AS Monaco will host ASSE on Wednesday for Matchday 17 of Ligue 1. After a victory against Dijon, the Reds and Whites will be keen to finish this first half of the season well. But that’s without counting on the Greens led by Claude Puel, who could prove to be more dangerous than it seems.
The poor man’s transfer window
We are far from a bling-bling transfer window at ASSE.
In terms of arrivals, no big names. The most important is that of Timothée Kolodziejczak, from the Mexican Tigers as defender. This is the only paid transfer. Aouchiche, the attacking midfielder, comes from PSG in free transfer, defender Harold Moukoudi arrives from Middlesbrough on loan and Cameroonian midfielder Neyou Noupa arrived from Braga.
Departures are much more numerous. The most important are those of Franck Honorat for 5 million euros in Brest and Makhtar Gueye in Ostend for 1 million euros. Aholou returns to Monaco, while M’Vila leaves for Olympiakos and Wesley Fofana leaves the Cauldron for Leicester.
A season spent on the brink
The 2019-2020 season for ASSE has been very very average.
In addition to the Ghislain Printant fiasco and his replacement by Puel at a moment’s notice, the former AS Monaco coach did better but could not make the Saint-Etienne fans dream.
The club, first in the Europa League, could not come out of the group stages and especially Group I, with 4 draws and no wins in six games.
It is the Domestic Cups that save the Greens. First in the Coupe de la Ligue, Saint-Étienne, who dominated Nîmes (1-2), was crushed by PSG in the quarter-finals (6-1). On the other hand, in the Coupe de France we are witnessing a magnificent course. Former Michel Platini’s club beat Monaco in 8th (0-1), Épinal in the quarter-finals (1-2) and Rennes in the semi-finals (2-1). But in the final against Paris, ASSE lost (1-0) after a goal from Neymar.
In Ligue 1 it’s a disaster. Saint-Étienne was unable to do so, and after 14 losses in 28 games, the club did not come far from relegation by finishing 17th. The premature stopping of exercise was not a bad thing for the club, far from it.
A very slow start to the season
The Greens had started the season rather well, with victories against Lorient (2-0), Strasbourg (2-0) and Marseille (0-2). But two weeks later, from the match against Rennes, the Stéphanois take 7 consecutive defeats. What to raise doubts and questions.
Since the last slap received against Brest (4-1), the residents of Geoffroy-Guichard have recorded 4 draws including one against Lille (1-1) and a victory against Bordeaux (1-2), they are therefore in a positive dynamic. The Ligériens have rather a weak attack with only 16 goals scored, but a perfectly correct defense for their classification (14th), with the same number of goals conceded as AS Monaco, namely 23.
AS Saint-Étienne is therefore an opponent within the grasp of AS Monaco with players at the level of ASM. Even if the start of the season has not been good for Saint-Etienne, they have not recorded any defeats in the last five games, and that the Monegasques can not say the same. We should therefore not think that we are already the winners against ASSE, which still has many resources.
Photo: Icon Sport – Romain Biard and Sources: Footmercato – Wikipedia – Transfermarkt