Zapping Goal! Football club ASSE: Laurent Hess’s edit on Anthony Modeste’s difficult adaptation
It’s often a summer affair with Adil Aouchiche. First meeting given to the Green people, more than a year ago, with weeks and weeks of doubts and tempting proposals. The young Parisian titi, not really in a hurry to sign his first professional contract with PSG, where playing time is starved because of the XXL workforce, let sports directors and club presidents from all over Europe come.
Even ASSE, however already in bad shape financially, tried by all means to attract in Forez the one that many observers presented as a great future. Strong speech by Claude Puel, assurances to settle in the workforce, colossal signing bonus (amount mentioned around 4 million euros) and this is how the Saint-Etienne club managed to sign a nice blow.
“I feel like I have improved a lot. I found what I was looking for. I found the club, the team, the coach that I needed, who had a project for me . ”
But here it is, the pretty supposed move has become, in more than a year, a permanent questioning. On his performances, which hardly manage to convince. On its positioning, which questions. On his way of defending, which does not correspond to the standards imposed by Puel. And on his dismissals on the bench at the end of the first period, as was (again) the case in Marseille last Saturday after 45 destitute minutes. Not enough, however, to break the confidence of hope, he who, in June, confided at length in the columns of Onze Mondial. Chosen pieces: “I am progressing a lot more here in the areas I needed to improve. I am in a club which, unlike PSG, does not go through its matches in a wheelchair. Here it is a little harder, each ball is important, you have to know how to keep it, learn to be hard on contact, gain muscle (…) I chose to go to Saint-Etienne because, while taking my time, I could have this that I wanted faster. I have no regrets having left Paris. I played a lot for my age (…) Last season, we went through a lot of difficult moments and living that at 18 years old to me. made it grow. I needed it. I would have liked to have done better, to have more statistics. I work a lot, they want to make me progress, the staff is behind me… I played a lot, it’s wonderful. J I feel like I have made a lot of progress. I found what I was looking for. I found the club, the team, the coach I needed, who had a rojet for me. I am here to play and to gain experience. Today, I am very proud and very happy to have this. I hope I will do more. ”
Always quick to speak up when questioned, Aouchiche even allowed himself an outing, on RMC, at the microphone of Jean-Michel Larqué, not really known for his compassion towards little Green men who do not confirm. “6 goals and 6 assists this season? OK, I think I can put them in.” This season, precisely, we are there. Already four days, moreover, with three small points on the clock and a first observation: Aouchiche is not in it. His tenures are failures, his entries into play, with the exception of Lille perhaps, do not bring the hoped-for surplus. Even technically, which is supposed to be his strong point, the former Parisian cannot tell the difference, as we have seen on numerous occasions sweating the lawn of the Stade Vélodrome for forty-five minutes.
Some, and there are many, who want to believe in a concern for positioning, are offended by the fact that Aouchiche is not positioned at the heart of the game. Forgetting, by the way, that the coach of the green house is hardly a fan of change, with his usual control towers (Camara, Neyou, Gourna or even Zaydou). The priority of the Greens, this season, is not to build, but to crisscross. By hampering the opponent in his construction and forcing him to concede that the Greens “are a boring team to play” (Bouanga). Adil Aouchiche will therefore have to strengthen his game to win.
Finally, convince his critics, ever more numerous, that he can bring a decisive creative touch. That he is capable, by his touch or his glance, of enlightening the game of a private formation of creators. We are, to this day, very, very far. Only the hope remains that it will change. And the hope that Claude Puel did not completely crash. But in the land of the Greens, we know hope …
to summarize
The young midfielder, announced as a future great, has been at ASSE for more than a year. Without having managed to win and even multiplying the missed matches. A lost bet for Claude Puel who had bet so much on him in the summer transfer window.
