Stade Rennais 15/16 Season Discussion

Glasgow_Celtic · 31-01-2016 03:17:46

MichaelBBack a écrit:

Glasgow_Celtic a écrit:
The Orlando Pirates fans rate him very highly. Good to see our prayers have been answered and we've managed to get a striker in.
Oh do they? I've been searching for info about him but haven't come up with too much. Watched some videos on YouTube though. I know that those montage videos aren't the best way to judge a player, but he scores some very nice goals. What I like from what I've seen is that he doesn't seem to ask himself too many questions or try to do too much. He gets in the box, receives the ball, takes one or two touches maximum and then goes for the bottom corner. He's got confidence and he can pick a nice shot, even with a couple of defenders blocking his path.
He's not in the squad for tomorrow, which isn't much of a surprise. Perhaps he could make his debut at home against Saint-Etienne though. Either way, as you say, I'm really glad we've got another striker in. Hopefully he'll do well, but even if he doesn't bag half a dozen goals in his first ten starts it's just good to have someone else for that position. It'll allow Sio to rest a bit and also give him a bit of competition, which could be good motivation. Plus, he's barely cost the club anything and could turn out to be a real hidden gem. Fingers crossed.
Kermit, welcome and good luck.

Yeah they love him down there. I run an English speaking Rennes fans account and it has just exploded on that with the news. Inundated with Pirates fans talking about him and how much of a loss he'll be and how lucky we are to have him.

New York Breton · 31-01-2016 06:14:46

Glasgow_Celtic a écrit:

New York Breton a écrit:
It seems like our Stade Rennais is at a major crossroads here. Perennial contenders like Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux and Lille are all underachieving and the Champions League spots are as wide open as they'll ever be. The way the next month shakes out will have a huge impact on the season, and by extension next season (European competition or not)
at Bordeaux (12th)
vs Saint-Étienne (6th)
at Lille (15th)
vs Angers (3rd)
at Caen (7th)
These games are absolutely critical. I see a win tomorrow against a Bordeaux side decimated by injuries.
An even more challenging stretch begins in mid-March: Lyon, Marseille, Reims, Nice, Guingamp, Monaco, PSG.
Should be aiming for 9-12 points from those. That's realistic and achievable as well.

9-12 out of the next 5, or the later stretch? I see us beating Bordeaux, Lille and Angers. There's 9 right there. Home against Sainté and away to Caen will be trickier.

As far as the later stretch of games, time will tell based on form and injuries but I'm not as optimistic. That's why I think these February games are so important. Lyon and Marseille both dropped points again this weekend; Nice and Caen have difficult tests tomorrow. And next weekend all the other contenders have tough matches:

Monaco-Nice
Angers-Lyon
Bordeaux-St Etienne

This month is the time to maximize points and consolidate a nice league position while direct competitors face challenges

MichaelBBack · 31-01-2016 22:12:36

Glasgow_Celtic a écrit:

Yeah they love him down there. I run an English speaking Rennes fans account and it has just exploded on that with the news. Inundated with Pirates fans talking about him and how much of a loss he'll be and how lucky we are to have him.

Very good to hear, especially after this evening's dismal display!

Tonight's game was not good at all. Still, I won't jump to any hasty conclusions and think Courbis obviously needs to be given the benefit of the doubt. He tried something a bit different, pushing Quintero further up the pitch as a sort of False 9. It wasn't a terrible idea on paper, though it may have been a little naive. I think the strategy was for Quintero to draw defenders out of position, allowing Ntep and Sio to break through. The Colombian could then use his excellent passing range to create chances for them. It worked out quite well for the first quarter of an hour, with Sio getting through at least once and Ntep having 4 or 5 opportunities. Unfortunately, we didn't take any of those chances and then Bordeaux woke up. I think 4-0 is a very unfair scoreline and doesn't tell the story of the match, but we didn't play well. Mexer had a bit of a rough return, MBengue was very poor and a lot of the positive things we saw against Ajaccio had simply disappeared.

Most of our players were simply phased out of the game due to Bordeaux's pressure. Courbis responded at half-time and made the changes many fans were calling for, but none of it worked out. We had some really good opportunities, but the ball didn't want to go in. Just off the top of my head, there was a Quintero free kick that was blocked on the line twice and there was another moment when Dembélé simply had to square the ball to give Sio an easy tap-in but decided to go it alone. The substitutions were pretty disappointing. Kamil was relatively invisible and Boga didn't do a great deal, but I can't blame any of them because I don't think a single one of our lads will be proud of his performance tonight.

In other news, Pedro Henrique is almost certainly being loaned out to Nantes for the remainder of the season. It's only fair on him, I suppose. We've got quite a few wingers and I think he would have been spending a lot of time on the bench. Still, he's a player I admire, particularly for his tenacity and work rate. Hopefully he won't help Nantes out too much!

I think the Saint-Etienne match becomes a bit of a must-win now. This is an important week and we won't be favourites when we go to Lille next weekend, so it's important to start up a run at Roazhon Park and get 3 points on the board on Thursday. It'll be tough but I hope that some lessons have been learnt tonight and Rolland can motivate his men.

EDIT: Apparently Henrique is staying but we have now lost Doucouré to Watford (who decided to loan him straight over to Granada). Got 10.5M euros out of the deal according to most sources, which isn't bad for the club. I'm not really sure how I feel about this one. Gourcuff will be back soon and there are some exciting young midfielders at Rennes including Janvier, Poha, etc. but still... Doucouré isn't the best player but I think if he'd been used in his preferred position more frequently, he could certainly have evolved into a great player for us. I think he'll do well in England. I'm happy with the money the club got in the deal but I don't rate Sylla and I think Gelson has struggled a fair bit this season as well. Thank god we've got André, otherwise the midfield would be quite weak. The transfer window has seen us sell a young talent for an eight-figure fee and recruit a somewhat unknown striker for a few hundred thousand. Financially, that's great, but we'll have to hope it plays out nicely on the pitch if we want to finish in the top 6.

Dernière édition de: MichaelBBack (01-02-2016 23:35:37)

New York Breton · 05-02-2016 00:13:00

I'm having one of those existential sports crises. I forget why I even enjoyed watching sports in the first place. And I don't know why I keep watching this team, keep following the news, keep hoping, keep believing, when it's the same shit year after year.

New kits, same old shit.

New players, same old shit.

New stadium name, same old shit.

New coach, same old shit.

Of course, I'll be back for more pain on Sunday.

krm

Roudoudou · 05-02-2016 10:23:45

More elegant to say it the old Motown way, no ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS2nWLz-AbE

MichaelBBack · 05-02-2016 10:41:24

I know how you feel NYB, just be glad you didn't waste a whole night (and the price of admission) walking up to the stadium in the cold and watching the thing live. I can't remember the last time I sat through such a horrendous display. And here we all were talking about the Champion's League. I mean I've only been following the team for a few years and I'm absolutely gutted with last night's effort.

The worst thing is, as you say, we'll all be back on Sunday for more. The optimistic ones amongst us will somehow convince ourselves that the next match will be the one, that it's not over yet, that we're only a few points away from the good spots.

It's hard to be positive after last night though. We just look completely bereft of inspiration. It's incredible to see a team of professionals have no clue whatsoever what to do when they get the ball. We created virtually nothing. And then the one decent chance we make, towards the very end of the match, gets completely wasted by Sio who couldn't even hit the target from 5 yards out.

Get Gourcuff in. Get Erasmus in. Start André in every game. And where the hell is Baal? Do something Courbis, please. We need three points on Sunday.

Glasgow_Celtic · 05-02-2016 20:21:32

Well, that was one shower of shite last night! mad

I think we had two chances the entire match, Boga's effort over the bar and Sio's....whatever he was trying.

All very static, no movement in the midfield. What a difference it is though with Andre on the field, player of the year for me maybe. He's someone who can do the dirty work but also pick it up and get something going out of nothing.

Don't know why we persist with Sio and Boga up front. They're never lone strikers, and Boga isn't even a striker full stop! Once the opposition know to isolate Ntep and let Ousmane doddle on the ball, then they know how to beat us.

I live in hope that Kermit The Frog does a turn for us in the coming matches. I think there's some serious problems with our jumping at centre-back. I don't understand why big Sall was Armand's man at the crossed free kick which led to ASSE scoring.

MichaelBBack · 06-02-2016 00:28:59

I think you mean Danzé, rather than Armand, but yeah I'm not sure why Romain was marking such a big lad at a dangerous free kick like that. We really need to sort out our defending in general from set pieces, give up way too many goals to those.

Agreed about André. He really does make a big difference whenever he's on the pitch. Very lucky to have him and we need to use him as much as possible in these last few months.

The group for the Lille match has been posted. Still no Gourcuff, still no Kermit, still no Baal. 8 defenders in the squad. Apparently Mendes will be used as a DM. For me, he was easily our best player against St Etienne and I suppose he can do a good job in that position. With him and presumably an Armand/Mexer combo at the back, we should at least be pretty solid. We've just got to start creating more though. There's just too many individuals and not enough teamwork.

Glasgow_Celtic · 06-02-2016 01:03:34

MichaelBBack a écrit:

I think you mean Danzé.

Yeah, don't know why I typed Armand. facepalm

Dernière édition de: Glasgow_Celtic (06-02-2016 01:03:48)

New York Breton · 07-02-2016 00:26:57

Glasgow_Celtic a écrit:

What a difference it is though with Andre on the field, player of the year for me maybe. He's someone who can do the dirty work but also pick it up and get something going out of nothing.

MichaelBBack a écrit:

Agreed about André. He really does make a big difference whenever he's on the pitch. Very lucky to have him and we need to use him as much as possible in these last few months.

The guy has been the team MVP since last spring. Good work rate, wins free kicks all over midfield, and an all-around likeable player. And the only player who consistently connects the defense and attack. (Occasionally Armand and Danzé do contribute in that regard). The French announcers for Thursday's game were not great, but they correctly observed that the team seems to be "cut in half."

MichaelBBack · 08-02-2016 00:20:51

Another poor match today, to be perfectly honest. Fortunately, Lille weren't great either and I think a draw was a pretty fair result in the end. There were some poor refereeing decisions throughout the game and worrying performances from certain players, but not as bad as the St-E match. Fortunately, cool as a cucumber Dembélé managed to slot away a very nice penalty. Ntep wasn't great in this game but he did at least manage to earn us that spot kick (and should've been awarded another one!).

I felt like, once again today, one of our biggest recurring problems is not starting games in a positive fashion. We've let ourselves down so many times in the first halves of games this season and it happened again today. There's also the issue that after we got the equaliser, we suddenly didn't look too bothered about pushing for a winner. A point at Lille isn't bad, especially with our history against that club, but still... they were on the ropes and down to ten men, there was no reason for us to become so lethargic all of a sudden. Hopefully, with Gourcuff finally set to come back this week and perhaps link up with the likes of André and Quintero, we might be able to start ending those "coupée en deux" critics and start seeing better teamwork and fluidity all around the pitch.

Personally, after seeing so much crap out of Sio in the past couple of months, I'm really looking forward to our first sighting of Erasmus. I feel and hope that he could really offer something different. I've watched more footage of him and am starting to understand some of the admittedly optimistic people who compare him to Tevez. He's a good little fighter who battles away for the ball and doesn't lose it easily. Where Sio might just give up and shake his head, I feel like Kermit will put in the extra effort and try to make the difference for the team. I do hope he gets an opportunity soon to show us what he can do.

Johnny Q. · 13-03-2016 09:50:24

Hey, what do you think about the victory against Nantes ? And, what are your forecasts for the end of season ?

Glasgow_Celtic · 14-03-2016 15:52:58

Johnny Q. a écrit:

Hey, what do you think about the victory against Nantes ? And, what are your forecasts for the end of season ?

The Nantes victory was obviously fantastic and very unexpected in the way it happened with the four goals coming in the first half. This is great for any derby! big_smile

I think we are doing ok to good so far, obviously our target is to finish as high up in the league as possible and we're doing ok in that respect. Yesterday vs Lyon we seemed to revert back to old Rennes in the first half - we were run over and just couldn't keep up with them and I thought we'd blown it. However, in the second half it was a completely different change, we seemed more energised to the point we matched Lyon and this showed by scoring the two goals to level the match.

MichaelBBack · 14-03-2016 17:40:03

Johnny Q. a écrit:

Hey, what do you think about the victory against Nantes ? And, what are your forecasts for the end of season ?

An incredible victory. Truly incredible. I couldn't believe it. It was a historic moment for the club and I think it gave the players a lot of confidence too. The free kicks were really smartly worked and Dembélé absolutely deserved his hat-trick. It was a shame about the red card for Sio and the second half was obviously a little disappointing compared to the first, but we played so so well and I was really happy to have seen the match.

Then there was the Lyon game. Another brilliant moment. Someone in the French side of the forum said something like "Last season, at 2-0 down, we would never have been able to come back and get that draw, but this season is different" and I completely agree with that. There's a real fighting spirit in the team lately and they showed a huge amount of character and determination to score those two goals. I mean... Lyon were obviously a lot better than us technically. They were running circles around us in the first half and they seemed to be so much faster and fitter, but I think our players deserve a lot of credit for staying in the game and giving every bit of effort they had. For me, Lyon are easily the second-best team in France this season and we've managed to take 4 points from them, so that's a huge achievement!

As for the end of the season, it's so hard to judge. I think we've obviously got the potential now to keep this run going and pick up some important points, but there are a lot of big games still to come. We've got to play Paris, Marseille, Monaco and Nice, and none of those games will be easy. I think we need to try and win as many of the "easy" games as we possibly can (Bastia, Guingamp, Reims, Montpellier) and just do our best in the others. If we can win the easier games and pick up 4 or 5 points in the tougher games, we could definitely finish in the top 6.

Personally, I hope and believe we will finish 5th or 6th. I'd like us to finish higher, obviously, but I think Monaco are too far ahead of us and Lyon are too good. I just want us to get into the Europa League and I think, over the course of the season so far, we've been good enough to deserve that. We're really starting to play well lately and I think Courbis has been great for us. He's not a master tactician or anything, but he's got everyone motivated and he's making some smart decisions in the games. We just need to carry on like this and hope that players like Dembélé and André carry on being brilliant.

New York Breton · 18-03-2016 19:50:56

Johnny Q. a écrit:

Hey, what do you think about the victory against Nantes ? And, what are your forecasts for the end of season ?

In my opinion, the best team performance all season.

The team has the chance to take a huge step forward by qualifying for Europe next year, and I believe it will happen. Does anyone have the specifics on what happens to 5th and 6th place if PSG wins both cups?

MichaelBBack · 30-03-2016 16:26:07

New York Breton a écrit:

Johnny Q. a écrit:
Hey, what do you think about the victory against Nantes ? And, what are your forecasts for the end of season ?
In my opinion, the best team performance all season.
The team has the chance to take a huge step forward by qualifying for Europe next year, and I believe it will happen. Does anyone have the specifics on what happens to 5th and 6th place if PSG wins both cups?

This is a very belated reply, but I'm pretty sure that the teams in 5th and 6th go straight into the Third Qualifying Round for the Europa League. At least, that's what happened last year. Last season, PSG won both cups and the league. Saint-Etienne finished 5th, Bordeaux 6th, and both of those teams entered the EL at the third round.

In that round, Bordeaux played against AEK Larnaca, a Cypriot club, while Saint-Etienne played ASA 2013 Târgu Mure? from Romania. They then entered the Play-off Round where Bordeaux had to beat Kazakhstan-based club FC Kairat and Saint-Etienne were pit against the Moldovan champions FC Milsami Orhei.

Based on that, we would enter the third round and probably have a very decent chance of making it to the group stages. We'd have to beat two teams to get there, but it would certainly be possible, especially as the play-off round takes place over two legs. The teams in the third round and play-off aren't usually very good, with a lot of league champions and runners-up from countries like Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Finland, etc. However, there's always a chance we could get matched up against someone a bit tougher, so it's all about the luck of the draw.

Glasgow_Celtic · 03-04-2016 22:36:25

MichaelBBack a écrit:

New York Breton a écrit:
Johnny Q. a écrit:
Hey, what do you think about the victory against Nantes ? And, what are your forecasts for the end of season ?
In my opinion, the best team performance all season.
The team has the chance to take a huge step forward by qualifying for Europe next year, and I believe it will happen. Does anyone have the specifics on what happens to 5th and 6th place if PSG wins both cups?
This is a very belated reply, but I'm pretty sure that the teams in 5th and 6th go straight into the Third Qualifying Round for the Europa League. At least, that's what happened last year. Last season, PSG won both cups and the league. Saint-Etienne finished 5th, Bordeaux 6th, and both of those teams entered the EL at the third round.
In that round, Bordeaux played against AEK Larnaca, a Cypriot club, while Saint-Etienne played ASA 2013 Târgu Mure? from Romania. They then entered the Play-off Round where Bordeaux had to beat Kazakhstan-based club FC Kairat and Saint-Etienne were pit against the Moldovan champions FC Milsami Orhei.
Based on that, we would enter the third round and probably have a very decent chance of making it to the group stages. We'd have to beat two teams to get there, but it would certainly be possible, especially as the play-off round takes place over two legs. The teams in the third round and play-off aren't usually very good, with a lot of league champions and runners-up from countries like Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Finland, etc. However, there's always a chance we could get matched up against someone a bit tougher, so it's all about the luck of the draw.

I wouldn't take these teams from lesser countries as wins for granted. I've been following Celtic (a team probably just as/were as good as Rennes right now) and they have faced some very tough ties over the years in their qualifying rounds. I'll note that the hardest fought were the ones in the far off non-European countries such as Kazakhstan. A few years ago, Celtic lost 2-0 over in Karagandy but managed (just) to beat them in the return leg at Celtic Park. These big distances in far off roasting hot countries is a different environment entirely, and most of the Rennes players have no European football experience.

Dernière édition de: Glasgow_Celtic (03-04-2016 22:38:12)

MichaelBBack · 03-04-2016 23:28:56

Very true. My post might have sounded a little more dismissive of those teams than I really intended it to be. Most of those sorts of teams don't get too many chances of European glory, so they really give it their all in the qualifying games. We'd need to play very well to get through to the group stage, no doubt. I know how hard it can be to get through those early rounds and some of the lesser-known clubs can really surprise you from time to time, especially when they are located in "hostile" or difficult environments. Even the biggest English teams often struggle when playing in countries like Russia or Ukraine, for example. In fact, we only need to look at the French entrants in this year's tournament for some examples:

Saint-Etienne lost the second leg of their qualifying match against Târgu Mure? 2-1. They then barely managed to scrape a 2-1 win over two legs in the playoffs against Milsami Orhei. Meanwhile, Bordeaux didn't have any trouble in the third round, but again in the playoff they could only manage a 2-2 draw against FC Kairat and went through on the away goals rule. Then, of course, Bordeaux failed to win a single game in the group stage, and Saint-Etienne struggled as well, picking up just two wins from six games. Even Celtic failed to win a single match in their group as well, although it was a tough one! I mean even Ajax failed to get out of that group!

Still, I would imagine Rennes would at least be the narrow favourite in most possible matchups in the qualifying rounds. A lot of the squad lacks European experience, but a handful of them have played on the biggest stages. Guys like Armand and Gourcuff (if they stick around) have played dozens of Champions League and Europa League matches and could help the younger lads acclimatise. Players like Gelson, Pedro Mendes and Danzé could also help out with their own European experiences, and the squad has a fair number of full internationals who know what it's like to play in the big games. However, if we do qualify, I think we'll need to have a good summer and focus on recruiting a few guys with experience in this competition.

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