Nantes (AFP)

It's the excitement in Nantes. Between a training open to the public and a long-awaited match against OM on Saturday (5:30 pm), the new coach Canaries Christian Gourcuff arouses curiosity and has already made some popularity at the club.

His method is transparency: in a press conference as in the double interview page in L'Equipe, Gourcuff answers all the questions. And opens the training to the public, an unusual practice of the time of his predecessors, Miguel Cardoso and Vahid Halilhodzic.

They were also close to 300, as curious as passionate Thursday at the Jonelière, the training center in Nantes, massed in the space reserved for supporters: "It is a holiday (August 15, Ed) and it there is curiosity ", summed up another Christian, unconditional supporter of the Canaries, come with family.

- "Intense" -

Difficult to compare the methods, except for the players, after a training focused on pressing, conservation and rapid transmission of the ball. With Gourcuff in the center of the field, the front row, but less interventionist than "Coach Vahid".

"You would have come Wednesday, the session was even more intense," smiles midfielder Abdoulaye Toure. "These are two different ways of working, we're more into a zone marking job, where Halilhodzic and Cardoso were more of the individual taggers."

"We are getting closer to the Ranieri system, with a compact block and the will to go out on the opponent on a time of pass", continues the Franco-Guinean defensive midfielder. "We know that he is a coach who likes to play ball, and who says he plays ball, says to play with one or two ball touches, it will take a lot of energy. way after 30 years but we can have the same ideas ... "

In a week, Gourcuff had no intention of revolutionizing everything but Brazilian side Lucas Lima admitted to having "worked a lot of tactics". Some of his teammates opened their eyes wide and did not necessarily understand the instructions of the first exercise. But the essential was elsewhere.

- "I do not have 36 solutions" -

Gourcuff knows that time is running out, that "the problem is the delay", to obtain significant results while giving back a game identity to the Canaries. He also knows that "nothing can replace the competition" and the former coach of Algeria had become accustomed, in Lorient and Rennes, to align his team-type early in the week.

"I do not have 36 solutions, I've been there for eight days, I've made good progress in my workforce, and I can see the backbone of the incumbents," says Gourcuff. He assures that the youngsters "will have their chance" and considers that "22 field players, plus three goalies in training, is the ideal".

At the end of Thursday's session, the coach reunited his staff. Then he gave the media a little idea of ​​his feelings: "With the stress of competition, old automatisms emerge.I am more optimistic about the organization aspect.For the fluidity, it will be longer. long conditioning that is done through the sessions ".

The coach always has the same speed, trying to add with the experience a bit of humor: "I sleep less well, even at 64 years ... even if I am very happy to be back in the action permanently ".

Saturday, it is a full stage that awaits: "I came often to the Beaujoire but I do not know the dressing room home." He is just a little taller.

© 2019 AFP