Finding a home base, control in the game and quickly getting points: MHSC begins its season in Ligue 1

Téji Savanier's MHSC, here during a friendly match against ASSE in Lunel, starts its season with a home match against Strasbourg. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

MHSC wants to rebuild a sovereignty at home that it lacked last year, as well as a game focused on control before the first test with the reception of Strasbourg this Sunday (5 p.m.). 

La Paillade returns to the center of Montpellier. Since the beginning of summer, the city's monuments, the Arc de Triomphe, the town hall and the regional hotel have been draped in this orange and blue jersey, the tram winds through the streets to tell its tortuous story and the Opéra-Comédie has transformed into the Louis-Nicollin Museum.

Montpellier breathes through every pore of its walls to the beats of the 50th anniversary of the football club, born in this northern district of the city in 1974 and driven by an intact popular power.
“We don't need that to mark our territory, or show that we are the emblematic club and sport of Montpellier", assures Laurent Nicollin.

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For half a century, the city of Montpellier and its club grew shoulder to shoulder without knowing who was blowing on the other's legend. They watched each other out of the corner of a watchful eye, but moved in the same direction. That of the history of a city, the seventh in France, and of a club that has entered the elite to play its 16th season in a row, the 33rd in a history magnified by a Coupe de France and a title.

“We weren't up to par last season at home”

MHSC takes over its city, which can sometimes give the impression of turning a deaf ear, and Michel Der Zakarian's team intends to regain possession of La Mosson, where it gave the impression of being a bit of a stranger last season.

It did not lose there often (five defeats), but it did not win more than a relegation-prone team. With three meager victories (Toulouse, Metz and Lorient), it has condemned itself to defy the vertigo of a descent until the saving spring.

“We weren't up to par last season at home. We have to win a lot there. When we needed the public, they were there with us. We need to win more matches to take them with us”, sighs the Swiss central defender Becir Omeragic, promoted to vice-captain.

More control in the game ?

At the end of a season frozen on October 8 by the firecracker affair and mutual incomprehension, the partners of Téji Savanier, a child of the Gély estate and an adored player, want to feel the breath of the Butte and the La Mosson public behind them. To become one.

Montpellier wants to win back hearts, wants to win back control of a game, victim of the effectiveness of its transition game around the rockets Mousa Tamari or Arnaud Nordin. Throughout the seven weeks of preparation, the MHSC has been changing. To get its foot back on the ball, as they say in the stands of La Mosson.

“We worked on things to suffer less and play more. It suited us to suffer, because we had a strong team in transition. Today, we are perhaps at the end of this cycle and we must play in a different way. “I can't wait to see what this can produce in competition,” says goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte impatiently.