Ligue 1 Review | Troubled waters ahead for floundering Brest? | OneFootball

This feature is a repost from Get French Football News and can be found HERE

All things must pass, but for Stade Brestois and head coach Eric Roy, they would have hoped that the good days would have lasted a little longer. It was only last season that the club tasted Champions League football for the first time in their history, visiting FC Barcelona and hosting Real Madrid (albeit neither game happened at either team’s home ground, funnily enough), on course to a knockout round elimination at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain.

European football, at times, appeared a welcome distraction with Roy elsewhere cutting a fatalistic figure when discussing the future of the northern side. He warned his squad that they were in a relegation battle following a 3-2 defeat to AS Monaco in November, a statement which was likely meant to guile and cajole, rather than truly assess his side’s chances. And one that worked, considering Brest finished the campaign in 9th.

However, as the season came to its end, there was something far more troubling about Roy’s statements. They could no longer simply be dismissed as a psychological tactic to coax underperforming players; there was something strikingly different to his tone. Especially when assessing Les Pirates’ financial situation, “Luckily, there was this adventure in the Champions League because without it, we would have closed down… I think that, for now, Brest are condemned to fighting for their survival.”

A long bleak summer to forget for Brest

A bleak sentiment to end the season wasn’t helped by the club’s moves during the summer transfer window. Brest saw an exodus of players, 18 in total, including their raft of loanees, who had been drafted in to fill out a thin squad that was otherwise not built for playing in two competitions. However, it was the loss of core players that was perhaps the most damning for Brest, with Mahdi Camara, Marco Bizot, and Pierre Lees-Melou sold.

The club brought in Joris Chotard from Montpellier HSC and turned to their bench, promoting Kamory Doumbia to a more prominent role, to plug the gaps left in midfield by Lees-Melou and Camara’s exits. While in goal, Radoslaw Majecki was taken in on loan from AS Monaco to replace the Aston Villa-bound Bizot.

Brest would have been hard-pressed to replace just one of them with a like-for-like player, but given their financial situation, which sees the club operating with the second smallest budget in the league, they had to think creatively. As Roy lamented, “It’s true that we don’t have any means. But I am still shocked that we have a smaller budget than Metz, who are coming up from Ligue 2, when we are just coming out of the Champions League. But, well, it’s unfortunately the state that the club is in.”

Les Pirates’ glass jaw

For now, Brest’s summer business appears to have done little to disprove Roy’s predictions for a future “condemned to fighting for survival.” After drawing their opening fixture against Lille OSC 3-3, Brest went on to lose their next three games, with defeats against Toulouse FC (2-0), RC Lens (3-1), and Paris FC (2-1). The club now sit 17th in the table above FC Metz on goal difference alone.

The concern for Roy is that there haven’t been any signs across the four games that the squad are ready to halt their current trajectory. Brest have already shipped 10 goals (only Lorient, who conceded seven in one game, have a worse record, and not by much more, having conceded 12 in total). Worryingly, according to Opta, 83% of the shots they’ve faced have come from inside their box (the highest percentage in the league). It’s hard not to link the loss of so many experienced players over the summer with the club’s newfound glass jaw.

After only four games, it’s far too early to forecast doom and gloom for Les Pirates, but neither should we ignore the signs of troubled waters. There are certainly causes for concern, and it’s now up to Roy and the club to change their course while the season is still young.

This week’s Ligue 1 subplots

GFN | Nick Hartland