The Coach of Chateauroux is getting on my tits a bit.
Win under challenging circumstances in the last game but still missing a few players.
So what to do? Reward the team that won through? "Go again, lads". Nah, change both personnel and system and subsequently lose.
Even their rather sparsely populated message board was none too happy. That's the thing with the Championat National. It's so tight this year, you can err between triumph and disaster on a weekly basis! I think
Roygbiv can rest easy tonight but here are some of the comments. I can’t guarantee this will be a regular feature as there message board is quite sparsely populated but as we know a defeat brings more out than a victory!:
"If the Berri had wanted to give itself the means of its ambitions, it should have solved the problem of its coach, defeated regularly against stronger tactically than him"
"His stubbornness and therefore his lack of tactical finesse lead to wanting at all costs to play an ultra defensive game that only works for a while."
"This has been our big problem for a very long time (since V.Zwunka?) our inability to recruit a good coach and good players. "Tonight we saw all the limits of the tactics put in place by Chabert. Playing the compact low block with 8 defensive players shows all the ambition of the coach maintained since his arrival at the club."
"Chabert is a redneck."
Welcome to Chateauroux, the Kevin Blackwell years, as prickly, balding ex-goalkeeper negatively sucks the life out of a team, destined to fall short.
Once Darren Smith on Twitter had mentioned that all three United World teams could top their respective leagues, the dye was cast!
Drama to one side, Chateauroux had just come off the back of a very good win against US Dunkerque, they played with a young, imposing guy, Ahoussou at centre back, twinned with another left sided player Basque who has been playing in central midfield but has experience higher up playing also at centre back. Both Ouaneh and Sangante were back after suspension and so was Youssouf.
As opposed to making a decision he opted to accomodate the experienced players by dropping the 4-3-3 for which they had recruited all summer to a 5-3-2.
What that meant was Mbenge moving from LB to LWB, Youssouf coming in as RWB replacing Fouda, who has been pretty weak at RB of late. He then squeezed in both Sangante and Ouaneh alongside Basque and at the expense of Ahoussou, who actually scored the winner the last week.
Shorn of the creator of that goal, Sunu, who got injured, he opted for (all sigh) a flat midfield three comprising Viltard, promising young number 6, Mexique, another relatively defensive midfielder and Daham, a central midfielder for whom I'm still struggling to see what he actually brings.
Up front Nolan Roux and Bianchini with Ntolla, who had been set up as the main creator in the 4-3-3 dropped to the bench to sit alongside Germouche, Ndour, Ahoussou, Fouda and Ntolla.
The first half had few chances and was relatively even. A few regulation saves but definitely lacking penetration from the Châteauroux side and it’s in games like these they miss a natural poacher. Roux at his age does a job but he’s no longer a natural poacher and the departure of Robinet, who you may recall stopped going to training in order to force a move, really is missed in these sort of games. It also coincided with both Sunu, the scorer from 2 games ago and Grange both being unavailable.
To the second half and some poor defending on the right hand side saw the ball dragged back only for the Concarneau midfielder, Traore, to slot home.
There then came a miss of epic proportions from Daham. A ball from Mbengue from the left was headed across goal and all he had to do was deflect into the left half of the goal and he headed back across and straight at the keeper. Easier to score than miss.
They paid the ultimate price as Mannai’s shot somehow was not properly diverted by the keeper and it squeezed into the net in another break.
So disappointment for Châteauroux especially as the Coach opted to change a winning team.
The next game is the return of Robinet as they host favourites Nancy in a game
They could do with not losing. They are 3 points off top, joint 5th, equal 9th, and with Dunkerque and Concarneau leading the way.
Some relief however as they now enter the Coupe de France. They play a little known team called AS Chouzy-Onzain in what is the first round for teams from National. Hopefully it will prove a confidence booster before Nancy next week.
See 2:08 for the sitter:
