Nîmes Olympique changes course and returns to verticality to try to gain offensive efficiency

Malgré les cinq buts d'Orphé Mbina, l'attaque croco n'est pas suffisamment performante. En jouant plus direct, Nîmes espère pouvoir marquer plus de buts. Midi Libre – ALEXIS BETHUNE

Frédéric Bompard et le staff croco, en 2024, ont décidé de mettre en place un jeu plus direct et plus adapté aux luttes acharnées du National.

Nicolas Usaï is not back, but the verticality that was dear to him is. The latter had disappeared with the arrival of Frédéric Bompard, a fan, as he said during his presentation, in November 2022, of a well-polished, short, possession game. on the ground". The crocodile coach and his staff, at the beginning of 2024, decided to bring this verticality up to date. The holidays allowed "a rethinking and it was therefore decided to "change our approach and our way of playing", explained the technician Nîmes last Saturday in Orléans.

Bompard: "That suits us better"

Indeed, in Loiret, Nîmes used a more direct game (only 324 passes counted), trying, with a lower block to leave more space in front of him, to play behind the Orléans defense.

"That suits us better, Frédéric Bompard explained to Midi Libre on Wednesday. To progress into a placed attack, you need to have good technical mastery, which is not always our case. In National, we undergo a lot of pressure from our opponents, and when we do not have total mastery on the technical level, we get punished. I'm adapting to the Championship and the players I have."

The need to go into the opponent's area more often

It is with the aim of "looking for more efficiency and going a little more into the opposing penalty area" that this new plan has been adopted, and too bad if it will generate "perhaps more waste in our game". So, in recent days, during training, we heard the Nîmes coach say several times to his players: "Play long, not always at the feet", and congratulate them after a goal scored in just three passes: "There you go, we have to move forward, get that into your head!"

A recruit approaching, Mbina on the flank

Mercato. Interrogatedé this Saturday, January 13, during the transfer window, sports director Sébastien Larcier responded: "I’m making good progress on two issues and I hope’ complete one next week." One of the two (offensive) recruits should arrive on loan.

Injuries. Mbina felt pain à the right adductor on Friday. He hasn't trained yet. this Saturday and he is forfeited for the trip to Sochaux. It should be delivered for the reception in Rouen on January 26. Which should not be the case for Doukansy, who is still nursing a ligament injury in his knee. Sy (ankle) is also out. Dias is in rehabilitation and Ondoa is in rehabilitation. the CAN with Cameroon.

Diouf: "Don't deny yourself but be more pragmatic"

Defender Waly Diouf is not against this change of foot, he who notes: "The National is a championship where the teams play fairly fast, fairly straight and vertical football, favor transitions and play on the errors and opposing losses in the ball recovery. We must therefore be more pragmatic and, above all, more effective. This does not mean renouncing our principles and never coming out clean again. If we have the opportunity, we will do it, but we also have to know how to alternate. It’s so difficult to succeed in the first shifts and arrive in the opponent’s half of the field that we must avoid, then, going back. When you make a difference, you have to know how to improve it by finishing the action with a cross or a strike."

Take advantage of Mbemba's speed

"We don't get enough into the opponent's area, continues Diouf, we don't get enough penalties, corners, etc. We really need to correct that in 2024, move forward, be pressing, oppressive, so that the adversary feels waves and waves coming towards him. That’s how we’ll do badly offensively."

The speed of Mbemba, who "goes at two thousand per hour" (Diouf), who "has pep and juice& quot; (Bompard), and the ability of Mbina and Doucouré to block the balls must in particular help the Crocos to find this verticality, to play more easily in first intention, the objective being of course to be more dangerous and score much more. Because with only 15 goals scored, Nîmes currently only presents the 15th attack of the National.

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