Team Focus: Valenciennes and Sochaux Keep Hope Alive in Relegation Battle

It’s only Monday, but Le Dauphiné, Haute-Savoie’s regional newspaper, is already thinking ahead to a potentially pivotal moment in the season for its Ligue 1 representatives, Evian Thonon Gaillard. The sports pages make a passionate appeal for as many as possible to attend Saturday’s match with Valenciennes at the Parc des Sports in Annecy – a real “six-pointer”, as Le Dauphiné puts it.

“The players need the support of their public more than ever,” the editorial continues. “It’s the chance for Haute-Savoie to make clear their support for ETG in filling the stadium and giving it full voice.” A glance at the table might make you think one of two things; it’s melodramatic, or a marketing ploy. After their hard-fought victory at Guingamp on Saturday, Evian are 5 points clear of third-bottom Valenciennes, and 8 above Sochaux. 

In reality, Le Dauphiné is right. Both Valenciennes and Sochaux remain dangerous. Rennes, whose excellent wins against Lyon and Nantes have proved to be false dawns, Nantes themselves after their point deduction and another western side, Guingamp, are not completely safe - but Evian are closest, and are there to be shot at. VA have lost 6 of their last 8 away matches in Ligue 1, but one of the exceptions was a shock win at Monaco (then still with Radamel Falcao) on the final matchday before Christmas.

The Stade Hainault club have been playing catch-up for a long time. When coach Ariel Jacobs took over from Daniel Sanchez in October, VA had lost 7 of their opening 10 Ligue 1 outings (all consecutively), and quickly lost their first 2 matches under Jacobs, in league and cup. Since then, progress has been gradual. They are rarely beaten heavily (3-0 defeats at Saint Etienne and Paris Saint-Germain are understandable given the gap in class), but have been unable to put together a continuous run of results. The season-best run is 3 unbeaten, early in Jacobs’ reign, when a win at Ajaccio was followed by draws with Montpellier and Lyon.

The source of Valenciennes’ problems is clear. They have not kept a clean sheet in Ligue 1 since the opening day win over Toulouse, and thus not at all under Jacobs. Only Sochaux and Ajaccio, the two teams below VA, have conceded more than their tally of 46. Losing stalwart Gaëtan Bong to Olympiacos (where, frustratingly, he has been largely peripheral) at the very start of the campaign was a blow and the experienced Carl Medjani, who came in the other direction in January, has met with limited success, managing an average of just 1 tackle per match.

Behind the defence, Jacobs recently decided that a drastic course of action was needed, with Nicolas Penneteau replaced in goal by Magno Novaes. Penneteau is the club captain and has played 409 times in Ligue 1, and had played Valenciennes’ last 158 consecutive matches before he was dropped for March 1st’s defeat at Reims. 

Novaes certainly made his presence felt in Saturday’s dramatic win over Rennes, scoring a healthy 7.3 in WhoScored’s ratings and sealing the points with an excellent save from the in-form Ola Toivonen in stoppage time. A closer look at his performance tells us about VA’s general lack of defensive composure. Novaes completed just 64% of his passes (compared with 89% by opposite number Benoît Costil), continuing a theme from Penneteau, who has seen just 56.6% of his passes hit the mark this season. One of Penneateau’s strengths is long passing, telling us that VA play their goalkeeper(s) into trouble too often.

At the other end the scorer of the winner against Rennes, Majeed Waris, has been an excellent addition. He has scored 5 and provided 3 assists in 9 appearances since arriving on loan from Spartak Moscow in January. The 22-year-old’s hunger to arrive at the World Cup in good condition for Ghana is clear. Waris may not be the player to hold up the ball, but he relieves pressure on the team in other ways, making 1.3 dribbles per game and drawing an average of 2.3 fouls. All of his goals for his new club to date have, however, been at home, so a debut goal on the road at Evian would be handy. 

Waris had also struck twice in VA’s last home game, with fellow strugglers Sochaux. They weren’t, however, enough to seal victory. Florian Marange snatched a late leveller at Hainault on that night, a moment that was Sochaux in a microcosm. Frequently written off, they just won’t go away.

It has been a steep learning curve for Hervé Renard, winner of the 2012 African Cup of Nations with Zambia but a first-timer at this level in his native land. He, like Jacobs, inherited a team in a dizzying negative spiral, picking up their first win of the season in late September under interim coach Omar Daf (and against Valenciennes, incidentally) only after Éric Hély had left the job.

Only contracted until the end of the current campaign, Renard has been daring since taking over in mid-October, switching to 4-3-3 from Hély’s 4-4-2 in order to try and take the game to the opposition. It initially seemed foolhardy; Sochaux won just once and lost 9 times in Renard’s opening 11 Ligue 1 games in charge. They too have been leaking goals at an alarming rate, but something seems to have clicked since the beginning of February. 

Since the transfer window’s closure – perhaps no coincidence, given the on-off nature of Sébastian Corchia’s proposed switch to Lille, for one – Renard’s team have won 3 and drawn 1 of 6 Ligue 1 games. They arguably deserved more from Saturday night’s defeat at Monaco. With Renard living up to his name, Sochaux tweaked to 4-2-3-1, and conjured 7 shots on target from just 41% of match possession, almost twice as many as Monaco’s 4. 

The arrivals of Jordan Ayew – who is due a ban after his red card at Monaco – and Stoppila Sunzu, who scored the penalty shoot-out winner in Zambia’s final triumph in 2012, have certainly helped. Defender Sunzu scored a vital late winner against Guingamp recently, and has rated at an impressive 7.23 in his 7 appearances to date. Corchia’s unexpected return to the club has seen Renard position him further up the pitch, rather than his habitual spot at right-back, and he has relished the freedom. Corchia has had 6 shots in his 3 games since returning, including a sensational free-kick goal at Valenciennes.

Both of these sides will require major surgery when the summer arrives, and have their share of faults – but both are still alive and kicking, and not to be underestimated.

Can Valenciennes or Sochaux beat the drop? Let us know in the comments below