Ligue 1 Review | Lens strike gold with Pierre Sage | OneFootball

Pierre Sage didn’t have to wait very long to find a new job after he was sacked by Olympique Lyonnais in January. Five months after an unceremonious and unfair dismissal, he was picked to succeed Will Still at RC Lens. His work at Lyon had not gone unappreciated by a Les Sang et Or side who had been somewhat blindsided by Still’s decision to leave at the end of the 2024/25 season, only one year into a three-year contract.

Sage had worked miracles during his short tenure in charge of Lyon. From the moment he was appointed as interim head coach, midway through the 2023/24 campaign, Sage went about righting a ship that had strayed into dangerous waters. No one gave him much hope, Lyon were sat bottom of the table having chewed through Laurent Blanc and Fabio Grosso.

Sage was meant to be a placeholder, someone to keep things ticking until the winter break, when Lyon could stop and take stock and appoint a more experienced name. Only, it appeared that no one bothered to inform him of this, and if he was, he paid little attention to it, as he quickly corrected Lyon’s course taking them out of a relegation battle and up the table.

A market opportunity

Lyon crashed the European conversation earning a spot in the UEFA Europa League, while also reaching the Coupe de France final. He was awarded a two-year contract for his achievements ahead of the 2024/25 campaign, but a run of five games without a win across all competitions saw the club slip to sixth and four points of the UEFA Champions League places, which was enough for John Textor to call time on Sage.

Paulo Fonseca was swiftly shepherded in. Textor, the then president of the club, explained that it was  decision taken because the club had lost faith in Sage’s ability to secure Champions League football. Sage had a different interpretation, “It was a market opportunity,” he told The Athletic. “He wanted this coach for a long time, and he had the opportunityto get him, so he convinced him to come, and they did a deal for two and a half years.”

The problem for Sage was that despite the miracles he achieved and despite the signs all pointing towards him being a top class manager, there was a sense that he was still an unknown quantity, a head coach who had only managed 56 games at a professional level. He, admittedly unfairly, still felt like a gamble. And for a club that was betting the house on securing Champions League football, they wanted to hedge their odds… although they would end the season in sixth and four points off a podium place and automatic qualification to the Champions League.

Pierre Sage avoids difficult second album

Lens recognised their own market opportunity in Sage, and have trusted him with the keys to taking the club into a new and more austere era, and the reward so far has been clear. Like most of the clubs in Ligue 1, Les Sang et Or have had to sell high and replace where they can at a low cost. As a result, the squad on paper looks notably weaker in defence and midfield than what Still had last season, but that has not been reflected on the pitch or in the standings.

Despite having lost Brice Samba, Facundo Medina, Abdukodir Khusanov, and Kevin Danso over the past two windows, Lens have remained a solid team. The new look defence is the joint best in the league (alongside league leaders Olympique de Marseille), having conceded only seven goals in their first eight games.

This defensive solidity has been matched with an attack that looks to be slowly finding its rhythm. The summer additions of Florian Thauvin and Odsonne Édouard have given a new dimension to a team that was goal shy last season. Lens are perhaps not the most attractive team, five of their 12 goals have been scored from set pieces, but they are brilliantly effective under Sage.

In music, there is a cliché of a difficult second album, when an artist can’t follow up the pressure of repeating their debut success. Sage had warned The Athletic of something similar, “My second job will perhaps be the most important. I think it was Jose Mourinho who said you become a coach when you are fired the first time.” However, with Lens sat in fourth, Sage has been showing that he has plenty to give after leaving Lyon.

This week’s Ligue 1 subplots

GFFN | Nick Hartland