Jorge Sampaoli’s negative tactics are not working at Rennes
Jorge Sampaoli’s negative tactics are not working at Rennes
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The squad should be challenging for Europe. Instead, they are drifting towards a relegation battle. By Eric Devin for Get French Football News. There has been a trend towards younger, or at least more progressive, managers in France of late, and largely to good effect. The football played by Will Still, Luka Elsner and Liam Rosenior is innovative, modern and genuinely thrilling to watch. Older managers are also making their mark. Franck Haise is doing much the same at Nice as he did at Lens, and more recent arrivals Adi Hütter and Roberto De Zerbi have Monaco and Marseille playing some fine football as well.
![[Séko Fofana is not impressed with his manager’s tactics.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d0122d6eb85fe1edd0e17696c92b9b3f56c718f4/0_0_4000_2667/master/4000.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Antoine Kombouaré and Jean-Louis Gasset are still stalking the sidelines at Nantes and Montpellier, respectively, but the era of apoplectic warhorse tracksuit managers seems to be well and truly gone in France. René Girard, Frédéric Antonetti, Michel der Zakarian are all out of a job in the top flight, and Olivier Dall’Oglio’s departure from Saint-Étienne seems to be working well for the club, who have looked far more cohesive under Eirik Horneland.
![[Khvicha Kvaratskhelia had an impressive league debut against Reims.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6577b15e4a601dc3697c71935e7ad53f182b2019/0_100_3511_2241/master/3511.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The elephant in the room is Jorge Sampaoli at Rennes. The former Argentina, Chile, Sevilla, Marseille and Flamengo manager replaced Julien Stéphan in November when the club had dropped too 13th in the table. After another defeat at the weekend, they are down to 16th.
This comes despite a significant outlay on transfers in the summer — the club signed no fewer than nine first-team players at a cost of €80m, and they have spent another €35m this month on Séko Fofana and Brice Samba. Granted, there have been a raft of key exits - namely Martin Terrier, Désiré Doué and Benjamin Bourigeaud – but proven players such as Glen Kamara and Hans Hateboer have arrived to replace them.
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