, namely a real lining in Lacazette, and the programming made for the player. " It is a project on the long Term, and President Aulas makes thoughtful investments. If he decides to take Mateta for € 5 million, it is because he knows that the potential is very important. If it takes a year or two before it explodes, it's not a problem.2
"We talk quite regularly about his evolution with the various coaches or Florian Maurice (recruitment manager). They see him evolving, even if he still lacks a few goals in CFA (he scored a goal for the moment) while he has found quite a few times the posts on the last matches. But in the content, there is a real evolution, his matches are good, his buddies of the reserve and the pro team know him better and better. There is a real evolution, when there are specific training strikers we see that he progressed right foot and left foot. It's going well, it just takes a little bit of time to see it at the OL and, why not, by the end of the season whether it's for a full game or half an hour of play. "
HAC have also brought in a number of other talented players and have a good record with "raw" or players who have not quite fulfilled their potential elsewhere and a famed youth set up, I especially like the signing of defensive midfielder Amos Youga from Gazelec, who lost 7/15 when he was absent last season, "just" 6/23 when he played. Early last season I spoke about Zinedine Ferhat............... His absence will have got the attention of Le Havre new signing Algerian winger Zinedine Ferhat, who could go down the same route as HAC's last "name" Algerian signing Rihad Mahrez, Ferhat has every trick in the book and then some and there will be plenty of entertainment in watching him this season.
He took time to gel, had one assist from first first 18 appearances, but gradually got up to speed and had three goals and six assists from the end of January and we can expect plenty from him this season, now that he is settled. He scored the opener in that 4-0 win here and then laid on the second and will surely be looking forward to today. We can also expect to see far far more from striker Ebenezer Assifuah, who was prolific for the Ghana U20 team (top scorer at the U20 World Cup in Turkey), he played very little after his arrival last January (confidence needed rebuilding), just 87 minutes until the last two games, but he scored in both of those and we can expect far bigger things from the still only 24yo (''I decided to move because I want to play every week, Le Havre is a big club and their vision is big and I love that mentally.'') . Le Havre will miss Mendy of course, but look more solid defensively elsewhere, especially in the central spine and have two potentially free scoring strikers and a magician loading the gun, definitely a team to watch this season and lots to learn from their opening 3-4 games.
So much good stuff in one preview, Assifuah scored after nine minutes, Ferhat had "three" assists (officially two, but I just do not understand why he was not given one for the third !) and they also had a "good" goal disallowed.Tours were largely tootless with just two attempts on target in the 90 minutes, as opposed to nine for HAC. All in all, a very pleasing start to what might well be a thrilling campaign for
Le Havre, but we have been here before with them and what they now need to do, is build on that, they struggled at home last season, but were 5-2-1 here from February onwards and will be looking to continue that form and this is a very important game for them.
I love the match videos on their website, they are always edited to give you some background "fillers", this is something we have spoken of before with HAC, the players looked incredibly relaxed arriving at Tours and did some intense warm up routines , some of which I had not seen before. Team spirit was great and all goals, including one deep in injury time, were celebrated en masse and that is always a good sign and not as common as you might think. This is a team/squad absolutely packed full of character / characters and confidence, look at this video from 04:50 onwards to get some idea. Everyone gets to see match highlights, you can learn more sometimes from what is going on around the game and that is why it is important to watch live events where possible. Anyway, Assifuah looks sharp, Ferhat might be the key playmaker in the division, Mateta is HUGE and will be a real handful, Youga a midfield boss and they were not the only players to impress !
