MHSC: a full-scale rehearsal for Montpellier before the start of the season

Akor Adams et le MHSC doivent monter en puissance avant le début du championnat. Midi Libre – GIACOMO ITALIANO

Der Zakarian's team will have a final test on Saturday, August 10, at 3:30 p.m., in Mainz (Germany), one week before the restart and three before the end of the transfer window.

Montpellier is halfway through. No longer fully prepared, not yet in the competition. Close to the moment of truth, no longer completely on trial. It will end its mini-tour of Europe this Saturday afternoon (3:30 p.m.) with a final real test on the pitch at Mainz, a club with a good average in the Bundesliga. After facing the Spanish Girona, the English Southampton, and the Italian Fiorentina, he will be in competition mode to measure himself against the intensity of German football.

“This will be a final good test to see our quality. We will approach it as if the championship started this weekend”, warns Franck Rizzetto, Montpellier's assistant coach in the front line alongside David Bechkoura in the absence of Michel Der Zakarian.

Thus, Montpellier will rely on the squad promised to start against Strasbourg. Suspended for the opening of the season, the young Craig Mamilo, young spare wheel of the central axis, and especially the striker Wahbi Kahzri, author of five goals in five matches, are not them of the trip across the Rhine.

A clear hierarchy, the emergence of young players and the start of the transfer window: Montpellier is wrapping up its preparation, which began on July 2 in Grammont, with a few lessons learned. For three games, Der Zak, who has been remotely controlling everything, has not deviated from a team organized in 4-3-3. A team where Enzo Tchato takes his place on the right side at the expense of Falaye Sacko, where the young Yanis Issoufou joins the Savanier-Ferri duo on a backdrop of promise and where the attacking trident formed by Adams, Nordin and Tamari seeks the best harmony and connection in the middle.

The youngsters forward

At the dawn of a season, where the youngsters will have their say willingly or unwillingly, Issoufou, a young 17-year-old from Nimes, displays both a natural talent and a consistency that seduces the technical staff.

The young attacker, with the profile of a winger, is taking advantage of the renewal of the midfield to get away from the strong competition in the wings (Nordin, Tamari, Maamma, Coulibaly) and play matches in a different register. Skilled in the game, technically gifted and stubborn, he needs to flesh out a still frail physique.

Can he start his second season in the professional squad with a first start ? His fate depends, a priori, on that of Joris Chotard. A revelation of the Olympic tournament with Thierry Henry's Bleuets, the defensive midfielder, who scored a stunning semi-final against Egypt, will have only four days to digest his recognition under the eyes of another world.

Chotard on the way out

Chotard (22 years old) is expected on Wednesday in Grammont to immerse himself in the daily life of his training club and forget the stars of the Parc des Princes. For how long ? Followed by several German, Portuguese and French clubs, the former Espoir international is promised a departure. As much for the needs of the club as for a change of scenery after five seasons in Ligue 1.

“The transfer window will settle down in the last fifteen days of August ” had prophesied the president of Montpellier Laurent Nicollin, forced to sell several players to balance his forecast budget.

Here we are. New approaches for Tamari, contacts for Chotard: Montpellier will be on the lookout for a market of extreme calm until then. And its team on the ford until August 30. Between the one that will start against Strasbourg and the one that will play against Nantes on August 31, there will still be some points of resemblance.

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