How the "leader of men" Pascal Dupraz aims for another rescue in L1

• After separating from Claude Puel, ASSE made official on Tuesday evening the name of its new trainer: Haut-Savoyard Pascal Dupraz.

• He will have a lot to do to straighten the red lantern of Ligue 1, which has only two successes after 18 days of the championship.

• 20 Minutes looks

  back on two memorable rescues of Pascal Dupraz in the elite, in Evian Thonon Gaillard in 2014 and then in Toulouse in 2016.

Cheick Diabaté may have turned Pascal Dupraz's career upside down. By scoring a decisive goal (3-2, 89th), in the last seconds of the final of the Coupe de France 2013, the former Bordeaux striker deprived the Haut-Savoyard coach of a prestigious trophy, for his first season in the elite with Evian Thonon Gaillard. Eight and a half years later, we find Pascal Dupraz with a virgin record, at the head of yet another maintenance operation, this time with ASSE, current red lantern of Ligue 1.

It must be said that apart from this nice course in the Coupe de France, the recognized "leader of men", as Loïc Perrin qualified on Wednesday during his presentation to the press at Geoffroy-Guichard, was distinguished only by rescue missions.

The one he just discovered on Wednesday morning at L'Etrat is significant: to prevent a legendary club, which has only won 2 out of 18 matches, from leaving the elite for the first time in 19 years.

From the 2012-2013 season, the former sports director of the ETG, who then succeeded Pablo Correa on the sidelines, allowed his club at heart to stay on the penultimate day (16th).

"We would have been ready to beat Real Madrid"

A foretaste of what was going to be the following season, stressful to the end for the Haut-Savoyard club. 17th for almost four months, ETG plays its survival in Ligue 1 on the last day in Sochaux (18th). A defeat in the Doubs would allow the Lion Cubs of Hervé Renard, on a dynamic of madness, to save themselves. It is there that Pascal Dupraz succeeds a master stroke, which details the ex-attacker of the ETG Modou Sougou, holder on May 17, 2014 for this shock then holding in suspense all the L1.

A few weeks before the end of the championship, the coach told us that he wanted us to stay on this final in Sochaux and not before. He had anticipated this scenario and he assured us that he was very happy that it was played out there. He had prepared us so psychologically for this match that even if it had been the Real Madrid players opposite, we would have been ready to beat them. "

With a galactic Daniel Wass (doubled), ETG easily wins at Bonal (0-3), and postpones his relegation by one year, synonymous with the departure of Pascal Dupraz.

We find him in March 2016 for his real

in his career until then: an epic of two almost mystical months to redress a Toulouse group given for dead, with 10 points behind the first non-relegation (there was then no place of barrage) 10 days from the end.

"His speeches, they made me climb the curtains"

The former TFC attacking midfielder Adrien Regattin keeps a “fantastic” memory of his short collaboration with the person concerned: “There, Saint-Etienne is a sick club, but it was much worse for us at the time.

We were at the bottom of the hole, in the middle of a situation where we had nothing going for us.

Frankly, even us players, we thought it was over.

And then Pascal arrived, and I remember his first huge speech in our locker room.

For half an hour, he had the right words, only talking to us about Ligue 1 and the fact that we were a good team.

He quickly restored our confidence and everything caught fire ”.

A first draw 1-1 in Marseille, the day after Pascal Dupraz's discomfort in full training "which united the group a little more", before a

against Bordeaux in a transformed Stadium (4-0). Along with these first significant results, "he is setting up a living environment" by excluding from the first team the young Zinédine Machach, guilty of delays in training. In the end, the TFC signs more victories over the last 10 days than over the previous 28 with Dominique Arribagé (5 against 4), with an apotheosis on May 14, 2016 in Angers, and the heyday of the unexpected joker Yann Bodiger, author of the (sublime) free kick of the maintenance (2-3, 80th). Adrien Regattin looks back on this crazy evening, undeniably the biggest sporting emotion for any Toulouse supporter over the last decade.

With him, we felt unbeatable at the end of the season, even when we found ourselves down 2-1 in Angers with 20 minutes remaining.

He did something that few coaches could have done then.

I like cash coaches like him, who don't hesitate to shake up everyone.

His speeches, they made me climb the curtains and I had only one desire behind: to kill myself on the ground.

"

He uses malice to mobilize Ben Yedder and Braithwaite

He certainly had "great players" in the workforce of the TFC, like Wissam Ben Yedder and Martin Braithwaite, but he had to find a trick to combine and boost these two strikers hardly accomplices. The person concerned had thus revealed this tasty anecdote last year in

 : "I gave Wissam and Martin the same speech:" You are the best player of the team ". They weren't talking to each other so there was no risk of them noticing. "" That was all spat Pascal, laughs Adrien Regattin, who shared the offensive line with Ben Yedder and Braithwaite. He has always been very clever to restore our confidence. "

"Confidence" and "psychology", the absolute levers targeted by Pascal Dupraz in his various challenges.

From his first press conference, Wednesday in Sainté, he gave that: "I have the weakness to think that I have recipes for the team to get better.

Here, it is a stronghold of French football.

with unrivaled supporters in France who should be associated with this search for redemption.

Most of the players in this huge club are very young.

You have to put yourself in their shoes: every time they step onto the lawn, it's an act of courage, of bravery ”.

"You immediately feel that you can trust him"

A speech that can hardly displease a team in the grip of doubt, with a new black series in the course of four setbacks before going on to a 32nd final of the Coupe de France on Sunday in Lyon Duchère and the reception of FC Nantes for three days later in Ligue 1.

“You immediately feel that you can trust him, appreciates Modou Sougou.

His knowledge of his group is exceptional and when it comes to making courageous choices, he is always there.

And then he really knows how to touch the players and prick our pride.

"As during this talk which has become almost as cult as

thanks to Canal +, before Angers-Toulouse, with" Me, I love you "and the broadcast of moving encouragement from the players' relatives .

The post-Bodiger was hard to manage

What about the skills of the Dupraz technician in all of this?

“Everyone presents him as a leader of men but Pascal is not just that, assures Adrien Regattin.

With us, he sometimes made major tactical adjustments at half-time in certain games.

"

However, since Yann Bodiger's paw kick, the 59-year-old Haut-Savoyard has seen his

cut short: a 13th place with the TFC in 2016-2017 for his only complete season on a bench outside the ETG (despite a good start marked by a 2-0 success against PSG), then a dismissal in January 2018, while Toulouse was in full decline (19th).

"It can be the perfect coach for this team in crisis"

The last experience of the former consultant of Canal +, TF1, RMC and more recently Prime Video, did not turn out better, far from it, in Caen. During the 2019-2020 season shortened by the Covid-19, it certainly brings the Stade Malherbe from 17th to 13th place in Ligue 2 in five months. But we are far from the heroic dimension of the two rescues in the elite mentioned previously. And when he was dismissed last March, the Norman club (then 14th), sank dangerously in the standings, far from the Top 5 goal announced.

“OK, he was criticized for his time in Caen, but it is up to him to revive himself as Antoine Kombouaré did after his failures in Dijon and Toulouse, notes Adrien Regattin.

It can be the perfect coach for this Saint-Etienne team in crisis.

After all, the Magic Fans will perhaps devote to Pascal Dupraz in five months a Tinder tifo responding to the amusing "It's a match" of the Indians Tolosa, in August 2016.

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• Sport

• Evian Thonon Gaillard

• Saint Etienne

• TFC

• ASSE

• Soccer

• Pascal Dupraz

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