Team Focus: Jardim Already Under Pressure as Monaco Slip Up Again

“I’m not worried.” Leonardo Jardim’s verdict after another chastening Monaco defeat, against Bordeaux on Sunday night, may have aimed to bring calm to a shocked environment. It did, however, leave him in a minority of one. The Portuguese coach, who did a stellar job to guide Sporting Clube de Portugal back to the Champions League last season, might not last to lead his new club into the same competition at this rate, even if the group stage begins in less than a month.

Finalising Jardim’s arrival was a tricky operation for Monaco, conducted messily as they simultaneously tried to work out an exit package for an obstinate Claudio Ranieri. The Italian had claimed that “nobody would do a better job” with the Principality club on the eve of his departure. Ranieri had made the claim with his customary jocularity, but those words appear in a very different light now.

Before we even get into the detail, the facts are plain. After two matches, Monaco are second-from-bottom, with no points, flanked in the table by relegation favourites Lens and Evian. They have conceded 6 goals already. They had to wait until their 10th match to let in the same amount last season under Ranieri, during a 2-2 draw with Sochaux on October 20th.

The defence is already a cause for concern, with the manner of Monaco’s capitulation after half-time against Bordeaux quite alarming. They had led at the break via Dimitar Berbatov’s opener, but were undone by 4 Girondins goals in just 27 minutes. That both sides had 9 shots suggested two things; that the result was a little flattering to Bordeaux (something that their coach Willy Sagnol openly admitted after the match) and that Monaco were incredibly inefficient at the back.

If new coach Jardim cannot be held responsible for individual errors - such as the needless pair of yellow cards collected by Ricardo Carvalho last week against Lorient which saw the defence deprived of its most experienced member – some of his big decisions are open to question. His decision not to complete the signing of Victor Valdes is one, with Maarten Stekelenburg eventually signing on loan to cover Danijel Subasic. The latter had a solid 2013/14 but was poor at Bordeaux, failing to give his reconstituted defence (only Aymen Abdennour remained from last week’s starting back four) the necessary reassurance and conceded a penalty for Bordeaux’s fourth with a crazy rush from his line. Subasic rated lower than any other player in the game, with 4.91.

It was another unhappy night for Abdennour at the Chaban-Delmas too. Having conceded a penalty and made the error that led to the winning goal against Lorient (for a rating of 5.31), the centre-back’s foul on Wahbi Khazri led to the penalty which allowed Emiliano Sala to give Bordeaux the lead. 

Yet strange as it may seem to say, the major worries for Monaco were further forward. They flickered promisingly in the first half when Lucas Ocampos and Berbatov fired them to good effect. Both supplied 2 key passes, and Ocampos had 2 shots (including the match’s first effort on target, well saved by Cédric Carrasso) while Berbatov had 4. In this regard, it makes sense that Berbatov and Radamel Falcao will be the partnership of choice when the Colombian is fit enough to start, with the former Manchester United striker a far better line of supply for Falcao than Emmanuel Rivière ever could have been last season.

Valère Germain will be a useful back-up to this pairing, as he showed when providing the excellent cross for Berbatov’s goal. Yet while Ocampos furrowed to good effect behind the front pair, all three were isolated in the second half. Sagnol’s tactical switch at the interval introduced the returning Jaroslav Plasil (a midfielder) for centre-forward Cheick Diabaté. Bordeaux thus moved from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1, with Sala on his own up front but supported well by Khazri, Diego Rolán and Nicolas Maurice-Belay. 

Continuing the theme from last week in which Claude Makélélé duped the more experienced Marcelo Bielsa with a reshuffle, Sagnol managed to expose Monaco’s lack of width, getting his full-backs more involved in the attack too. There was no better example than with Bordeaux’s equaliser, when Julien Faubert sent in a deep cross from the right for left-back Diego Contento (on his debut) to intelligently head back for Rolán to tap in. 

Monaco’s midfield three, in this spell, left both the forward players ahead of them and the defence behind them to fend for themselves. Only the captain Jérémy Toulalan really showed any resistance, making 5 tackles, though in a sense he was part of the problem. The visitors conceded 21 fouls, almost twice as many as their hosts (12), and only 3 of Bordeaux’s 9 attempts on goal came from open play (compared to all 9 of Monaco’s).

While Toulalan struggled to hold it together, he received little help from his two central midfield colleagues. João Moutinho provided just 1 key pass from his 72 touches, reigniting the debate as to whether he would be better used in a playmaking position. Geoffrey Kondogbia (rating 5.97) had an even more disappointing evening, taking just 50 touches, making only 1 tackle and not making a single interception, key pass or shot. 

Shape is clearly something Jardim must work on. He went through four different formations to try and find the perfect blend against Lorient – 4-2-3-1, a flat 4-4-2, a 4-4-2 with a midfield diamond and lastly a loose 4-3-3 incorporating four forwards. The lack of contribution from two of his most valuable players in Moutinho and Kondogbia implores him to tinker again.

If it’s tinkering that Monaco need, of course, they might have been better off with Jardim’s predecessor. For now, the new man has some big decisions to make – as his Bordeaux counterpart did on Sunday night – if he is to stop Monaco’s season capsizing.

What should Jardim do to turn things around? Let us know in the comments below