It was my intention to try and post something daily for a few weeks to signal the start of the busiest period of the year for clubgowi , but felt unable to do so yesterday as we had only one preview in the newsletter, however, it still has value as a sample and contains some information that I feel you can use in the coming weeks . So ............

France: Ligue 2

Nancy- Tours

This match will conclude R1, much of which has been about a exciting as watching paint dry ! The nine games to date have produced a total of eight goals, four of which came in one game, with seven producing one goal or less, including five 0-0 draws and no home wins.

Even by early season Ligue 2 standards that is a little out of the norm and hopefully the coming weeks will provide far more entertainment.

We can normally expect an attacking approach from Tours, something which was a recurring theme in Ligue 2 notes last season, when they were also very fast starters scoring a lot of goals and dominating most matches through the opening period and writing in late March I said .....

Tours are the archetypal first half team, something we have have touched upon many times this season and they have collected 44 points before the break, just 19 after and are 7-3-3 at home in the first half with games averaging 1.77 goals per opening 45 minutes. Their loss at Sochaux last week, where they blew a first half lead has left them four points from safety , so, with a bigger offensive threat than most teams at this end of the table, I expect them to be throwing caution to the wind from now on in, especially in home starts.

They were not seeing out games particularly well despite those flying starts and with seven rounds to play were still three points from safety, but finished four points clear of the drop zone and reaped the benefits of an attacking approach on the road, with 1.31 points and 1.82 goals per game over their last 11 away starts, after scoring just four goals and collecting a single point from their first eight. The board also made a big gamble in bringing back Andy Delort to the club on loan for the second half of the campaign after his big money move to Wigan Athletic did not work out, he would not have been cheap, but it paid off and survival targetswere achieved. Tours had finished between 6th and 12th in each of the preceding six seasons and will surely be targeting, as a minimum, another mid table campaign this year and a degree of stability. With that in mind, I guess the appointment of new coach Marco Simone makes sense, he is rather defensive minded and has made clear his intention to play 4-3-1-2 which is not going to give them a lot of width, but Christian Kouakou and Geoffroy Malfleury upfront ( Delort has now joined Caen) do naturally drift wide so maybe they will supply the width and with it a lot of pace. Malfleury served us well on loan at Istres where he scored 9 goals in 15 appearances for a very poor team, things did not work out for him at Le Havre, but he had quite a few injury issues. If he can get a run of games and stay out of the treatment room, he could have a big season. Likewise Alexy Bosetti, who has arrived on loan from Nice, he has never been out on loan before, or played for anyone other than his home town club, but might be up for this, lower level opposition and the luxury of a regular start and has already scored in pre season.

I like the signing of hugely experienced Laurent Agouazi in midfield, he was influential in the Caen promotion team of 13-14  and the one which went close the year before ( when they averaged 0.42 points per game more when he played), he moved to Greece last season , but is now back and looks a good addition an old head to play alongside what is a youthful midfield. He has spoken very highly of the new head coach who sold the club to him and said he and the rest of the squad want to "move mountains" for Simone. Anyway, they look decent enough, many people feel like this is a season of consolidation for them and one where they will be far tougher to break down defensively, that should be the case and it all makes sense and if they can continue that habit of taking an early lead, they will be far better equipped to hold on to it and I am not 100% certain that Simone will have as defensive approach this season as we might expect and he has named a rather offensive looking squad for a road game today.

Nancy are in their third season in Ligue 2 and will doubtless be looking for a promotion push after ending their last two campaigns at this level strongly, however, they have developed a bit of a habit of starting the season way too slowly and in both 13/14 and last season, they had to wait until matchday 7 to record their second win, in their relegation campaign it took 22 starts (!) and the season before that 13 matches ( ten without a win) and they need to find a win to address this and not give up so much ground in the opening weeks. They have a big budget and should be up for a top 5-6 finish, but have made a lot of changes and that will not help redress that traditional slow start and I will take ............

Good Luck.