- Robert Herbin, the mythical ASSE coach, died Monday evening at the age of 81.
- In 1974, he was the first coach of a club in Europe to use video images to prepare a meeting and analyze the opponent's game.
This is the story of a Champions League match won thanks to a “video recorder”. In his autobiography On m'appelle le sphinx, Robert Herbin related with a few words straight out of France from Giscard how he managed to motivate his team to make up the deficit by three goals after the defeat in the first leg match in Cluj, 4- 1, in 1974.
“The afternoon was less pleasant since it was devoted to viewing the images of the first leg on a video recorder. A test no doubt, but also the confirmation of our mistakes. This initiative to review a match, which we all wanted to erase from our memories, was nothing machiavellian. On the contrary, it was part of a program intended to promote the desire for revenge and the spirit of conquest until its peak. "
First European club to use video analysis technique
Victory 5-1, one of the greatest exploits in the history of French club football, and a revolution. Because if video is used today by all clubs to prepare the slightest meeting, Saint-Etienne is, at the beginning of the 1970s, the first club to work on images and to "spy" on future opponents in the World Cup. Europe. If the idea of departure comes rather from the historic recruiter of the club, Pierre Garonnaire, the genius of Robert Herbin, who died Monday at the age of 81, is to have known how to embrace the future.
"This team was a pioneer and pioneer in many fields," says Philippe Gastal, the official historian of the club. Herbin paid attention to detail, and for him video was a new tool for transmitting to players. Other clubs have taken the same path and we saw later the importance of the image of football. "
In black and white on a bed sheet
It all started two years before Split, a few days before a match in the French championship. Alex Mahinc, club volunteer in charge of a group of supporters, attends a meeting within ASSE. He says: “Garonnaire enters the room and asks if anyone of us can film. I say I know, I've already filmed family stuff. He brings me into a room, says “Mr. Rocher (the president) bought equipment. I don't know anything about it, get on with it. Sunday, we have to film ”. "
It was launched. ASSE had decided to film their matches from the press gallery to debrief them a few days later under the watchful eye of Herbin. "It was very good stuff, but black and white," recalls Mahinc. We bought black curtains that we put on the bay windows of the stadium and we projected the matches on a bed sheet. Now players are watching montages, but back then it was the whole game with comments from Robby. It could last two hours. He was analyzing, he wanted to see each other's placement, and let me tell you that he was not tender when he saw a player with his hands on his hips. "
In the process, ASSE sends Garonnaire, its "director" and all the stuff across Europe systematically before continental matches. Mahinc remembers a round trip in a private jet during the day between Saint-Etienne and Saint-Mirren, in Scotland, but also trips to Liverpool or Munich. And once in Eindhoven where the PSV asked the ASSE for money to authorize it to film, ending up sending the police with sniffer dogs to get the Scorsese du Forez from the rostrum.
Most often, no one had seen play before the spied teams. The original images give the Greens an obvious advantage. "It was way ahead of the times to be able to analyze the opponent's game," concludes Mahinc.
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ASSE: The headquarters and training center of Saint-Etienne will take the name of Robert Herbin
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