If there was ever a word to describe Saint-Etienne’s season so far then “mediocre” couldn’t be further from the truth. Sitting smack bang in the middle of the table with a record of four wins, four defeats and five draws. There was hope that this season was going to promise so much more.
Coach Christophe Galtier was very active in the summer’s transfer market. Eight players came in while a few big names left to pastures new. Looking at the WhoScored ratings from last season Galtier had to cope with the loss of his two standout players.
Dimitri Payet (7.21) went north to Lille, taking his 13 goals with him, and then PSG snapped up Blaise Matuidi (7.07) removing an integral part of St-Etienne’s midfield.
Finishing 10th last year it was obvious changes had to be made. Going forward the side were fairly dangerous, only five sides scored more goals, though at the back the defence struggled and conceded 47 goals.
It is probably for the best that the Stade Geoffrey-Guichard is under-construction at the moment, god forbid more people should have to watch the struggles of Les Verts this season. Only two teams in Ligue 1 have scored fewer goals.
Joining Payet out the door went Emmanuel Riviere and Gonzalo Bergessio. Replacing the 21 goals these three provided were Lynel Kitambala, former Auxerre and Lorient forward, and the journey-man Florent Sinama-Pongolle. A product of the excellent Le Havre youth system, he has always struggled to live up to that tag.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang continues to play on loan from AC Milan. Instantly the questions were raised. “Where would the goals come from?” It seemed the plan was to rely on the wing play of Bakary Sako, Max Gradel and Banel Nicolita. The hope being if you provide enough ammunition from the wide areas and throw enough strikers at them, the goals will come. Unfortunately it hasn’t gone to plan. In fact, not much has at St-Etienne this season.
Looking at the recruits, it seemed that Galtier had strengthened the defence. Jean-Pascal Mignot from Auxerre, Brazilian Paulão arrived from Braga and the 32-year old American Carlos Bocanegra moved on to Scottish champions Rangers.
It was clear that the coach was happy to put trust in impressive youngsters Loris Nery, Faouzi Ghoulam and Kurt Zouma and the most telling signing was to replace fans favourite Jeremie Janot with Monaco’s #1 Stephane Ruffier.
Ruffier’s reputation as one of the league’s best goalkeepers was without doubt and the €3m deal to bring him north could be one of the signings of the summer.
Everything outside the forward line looked in place, Galtier then pulled out an interesting coup, talking former Lyon and Tottenham midfielder Steed Malbranque into a return to France.
As has been well documented, Malbranque only ever made one substitute appearance for Les Verts. The midfielder replaced Sinama-Pongolle in the 0-0 draw away at Marseille with 26 minutes to go. The fans would never see him pull on the green shirt ever again.
Malbranque quit the club under confusing circumstances, and it seems this could have thrown a spanner in Galtier’s plans. The midfield is full of combative defensive minded players. Jeremy Clement, Loic Perrin and the excellent Joshua Guilavogui are all able to win the ball, break up play and keep the game flowing. None of them, however, are the most creative of players, and the stats so far clearly show this.
Perrin leads St-Etienne in average passes per game; with 55.7 he is slightly ahead of Clement on 49.7 and Guilavogui with 41.4. When it comes to key passes all three disappear from the list. Signed from Rennes Fabien Lemoine leads the way with 1.8 key passes and in turn leads St-Etienne with three assists. Below Lemoine is winger Sako with 1.5 and forward Aubameyang with 1.3. On average, St-Etienne only attempt two through balls a game, with only 19% of their attacking play coming down the middle.
Any scout report would show a clear instruction. Stop the wide players and you stop St-Etienne. After the derby defeat to Lyon, Galtier spoke to LFP.fr and it was clear he knows his side lacks that extra bit of quality needed:
“We played well in the first-half and matched them. We fought well and showed the spirit you need to show in a derby, with intensity and everyone working hard for each other. But then after the sending-off there was nothing. We got caught between two chairs and ended up falling over. Last season we won here with a lot of luck. There was a massive gap between the sides. This time, the gap was smaller but Lyon had that something extra: experience."
Lacking creativity through the middle leads to most of St-Etienne’s good play going down the wings. This season 44% of attacks have gone down the right but no matter how well any of the wingers play, the squad lacks the quality upfront to cause defences problems.
Failing Front Men
In the thirteen league games played so far out of Aubameyang, Sinama-Pongolle, Kitambala and youngster Saadi, only four goals have been scored, all ,as it counts, by Aubameyang. It would seem that Galtier got it terribly wrong when recruiting his forwards.
In Ligue 1 Kitambala has played 46 games, more accurately that’s 2659 minutes of top flight football. In that time he has scored six goals, that’s one goal every 443 minutes.
On loan from Sporting in Portugal, Sinama-Pongolle’s record is not much better. In 231 games he has scored 44 goals. That’s one goal in every five games. His record is saved by his time at Recreativo in Spain; he managed 22 goals in 68 games. Outside his time at Recreativo his average goes to one goal in every seven games. Not exactly causing the Ligue 1 defenders sleepless nights.
Top scorer Aubameyang has impressed at times but already with four goals he has doubled his record amount since he moved to Ligue 1 three years ago. With all St-Etienne’s attacking threat to come from the Gabonese striker, this puts unwanted pressure on his inexperienced shoulders. With his rating of 6.61 he has performed well, however he is not the answer.
There is no doubt that Galtier has the nucleus of a good side, with the correct signings in the right areas this squad could easily challenge for a top six place and move away from mid-table normality.
