Team Focus: What’s Going Wrong for Montanier at Rennes?

There are many variations of circumspection that the majority of footballers employ in post-match interviews, flitting between platitudes, faux humility and light boredom. One we rarely see is genuine, sunken-faced concern, but that was the mood of Rennes’ goalkeeper Benoît Costil after Saturday’s damaging defeat at home to Toulouse.

“There are plenty of big clubs that have dropped down into Ligue 2,” Costil told beIN Sport after the match. “We could too. We’re very worried.”

The numbers alone suggest Costil and his chums have every right to be. Saturday’s loss was Rennes’ third in succession in Ligue 1, and they have won only 2 in 13 since the beginning of December. After weekend wins for Valenciennes and Sochaux, Rennes have just three points more than the former, currently occupying the final relegation position.

A few hours after the final whistle blew at an unhappy Stade de la Route de Lorient, France Football’s online edition was already conducting a reader survey to ask if Rennes should part with their coach Philippe Montanier, recruited amid much fanfare last year from Champions League qualifiers Real Sociedad.

Firstly, we must point out that Montanier inherited a team in freefall, and had a major rebuild on his hands. Rennes collected only 35 points in the calendar year of 2013 - which they began under Frédéric Antonetti - which is relegation form in anyone’s language. The new coach’s signings have been sound, on the whole. Ola Toivonen, Sylvain Armand and Cheikh M’Bengué are the squad’s top three performers according to WhoScored’s ratings.

The late trolley sweep in January that yielded Toivonen, Paul-Georges Ntep and Kamil Grosicki has been productive, with Swedish forward Toivonen scoring 5 in 8 starts since arriving from PSV Eindhoven, Ntep starting brightly before tearing a hamstring and even Grosicki providing 2 assists already in only 4 starts.

Yet such extensive business shouldn’t have been necessary in winter. The signings were reactive, rather than preparative. Former general manager Pierre Dréossi hinted that a lack of ambition was hindering the club in an October interview with L’Equipe. “If we’d have had (Jonathan) Pitroipa, Asamoah Gyan, (Romain) Alessandrini and (Julien) Féret together,” he said, “we’d have finished in the top three. Only we’ve always had to sell X to buy Y. We’d arrived at the limit of what we could do. Either the club has to spend more, or accept its limits.”

Still, it could be argued that Montanier had plenty more in place than he did at Real Sociedad, with a strong youth academy to supplement reasonable, if not eye-popping, funds. Rennes were Coupe Gambardella (French Youth Cup) winners in 2003 and 2008, and count Yoann Gourcuff, Moussa Sow and Yann M’Vila among their 21st century graduates.

La Real’s success last season was mainly based on their goal power on the counter-attack; they scored 70 times, more than any team outside Barcelona and Real Madrid, despite leaking 49. Clearly there is a discernible class gap between his squad of last season – including Antoine Griezmann, Carlos Vela and now-Real Madrid midfielder Asier Illarramendi – and the players at his disposal in this campaign, but Montanier has tried his best to reproduce the recipe.

Rennes typically line up in a 4-3-3, with the front line aiming to replicate the explosiveness of the one Montanier had at the Anoeta. So far, so logical, but through a mixture of bad injury luck and – maybe – management shortcomings, the coach has not been able to draw as much out of the club’s existing assets as he should have been. 

Alessandrini’s status amongst the fans diminished while he recovered from a serious knee injury sustained in February, as he attempted to engineer a move to his hometown club, Marseille. The sense is that he has played with the handbrake on since returning, with 4 goals and 4 assists in 15 starts, from 2.2 shots per game – he registered 10 goals and 6 assists in 20 starts last season before picking up the injury (from 3.1 shots). His average rating of 6.79 is way down on last term’s 7.26.

The goals and creativity have totally dried up elsewhere in the team, and Pitroipa and Féret are without a goal between them so far this season, having struck 11 goals and 7 respectively last season. Pitroipa contributed 5 assists, and Féret 6; the former has managed 3 and the latter none so far this term, while suffering with injuries.

The Portugal striker Nélson Oliveira, signed on loan from Benfica, was supposed to be the freshness to centre a front three flanked by Alessandrini on the left and Pitroipa on the right. Oliveira scored his 8th of the season against Toulouse, but it ended a four-and-half month goal drought. Incidentally, Oliveira’s goal also represented the first time that a substitute had scored for Rennes all season.

Oliveira’s candidature for the role is clear; he is fast, strong and a good finisher, but he has faded from Montanier’s thoughts based on his offering little outside the penalty box. He is ranked a lowly 24th in Rennes’ player rankings (6.45). Toivonen, on the other hand, is good in the air and at holding onto the ball – two areas in which Oliveira is habitually weak.

An incredulous Toivonen was the unlucky scorer of an own goal for the opener against Toulouse, when a corner hit him on the head and went past Costil for the opener after John Boye inexplicably ducked a defensive header from a corner. It was a reminder that the malaise has spread elsewhere in the side; in defence, Boye has started just 3 times after a solid 2012/13. While his tackle rate of 1.8 per match remains the same, his interceptions have dropped off significantly from 3.1 last season to 0.8 this, indicating the lack of sharpness that was evident on Saturday.

If Montanier is to survive to progress his Rennes renovation, he really needs some of his expected cornerstones to step up. With trips to Marseille, Saint Etienne and Paris Saint-Germain, plus a penultimate day home game with Sochaux still to come, the characters he can rely on will quickly be revealed – if he gets the chance.

Will Rennes beat the drop this season? Let us know in the comments below