The Nantes Way – Part 8

 

The final update of results from the first season in charge of Nantes, followed by the Coupe de France Final against Marseille. I hope you are enjoying the updates on my save, and a big thank you to those who have taken the time to comment. Believe it or not the engagement does help with continuity.

 

Bish, bash, bosh! On paper the results look grand! But were they enough to see us finish behind the mighty PSG.

 

LEVELS

 

 

 

with 15 minutes on the clock and the game locked at 1-1, Pedro Chirivella utilised every bit of his Flair attribute (12) by playing a pass off the corner flag for Nicolas Cozza to pick up and distribute to Tino Kadewere, who scored the first goal of his brace against Brest.

 

It was this moment of brilliance which acted as the catalyst to the victory, which was enough to secure the side progress to the UEFA Champions League, with two games to spare.

 

Lens, suffered defeat at home to Lorient, whilst Clermont secured their ninth victory of the campaign, adding Monaco to their list of high-profile scalps which also include Lyon, and Lens.

 

OGC Nice also suffered defeat to PSG which ensured that game week 32 was one that would see the top four spots secured, with the two fixtures remaining, deciding who would finish 2nd, 3rd, or 4th.

 

 

 

We were seconds away from defeat against Monaco, a defeat which would have seen us close the 2023/24 Ligue 1 season in 4th place. Whilst I would have bitten your hand off for this outcome at the beginning of the season, a single goal would be enough for us to close runners-up. Thankfully our set-piece threat has been a consistent strength, as previously documented, and the above goal was enough to change our fortunes.

 

We are part of a select group in terms of our set piece numbers, as you can see we score a higher amount of goals than average, and are also conceding less, placing us amongst two other clubs Lens, and PSG, who are the outlier.

 

My old friend the XPTS table shows that we deserved to finish in second place, we were rewarded for our form across the season fairly.

 

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COUPE DE FRANCE FINAL

 

FC Nantes head into the final against Olympique de Marseille with the knowledge that history has seen them finish runners-up in the competition more times than they have won it.

 

Despite this fact, form does lie with us, having yet to lose to Marseille in our previous two games (1W, 1D), outscoring them three goals to one, with an xG of 2.58 to 1.32.

 

A few tough decision with regards to the starting XI for the big occasion, Marcus Coco, and Kelvin Amian were the two players I opted to remove from the starting line-up in favour of Tino Kadewere, and Jean-Kevin Duverne.

 

Marcus was the most unfortunate, his performances have been great, and his involvement would have seen Simon play from the IF role. However, Kadawere has been the more consistent goal threat from out wide this season so something had to give.

 

Marcus is outperforming Moses with regards to a few metrics when operating as our winger.

 

• Expected assists 0.24 vs 0.21
• Goals 0.16 vs 0.13
• Possession won 10.76 vs 7.28
• Passes completed 32.5 vs 26.44
• Progressive passes 3.48 vs 2.31

 

He is producing lower numbers with regards to.

 

• Non penalty expected goals 0.17 vs 0.25
• Shots 1.58 vs 1.70
• Pressures attempted 12.71 vs 15.45
• Tackles won 3.11 vs 3.14
• Dribbles 3.43 vs 3.62

 

The majority of the play was conducted in the middle of the park, as expected Marseille won the possession battle, walking off the park with 62% of the ball. They also won the XG battle on the day 1.22 vs 1.15.

 

Marseille created a high number of clear cut chances in the game 0.36 xG, 0.35 xG, and 0.33 xG. These three shots accounting for 85% of their total xG.

 

They didn’t do enough to secure the result, a second half goal from Kader Bamba was enough to see us lift the trophy. Alban Lafont secured the MOTM, his ability between the posts ensured those clear cut chances didn’t enter his net. Lafont has an expected goals prevented stat of 4.40, the fourth highest in Ligue 1, no suprise to see Gianluigi Donnarumma lead the way with 7.70.

 

We were successful in breaking up play, preventing Marseille from truly getting into a rhythm, where they would be at their most dangerous.

 

The victory means that Nantes fans have witnessed their team lift the Coupe de France two times in three years, a very successful spell in the clubs history.

 

The next post will be the season one analysis, and forward look to our second season at the helm of Nantes.

I wanted to sign of with this message which made its way into my inbox, if only we have that money, I currently find our bank balance sitting around the £8 million mark, maybe there is something they know, which I don’t