He had to take his troubles patiently, sometimes being content with small bits of the match or even additional time, but it was worth it. Yanis Merdji (28 years old) has finally launched the machine! Whereas Niort occupies a very honorable 7th place in League 2 (28 pts) 5 points from the playoffs, the Franco-Algerian striker opened his personal counters in December: a goal in Dijon, another and an assist in a 3-0 victory against Pau, before that, a very accomplished performance against Toulouse when he was replaced on the right… For three days, the offensive has completely changed in dimension, until becoming indisputable in the XI of Sebastien Desabre at the end of the year. He replied to our colleagues of The New Republic in their columns this Tuesday.
Read also >> Niort – Sébastien Desabre: “We have cohesion in relation to our common project”
« We can say that it’s a click, because when you’re an attacker and you arrive in a new team, it’s always good to score, it allows you to free yourself, to have more self-confidence. These are situations where I go to the end of the actions, I believe in my teammates. This rewards the work that has been done before. I try to take marks, because it’s not easy when you’ve played six or seven years as a centre-forward and you move to the side. Afterwards, it’s true that I sometimes dezone and play on the side so we try to take our bearings. With Darlin Yongwa, we were starting to have some together, to have communication, to be well in place. »
The same goes for his relationship with Ibrahim Sissoko: “We try to find each other even during training sessions. It’s true that it’s a good point of fixation, it allows me to free myself and to be able to take the defense behind his back. It’s very interesting and I think we can be very complementary together. These are benchmarks that are starting to come, we have to keep working. There is a group of young players, but several know the Ligue 2 level. I am thinking of Dylan Louiserre, who is a year younger than me but who has been playing there for quite a few years. It’s a young group, which lives well, there is a good mentality. They are young people who work a lot and who are attentive, so that facilitates integration. »
Photo credit: Romain Perrocheau/FEP/Icon Sport
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