Team Focus: Nantes' Unlikely Climb Continues Due to Mastery of the Basics

The curious, yet established practice of match-in-progress interviews in Ligue 1 continues to yield interesting results. Nantes midfielder Jordan Veretout was pulled aside for a quick word as he trudged off the field for a half-time breather after a taxing first 45 minutes at Caen on Saturday night, and the honesty that comes from a snap reaction was present and correct. “Well, we’ve managed to equalise,” he puffed. “Even if we didn’t deserve to.”

What a difference another half can make. By full-time at Stade Michel d’Ornano, the home side were scratching their heads in incredulity after Veretout’s stylish winner gave Les Canaris the points. On Monday morning, Michel Der Zakarian’s side were sitting pretty in fifth place, just 5 points behind leaders Marseille, 4 short of mighty Paris Saint-Germain and only 3 away from Lyon, who currently occupy the third and final Champions League spot.

Nobody should get neck-ache looking up just yet. For Nantes to finish the campaign where they are at the moment, in the final European spot, would represent a minor miracle. Yet there appears to be genuine resolve within a team who entered the thinking of many when the relegation picture was discussed at the beginning of the season. Nantes are now 8 games unbeaten and “the series,” as L’Equipe wrote on Sunday morning, “is starting to mean something.”

It already does, showing that a proud club that has endured some years of turbulence is alive and kicking. Their return to the top flight last season, after four years away, was hardly ordered from the start. After beating Bastia 2-0 at the Stade de la Beaujoire on the opening day, it emerged that Nantes had mistakenly used a suspended player, Abdoulaye Touré, as a late substitute. Following an extensive wrangle with the Fédération Française de Football (FFF), their three-point penalty was confirmed in April.

Fortunately, this turned out not to be fatal, with Nantes finishing a comfortable 13th. What was far more concerning was the ratification of a transfer ban relating to the signing of Guinea striker Ismael Bangoura on deadline day from Al Nasr in January 2012. What appeared to be a dream pick-up – Bangoura had done well in Ligue 1 for Le Mans and Rennes either side of a prolific spell with Dynamo Kiev – quickly turned into a nightmare.

The club had thought that the player was a free agent. Al Nasr argued otherwise, with FIFA and a Swiss court of appeal both finding in their favour. This landed Nantes with a bill of €4.5m and prevented them from signing any new players until June 2015.

Perhaps a year-long transfer ban could never come at a good time, but with Nantes needing to strengthen after a touch-and-go first campaign back in the top-flight, it seemed ominous. When you factored in the fact that Nantes scored just 38 times last season and that top scorer Filip Djordjevic had signed for Lazio (where he has already scored 6 Serie A goals), the potential for trouble was plain.

As outlined in the WhoScored season preview, Djordjevic had been vital, despite a lengthy scoring drought in mid-season. His 9 goals and 4 assists directly implicated him in 34% of Nantes’ Ligue 1 goals in 2013/14. Somewhere, someone would have to pick up the slack. But who, and how?

The defence that served them so well last season (conceding 43, less than half of the 12 sides which finished above them) was always liable to their crutch through this period, and it has proved to be typically miserly this season. So far, they have shipped just 9 in 13 matches, a record bettered only by champions PSG. Nantes concede 8.7 shots per game, with the team making 20.5 tackles and 17.5 interceptions per match too (rating 4th in Ligue 1 in WhoScored’s overall table of defensive performance). They also win an average of 22.2 aerial duels per match, which is more than any other team in the division.

Yet goals remained the big question. Enter Veretout. The France Under-20 World Cup has been widely admired for long enough that it seemed unusual that he is still only 21, and in his second top-flight season. He has risen sharply to meet expectations when most needed. The winner at Caen on Saturday was Veretout’s 4th goal of the season already, to add to 4 assists. In the whole of his debut campaign in Ligue 1, Veretout scored just once. He is also only one assist away from matching last season’s total of 5, and the improvement in his overall performance is marked. His average rating of 7.30 to date far outstrips last campaign’s 6.67.

Veretout is the team’s top scorer from midfield, with the double pivot of Kian Hansen and Rémi Gomis allowing him to take up a more advanced position at Caen, even if Gomis in particular sometimes looked overrun against his old club.

Just as important is Veretout’s understanding with Yacine Bammou. Working as an assistant in the club shop at the Parc des Princes while playing third-tier football for Luçon just a few months back, 23-year-old Bammou has grabbed his late opportunity at the top with both hands. He has chipped in with 2 goals to date this season but his latest assist for Veretout’s winner was pure class – the one-two between the pair was one of the best pieces of one-touch football you’ll see this season.

Nantes’ mastery of the basics is still their bedrock. Oswaldo Vizcarrondo’s leveller had been a scrappy way for Caen to lose the lead given to them by Mathieu Duhamel’s superb opener, but Patrice Garande’s men couldn’t say they had not been warned. A header bounced in from – inevitably – Veretout’s corner, it was the 7th goal that Nantes have scored from a dead ball in the league campaign to date. In other words, 54% of their 13-goal total.

As Veretout originally suggested, Nantes rode their luck at times in Normandy, but their success is becoming regular. They resume after the international break with one of the real classics of French football, against Saint Etienne at La Beaujoire. With the work they’re putting in, they deserve to enjoy it.

How long can Nantes unbeaten run continue and could they mount an unlikely challenge for European football? Let us know in the comments below