• The Girondins de Bordeaux travel to Strasbourg this Wednesday (7 p.m.) during the 16th day of Ligue 1.

  • Worst defense in the championship, the Navy and White have not managed a clean sheet (match without conceding a goal) this season.

  • There are many explanations: lack of aggressiveness, communication, automation or even individual failures.

History does not say if Vladimir Petkovic had put a little bit of it in his suitcase when he landed at the Girondins de Bordeaux. But we can seriously begin to ask the question today. What are we talking about, anyway? One of the most famous Swiss cheeses, Gruyère! Because that's what the defense of the Navy and White looks like since the arrival of the former Nati coach last summer. And the opponents enjoy it every weekend.

With 32 goals conceded in 15 games, the Swiss coach is at the head of the worst sieve in Ligue 1. We are even close to records in the history of the club since Bordeaux had not conceded so many goals at this stage of the season since the 1959/1960 season.

And guess what… Benoit Costil's teammates are preparing to move this Wednesday to the fourth best attack (and second at home) in the championship, Strasbourg before receiving the sixth, next Sunday, with OL.

As much as it doesn't smell good.

A screaming lack of aggressiveness

It's the first thing to put on the field to defend your goal.

A minimum of aggressiveness.

But at the Girondins de Bordeaux, we've been seeing more of it for a long time.

It does not date from this season.

The passivity of Timothée Pembélé on the second Brest goal last Sunday is just one example among others.

“We are not at the required level in the physical impact at the defensive level, admits Admar Lopes, the technical director.

There is a lack of envy.

You have to show a lot more aggressiveness.

It's always the same problem from the start.

This is the story of our season.

We cannot progress at this level and it becomes worrying!

"

"They are not at the level" ... Admar Lopes charges the Girondins players https://t.co/DNG4YZmEHn

- 20 Minutes (@ 20Minutes) November 28, 2021

Today, very few of them respond to the physical dimension of Ligue 1. Gregersen, Onana, Elis and maybe Hwang.

That doesn't do a lot on an entire team.

More generally, this is also felt in what this group emerges.

The Bordelais no longer scare anyone.

Some would say that they are even refereed as a small team.

At the same time, do they deserve something else?

A big problem with automation and communication

This is what strikes the most when watching match after match these Girondins, the lack of communication between the players. Nobody talks to each other in the field. Everyone plays their score on their own. Yes, there are good players in this Bordeaux squad but there is no team as the Strasbourg coach, Julien Stephan, implied before the meeting on Wednesday. The language barrier does not help with very many players of different nationalities but for Yacine Adli, “we must not hide behind that, these are excuses. The midfielder continues:

The language of football is very easy, everyone understands it. At worst, we have to make signs on the ground. We must go beyond, there are plenty of things to communicate. And then, communication is not a question of one or two players yelling on the field, it's everyone! "

This lack of communication is an additional difficulty for players without any automatism since they are playing, for the most part, for the first time together.

Just look at the titular defensive line (Mangas, Gregersen, Koscielny and Pembélé).

The Girondins, for example, take a lot of goals on centers because the players are unable to pass the players.

"How many times do we see an attacker between two Bordeaux defenders," said François Grenet, the former side of the Navy and White.

This defensive line, in addition to being very little protected by the midfielder pair (Otavio-Onana) is also unable to play the offside properly.

It is quite serious at this level.

Individual failures

The first of these may not be a failure per se, even if it is from a physical point of view. It is that of Laurent Koscielny. Captain of this team and true boss of this defense, the international defender is more and more often injured. This season, he has already missed six games after missing eleven in all of last season. Even if he is starting to look his age (36 years old), he remains essential to this team and in addition, his association with Gregersen gave some satisfaction.

On the sides, the Girondins must do with a Ricardo Mangas capable of both the best and the worst but who has the blind confidence of his coach and a Timothée Pembélé who attacks better than he defends, which is necessarily a problem given his position.

In Strasbourg, the first should still be replaced by Gideon Mensah, missing for no reason for more than three months.

Finally, failing to trust the young Lacoux and Sissokho in the midfield, Bordeaux hopes very quickly to find an Onana-Otavio duo at the level or a more influential Fransergio after his good comeback against Brest.

It's urgent !

Sport

Bordeaux-Brest: "They are not at the level" ... Admar Lopes charges the players of the Girondins

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  • Aquitaine

  • Bordeaux

  • Sport

  • RC Strasbourg

  • Girondins of Bordeaux

  • Soccer

  • League 1

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