Recruited free last summer, Adil Aouchiche was destined to become AS Saint-Etienne’s playing master this season. A few months later, it is clear that coach Claude Puel and his managers were wrong.
Since the start of the season, Adil Aouchiche has only started 17 out of 30 Ligue 1 games, including only five in the second leg of the league. These are clearly not the expected stats for last summer’s flagship rookie. Arrived free from Paris Saint-Germain, the attacking midfielder who had refused to turn professional among the Parisian stars nevertheless landed at the insistent request of coach Claude Puel. The manager of AS Saint-Etienne wanted to make him his playmaker and his technical leader. Except that the titi did not live up to expectations, neither in football terms nor in terms of involvement. A symbol of the failure of the Greens who, according to Alain Blachon, have bet too much on the youth this season.
“It’s not the Gambardella”
” The team are generous and willful but with all this youth, they also tend to quickly lose their footing and panic when put under pressure, as against Monaco (0-4) before the break, commented the former deputy of Christophe Galtier in Saint-Etienne, interviewed by 20 Minutes. The leaders of Saint-Etienne were able to believe that from the height of his 18 years and his 3 appearances with the pros at PSG, Adil Aouchiche would immediately be a major player ready to play all 38 games. But these young people have to prove themselves, it is not the same football as in Gambardella. We used to say that we were really dealing with a pro player when he reached the bar of 100 games played in the top flight. “Four points from the Nîmes barrage, the young Stéphanois will have to whip to stay in Ligue 1.