Football: Nîmes, straight ahead!

Ismaël Camara est l’un des trois seuls buteurs nîmois en championnat. Midi Libre – MiKAEL ANISSET

National/8e journée. Globalement inoffensifs jusqu’ici, les Crocos, qui reçoivent les Lionceaux ce vendredi 4 octobre à 19 h 30 aux Antonins, doivent enfin passer à l’attaque. Pour gagner et regarder devant au classement.

Nostalgia is not very good. But still. This week of the Champions League has brought to the surface (of penalty, or not) some notable performances from the recent history of the Crocodiles. It was against the new French heroes in C1: the 4-0 victory inflicted on Brest in August 2020, the 2-1 or 2-2 with Lucas Dias (and not Chevalier, but Maignan, already André or Osimhen opposite, excuse me for saying so) brought back from Lille in 2021 and 2019.

Europeans Lille and Brest in Aimargues

It was in Ligue 1, and it was less than five years ago. In about ten days, Nîmes Olympique will not play in the European Cup, but in Aimargues, in Petite Camargue, for a 5th round of the Coupe de France. Such is the destiny of a National team. The one led by Adil Hermach has had a sluggish start to the championship, below the expectations born from an exciting end to last season and a rather successful 2024 return phase (4th assessment).

To do even better, sporting director Sébastien Larcier had set himself several objectives to achieve during the summer transfer window. Including building a squad capable of scoring at least 50 goals (36 in 34 games last season, penultimate attack).

The worst attack among clubs with 7 matches

It is clear that the problem remains. Among the teams that have played the first 7 games (each time there is an exempt player), NO is the least prolific in the division. Only 5 goals, including two penalties, for only three different scorers: Abdeldjelil (3), Ali Abdallah (1) and Camara (1 penalty).

However, Nîmes has recruited, and its two central attackers, namely the first two named, are not the most to blame in the Gard squad, far from it. So ? So “to pass the barrier of 45 or 50 goals, it is not only the attackers who must score”, Hermach replies. Who points out another offensive weakness: “the CPA (set pieces), on which we cannot break the opponent's lock. And in today's football, the CPA, it is a third of the goals. We are looking for a trigger".

The 4-2-4 à la Bernard Blaquart, the solution ?

To make it pop, the crocodile coach resurrected the 4-2-4 à la Bernard Blaquart in Villefranche, unfortunately without any success. "But it could have,resumes the current coach. By the way, I say hello to Bernard! The 4-2-4, or the 4-4-2, is a system where the occupation of space is well managed, you have width, depth. And when you are very compact, you are hard to maneuver. Our first half is very solid. If we score, we have our reference half… And this system is very much in the news: Lille used it wonderfully against the great Real."

Here we are again in the middle of the Champions League. Except that here, with Adil Hermach, unlike Luis Enrique, we can talk tactics.

Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. at the Antonins. Referee: Gabriel Henry.

Namakoro Diallo went to Quevilly (N) on Monday. Blocked by Mehdi Beneddine at the left-back position, the one who had nevertheless been one of the best Crocos of last season asked to leave. Nîmes released him.

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