At the start of this 2023/2024 season, everyone in and around Girondins welcomed the return of the accession roadblocks, which offered more opportunities to move up. And no one, of course, cared about the last four places which sent the teams back to the Nationals. The time has come to worry about it. Bordeaux, the championship’s biggest budget (50 million euros), is relegated after a logical defeat in Bastia (3-1).
Since its…
At the start of this 2023/2024 season, everyone in and around Girondins welcomed the return of the accession roadblocks, which offered more opportunities to move up. And no one, of course, cared about the last four places which sent the teams back to the Nationals. The time has come to worry about it. Bordeaux, the championship’s biggest budget (50 million euros), is relegated after a logical defeat in Bastia (3-1).
Since his victory snatched from a deflected strike at Valenciennes (1-2) on September 16, an eternity, he has accumulated three draws and four defeats, a catastrophic dynamic and light years from his ambitions. Paradoxically, fifth place is no further away than before this weekend, nine points ahead, but second, synonymous with a direct climb, is 14.
Does it still make sense to talk about the Ligue 1 objective in the face of such a gap? Only a third of the season has passed, the schedule which is announced until the break is quite favorable (five teams from the second half of the table and Saint-Étienne) and sometimes it only takes a little thing to launch a dynamic. The problem is that these Girondins are sick and today they are more stuck in the impasse than ever.
The wall is getting closer
The replacement of David Guion by Albert Riera, almost a month ago, brought absolutely nothing. The team is not playing any better, it is taking even fewer points than before, and individual errors continue to pile up. A suicidal restart from Clément Michelin, a more than risky placement from Malcom Bokele, and Bastia had already made the break in less than twenty minutes.
The Girondins squad is intrinsically weaker than last season, without an effective attacker or an attacker capable of destabilizing an opposing block. Too many players are far from their best level. Albert Riera tries to impose his influence, but his choices are difficult to read, some players change positions week after week (Diaz, Michelin, Barbet, etc.), and on the field, Saturday, several looked lost, not knowing what to do with the ball or where to turn to find a partner.
They repeat over and over again that the training is excellent, that they are progressing and that the tide will turn one day, but time passes, bad results keep coming and the wall gets closer week after week. Staying in Ligue 2 would already be very bad news for the club, relegation would look like an industrial disaster. However, it is indeed the ghosts of the 2021/2022 season which resurface, when all of Haillan proclaimed that the squad was better than last place and that it would end up paying off.
Attitudes question
The absence of Stian Gregersen is a real mitigating circumstance. Since its exit at the half-hour mark against Rodez last Saturday (2-2), Bordeaux have conceded five goals, and that cannot be a coincidence. Riera, who did well to throw Marvin de Lima but perhaps should have left the field open to Michelin, also cannot teach his players to ensure a pass from five meters, to compensate for a rise or to run to catch yet another loss of ball in a festival of technical errors.
Because certain attitudes observed in Bastia on Saturday evening raise questions. The first 35 minutes were uplifting. Faced with an overexcited Bastiais, who galloped to the four corners of the field, harassed the opposing ball carrier, stifled the restarts, the Girondins appeared apathetic, even after having conceded the first two goals. We also had to wait for coaching in the second half to see the team pull itself together, after a third goal conceded from a free kick where the entire defense was remarkably passive.
This absence of revolt is perhaps the most worrying aspect of an evening which pushed Gérard Lopez, via his entourage, to increase the pressure. The reception in Annecy (13th), next Saturday, promises to be much more tense than expected.
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