Montpellier - Predictions for January. Quiet month.

Bottom of their CL group after chucking away last night's match against Olympiakos, and currently 16th in the Ligue after nine games with only two wins (Sochaux and Nancy, both in the relegation zone), the defending champions aren't doing a hell of a lot of defending at the moment.

Back in July, I assessed their squad situation after the departure of Olivier Giroud, and concluded (briefly):

• replacing Olive at CF would be key (obviously) 
• they needed cover at left-back 
• otherwise, there were options in every position

So, how's that panning out? Erm...

Two CFs were brought in over the summer, Emmanuel Herrera from Chile and Gaetan Charbonnier from Angers. Herrera has failed to make an impact and has dropped to the bench, Charbonnier has been sparsely used and I think last night was his first competitive start. He scored, and it's useful to have a hulking presence somewhere in the team, but he's very raw still. And that's not a dig at his complexion. 

So, Souleymane Camara has been used as the CF. He's done a decent job, but that then leaves a vacancy on the right (he's also played there, and, somewhat surprisingly, on the left against Schalke after Tinhan was stuck upfront).  Cabella can cover that, but he can also be needed in the centre, when Belhanda was out, and also to play with him.  And on the left. 

Winger Anthony Mounier came in from Nice, but has been a bit underwhelming - usually playing on the left, he was put on the right against Olympiakos where he was frankly shocking.  The left-wing berth looked to be a little crowded, pre-season, with Mounier, Utaka, and Ait-Fana all having that as their preferred position, but the first two were injured early in the season, and Ait-Fana is now out for six months with a knacked anterior cruciate ligament, so fingers crossed that John Utaka doesn't trip over anything and do himself a mischief.

And Daniel Congre came in from Toulouse - a CB to cover for Mapou and Hilton, also able, allegedly, to play RB. Yup. That hasn't really worked out either - Bocaly was injured in the Ligue, and then suspended in the CL, and Girard preferred first Jeunechamp (a walking booking) and then Benjamin Stambouli (mostly used last season as a defensive midfielder but who has also covered at LB for Bedimo as Jeunechamp managed to injure himself trying to do that too) against Olympiakos.

So - summer signings were two strikers who haven't been used much, a winger who routinely gets subbed off because he's not doing very well, and a defender who hasn't really managed much at either centre- or right-back with the result that he's dropped behind a 36-year-old hatchet-man and a 22-year old defensive midfielder in the pick-list.  What looked decent business on paper has turned out to be a bit problematic on grass.

A couple of people have said that Montpellier need to buy in the January transfer window, and that would be a very good idea, but there's a few problems with that.

1) In the summer, they were French Champions, offering CL football - pretty attractive.  Now, they're looking in trouble in the Ligue and almost certainly out of European competition after shanking the Olympiakos game, where a win would have been a big step towards a third-place finish - the January window is an odd beast at the best of times, but it seems even more unlikely that quality will want to move in a Mosson direction under the circumstances.

2) I'm not sure they have any money.

3) Some of the rotation employed by Rene Girard has been enforced, due to a spate of injuries and disciplinary issues, but some has been plain weird. The manager looks to have reacted in panic to bad performances by constant dropping, tweaking, shifting, and generally buggering about with the selection so - by the looks of things - the players don't know where they're going to put from one moment to the next (some of the 'in-play' changes have been wing switches, etc). The lack of consistency in both selection and position seems to be blocking the team developing the automatisme that served so well last season.  Slagging your team off in public is also, while understandable, not massively helpful.

The next match is at home against Nice, also down in the danger zone, where it will be interesting to see the backline. Mapou is suspended, so will Girard risk Congre in the centre or put Stambouli back there? Up-front, will we see Charbonnier get a second start, or will Camara be used (or even Utaka, now he's back)? It seems unlikely that Herrera will get the nod but hell, anything seems possible. On which - benching your goalkeeper for criticising the rotation 'policy' might have been meant as strong management but ended up looking rather petty, and just proving Jourdren's point. We're not even sure who'll be in goal.

Possibly Stambouli, he's played everywhere else in defence.

Ho hum.

Three Envelopes.

So, as the kit deal clearly wasn't enough, Liverpool are currently 'Being' on the television. I haven't seen it - it's not on here. But an extract has been published that shows manager Brendan Rodgers waving around three envelopes while telling his team that he has already written down the names of three people "who will let us down this year...the cause, the fight, everything".

So far, so middle-management-sent-on-a-sales-course.  It's book-ended with his belief that "the sky's the limit for you", punctuated with "we need to be together" (slightly ironic, under the circumstances), qualified with "maximum three will let us down", but, inconsistently, as there are three envelopes, finished with a repeated pressure, "make sure you're not the one" (my emphasis).

Three envelopes is rather clever, actually - just one could encourage the team to band together to find and shun the Jonah - three adds to the edge of unease. Whether or not Rodgers has nicked this idea from Alex Ferguson matters little - the speech should be taken on its own merits, which are few.

In late 2009, German goalkeeper Robert Enke committed suicide; he was suffering from depression. Enke had hidden his illness for at least six years, his wife saying that he feared their child would be taken away if his illness became public knowledge.

Bit of a leap? Maybe not. If someone in that room was already struggling, what message would those three envelopes send to them? Obviously the intention would be to gen everyone up, to not be one of the guys in the envelope, to spur them on, yadda yadda yadda; the usual teambuilding stuff.

But for someone struggling? The fear of being one of the guys in the envelope - in fact, being 'the one' that Rodgers refers to several times - could be crippling; could be deeply counter-productive; could even be dangerous.

And for somebody really struggling? Well, they might already know that it's their name on one of those pieces of paper in one of those envelopes.  They'll know it, nothing will convince them otherwise - not that they'd discuss this with their team-mates, as now everyone's been alerted to the three (or possibly one) Jonah(s) who are going to let us down.  Even though there is sure as damnit nothing written on any piece of paper in any of those envelopes, even if the envelopes have paper in at all.

With a bit of luck, the players in the room will all be happily on the level and/or will have recognised the stunt for the management-speak hooey it is; they are, after all, highly paid and adulated players for a big football team.  But Enke was a successful goalkeeper, capped for his country, with a wife and a young child, and he still ended up standing in front of a regional express train.

That stunt was deeply irresponsible and rather unpleasant. If it works, he'll be hailed as some sort of man-management genius. Let's hope it works, rather than the alternative.

European Championships 2013 – the unfashionable uneven years #2

Part two in the series - ladies first, natch.

Under-21 European Championships – Israel 2013

The second qualifying tournament coming to a close in October (12^th and 16^th) involves slightly more risk than the three berths yet to be decided for the Women’s Euro in Sweden – everybody has to play-off.  After a qualifying group round that kicked off in March 2011, and could mean that some players at the finals are pushing 30, ten group winners and four best runners-up are thrown into an all-or-nothing two-legged play-off to determine who will join hosts Israel in the finals.

Having ten qualifying groups but only two groups at the tournament seems a little odd, but given what’s going on with the CAN qualifying at the minute, perhaps this isn’t so bad.  The seedings for the playoffs are more arguable, as these are based on coefficients generated from performances getting to and at the 2009 and 2011 tournaments, as well as the currently qualifying campaign, which given the age-limit on the competition, may not be massively representative.

However – the seeded teams were the seven group winners with the highest coefficients: Spain, Czech Republic, England, Netherlands, Germany, Italy and France. Unseeded – the other group winners Sweden, Russia and Serbia and the best runners-up Switzerland, Denmark, Slovakia and Norway.  There is of course one anomaly in that unseeded Switzerland at 34.034 are ranked higher than France and Italy in the seeded pot, but it wouldn’t be a coefficient system without something peculiarhappening.

Overall the group stage featured fewer ridiculous results than the women’s qualifying; there are minnows, of course, but of a more traditional sort – San Marino, Andorra, the Faroe Islands, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg. More surprising wooden spoons went to Iceland (3 pts), Latvia (2) and Estonia (1), but overall things were pretty recognisable and nobody got to double figures, the biggest hammerings being a couple of 8-0s (Czech Republic v Andorra, and Germany over San Marino) and the funnest-looking match an epic Denmark 6 – 5 FYROM.  How hosts Israel will fit into this is unclear – as the U21 coefficients are only calculated for the playoff contenders, they don’t have a specific ranking, but the senior team is 75^th in the current overall FIFA rankings, so…

For the home nations, Wales were shaded into 4^th in Group 3 by Montenegro in not a very tricky group, Northern Ireland tanked a bit in Group 4, only one point above the Faroe Islands in last place, and Scotland were runners-up to the Netherlands in Group 10 but didn’t make the cut.  The Republic of Ireland put a decent shift in, coming third after Italy and Turkey, and above Hungary.  England, described rather dourly as “perennial qualifiers“ on the official website, won Group 8 finishing ahead of Norway (also through), Belgium, Azerbaijan and the aforementioned Iceland.

The play-off draw threw up some tasty-looking ties:

• Spain (holders) v Denmark
• Italy v Sweden *
• Czech Republic v Russia *
• Slovakia v Netherlands
• Germany v Switzerland
• England v Serbia *
• France v Norway

*ties involving two group winners

England’s matches against Serbia should be tight affairs, as both have a good record in the competition.  Germany v Switzerland should also be a good match, their rankings almost the same; Germany only dropped two points in the group stage (a 4-4 draw with Bosnia Herzogovina in the last match, when they presumably had a bit of a rest), but Switzerland were in a group with defending champions Spain, losing to them 3-0 then drawing 0-0 in the home game – although they also drew 0-0 with Estonia in their opening match (the Estonian's only point…). 

The play-off approach for everybody means there is still an air of uncertainty over the tournament, with several matches too close to call.  My undoubtedly unsuccessful accumulator would be: Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Switzerland, Serbia (probably on penalties) and France.  The finals will be held in Israel from 5-18 June 2013.

For a good round-up of the French team’s qualification and chances, see this article from Coffee House Football: http://lepetitcarremagique.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/les-bleus-bright-young-stars/

European Championships 2013 – The Unfashionable Uneven Years #1

While the world looks on avidly as the qualification process for Brazil 2014 (now featuring endangered armadillo) gets under way, some other qualifying campaigns are drawing to a close.  Next summer will see the Women's Euros in Sweden and the U21 Euros in Israel, both of which are at the play-off stage.

Women’s European Championships – Sweden 2013

Already Qualified:

• Sweden (hosts) – FIFA Ranking 6 – winners in 1984
• Italy (group winners) – 10 – only team to have appeared at all 10 Championships
• Germany (g.w.) – 2 – current holders, have won last 5 tournaments, 7 in total (1 as W Germany)
• Norway (g.w.) – 13 – winners in 1983 and 1987, secured qualification in last game v Iceland
• France (g.w.) – 5 – only team with a perfect record in qualifying
• Finland (g.w.) – 18
• England (g.w.) – 8 – secured qualification in last game by beating Croatia
• Denmark (g.w.) – 12 – secured qualification in last game by beating Portugal
• Netherlands (best runners-up) – 14

Play-offs (October 20/21 and 24/25):

Scotland (22) v Spain (17)
Scotland are looking for a first finals appearance, but they laboured a bit in what was not a very tough group, and have a toughish draw to proceed after being beaten 5-0 by France in their last qualifying game, and barely managing a shot.  Spain have only appeared once before, in 1997 (losing in the semi-final to Italy), but they were in Germany’s group for qualifying, and were the only team to take points off them, in a 2-2 draw at home (lost return leg 5-0).  
Predict Spain to qualify.

Ukraine (23) v Iceland (16)
Iceland were topping their group until the final match, a decider with Norway, which they lost 2-1.  Ukraine went into their final match v Finland 6pts behind, but managed a 1-0 win away.  Both were in reasonably competitive groups (i.e. at least 3 decent teams and only one hopeless case), and look fairly evenly matched. 
Predict Iceland to qualify, but it could be tight.

Austria (35) v Russia (20)
Russia have three previous appearances, in 1997, 2001, 2009 but didn’t make the knock-out stages. They were in a group with Italy, Poland, Bosnia Herzogovina and Greece, which kept things reasonably tight, FYROM providing the traditional cannon fodder element.  Austria have never qualified before and are the lowest ranked team still in this, but gave Denmark a scare with a 3-1 win in their last match – Denmark dropped to second but had a game in hand, and went back top after beating Portugal 2-0.
Predict Russia to qualify.

The perennial problem – the level of comedy shoeings: http://www.uefa.com/womenseuro/matches/index.html http://www.uefa.com/womenseuro/standings/index.html

Seven matches saw one team hit double figures, the highest tally being Germany 17 – 0 Kazakhstan (in second place, Spain 13 – 0 Kazakhstan). (Poor Kazakhstan). Honourable mention also to Italy for beating FYROM 9-0 in both legs, which shows a pleasing symmetry, although possibly not if you're on the receiving end.  

The goal difference figures in the standings tables give you an idea of the gulf in class between the best teams and the rest, and one has to wonder whether it does either group any good to see those kind of scores so frequently; the best teams are rarely tested outside actual tournaments, so face few loseable games, while the newcomers spend most of their time picking the ball out of the net and have few winnable opportunities. The Euros do feature a preliminary stage, in which the scorelines looked much more reasonable (OK, Luxembourg shipped some, but also beat Latvia) and which put Armenia and FYROM through to the main qualifying competition; it might be an idea to expand that next time as Kazakhstan, Turkey and Bulgaria all went straight in - and all were on the end of two double-figure routs.

The resulting three-group format of the finals leads to a slight ‘all must have prizes’ aspect to qualification for the knock-out rounds, as the winners and runners-up of each are joined by the two best 3rd-placed teams.  Expanding to 16 teams would seem sensible to make the group stages more interesting - as above, the real minnows are not going to get through, and the highest-ranked non-qualifiers Switzerland, Belgium, Poland and Republic of Ireland, and of course the losing playoff-teams, are all decent enough.  

While Sweden have qualified as hosts so haven’t had to go through qualifying, they have three key points on their side – home advantage, having players in the top leagues in Europe getting CL experience, and appointing Pia Sundhage as their new coach.  Only Germany and France are above them in the rankings, and while the defending champions will be the favourites, probably by some distance, Sweden could well get to the final.

The tournament will take place from 10 July, the final scheduled for Sunday 28 July at the Solna Arena.

Friendly Rivalries and Footballing Reasons

After the Euros, and at a time when L'Equipe is running breaking news items on the number of Ligue 1 teams' Academy players to have passed their Bac, it can feel like there is a lack of football.

Ptooey.

There is an actual tournament going on right now, the U19 European Championships, where today's semi-finals will see England meet Greece (15.45 CET) and Spain meet France (19.00 CET) - and the Olympics are coming (more on that later, please try to avoid bringing a bag); but there's an absolute riot of meaningless lopsided match-ups going on as teams try to run off the holiday weight, integrate new players, in some cases new managers, and make everyone feel better about themselves before the serious stuff kicks off in August.

Yesterday, in a pre-season friendly, PSG beat Austrian third division side Sportverein Stegersbach 9-0, in one of those matches that tips over from being sport to outright bullying.  Austria is currently playing host to several football teams fond of airmiles and Sachertorte, with Manchester City and Lyon also in place, having people over to stay such as CSKA Moscow, Al-Hilal, Dynamo Dresden, Beskitas etc.

The general approach for French teams seems to be like a lot of people's holiday plans for a year - one 'proper' trip away (probably to Austria), a couple of weekend breaks, and some days out in the local vicinity.  On the day-trip front, there's a Corsican mini-league featuring AC Ajaccio, Bastia, Calvi and Gazelec before Bastia nip home to put the kettle on in case Liverpool do actually show up on 4 August (nothing on their website); MHSC are also saving up the travel budget with short jaunts out to Mende, Avignon and Nice before the big trip to the US, where they will prepare for the Trophee de Champions by playing Kansas City Sport (24 July) while Lyon will be seeking to have an impact on Montreal.


However, as with the difference between tourists and travellers, the hardcore pre-season tour now has to include at least three continents, with China and the US preferred destinations purely for footballing reasons.  Manchester United are hitting South Africa, China and Scandinavia; Arsenal are throwing in Malaysia (where they will play MCFC) and Hong Kong; and PSG are popping over to America, presumably miffed not to be part of the Trophee de Champions match between MHSC and OL, which this year will continue the tradition of being played in a Francophone country by taking place at New York's Red Bull Arena.  Liverpool, Spurs, Villa and Stoke are all heading over the US as well.

Pre-season friendlies can be a double-edged sword - the footballing reasons behind the multi-continent tour are clear but there's a decent chance the whole team will be suffering from jetlag and earache after all that flying around and won't know where the hell they are from one day to the next; also, while beating anyone 9-0 must be a nice feeling, that result will (rightly) be seen as meaningless, as the top team is expected to be, well, top - but an unexpected loss to the minnow of choice can be taken more seriously.  OK, Guingamp and Istres are in Ligue 2, they're not mugs, but those 0-1 losses are still a bit embarrassing for Evian and Toulouse respectively.  This could explain why the first friendly is usually a gimme - Stegersbach, for example, or Arsenal kicking things off with a gentle 45 minutes against Southampton - if you are the first team on the calendar for one of the big boys, you're considered to be cannon fodder. 

But there are some intriguing match-ups in there - some in the far-flung footballing reasons part of the tour, such as the aforementioned Manchester City v Arsenal (China) and Chelsea v PSG (New York), but also in the European City Break category; Benfica are taking on both Lille and Marseille, Lyon play Athletic Bilbao, MHSC go to Espanyol Barcelona, while Stripey Barcelona will take on PSG and Manchester United.  There's maybe some 'U and Non-U' going on here - purely for footballing reasons, of course.  


Yesterday also saw Les Bleues beating Russia 3-0 in a pre-'lympics friendly; a slightly more testing occasion than their previous match against Romania (6-0), as Russia did actually manage a couple of shots on goal. National team friendlies can suffer from the same problems as club ones - flying around all over the place (Spain), meaningless hammerings (see below), worrying defeats (Switzerland v Germany), visiting South Americans getting used to the weather before the 'lympics (Denmark v Brazil, Russia v Uruguay), and footballing reasons (Spain again, playing South Korea and China).  There is also the added issue that such matches are factored into the totally logical FIFA Rankings, which currently have England in 4th and Brazil in 11th. 


Pre-Euros, the same unqualified names turned up time and again to act as pacemaker for the teams heading for Polkraine, such as Estonia, beaten in turn by Croatia (3-1), Ukraine (4-0) and France (4-0).  Estonia, of course, only lost out on a place at the Euros by losing a play-off to the Republic of Ireland, so the tournament collectively dodged a bullet there.  Also, we learned something very important from England's two 1-0 wins against Norway and Belgium, namely that Cahill can't play football with a broken jaw.


But when there is nothing else on, we will watch - and in France, as Canal+ scrabbles around in vain for some football to show before being Ligue-less next season, and Direct 8 continues its cheerful support of the women's game, we can watch - and have that conversation again...


England: We beat Spain!
Spain: It was a friendly.
England: But...we beat Spain!
Spain: It was a friendly. We don't care.
England: But...we beat Spain!
Spain: Kiss our silverware, losers.

PSG - A Tale of Two Selections

Lavezzi in, Ceara out, Chantome going, Sakho sulking; PSG's mercato can only get more interesting.  Having looked at Montpellier's preferred starters for 2011/12 with a view to assessing their situation for next season, doing the same analysis for PSG was a bit more complicated.  The managerial change during the winter break gives a clear cut-off at the halfway point of 2011/12, in terms of selection and formation.

Data comes from L'Equipe's teamsheets and formation graphics, so may not be 100%, but you get the idea.

Kombouaré set his team up in a 4-2-3-1 (barring a 4-4-2 in the opening game, Hoarau's only start in 2011), his preferred starters shown in the graphic:

In defence, Ceara got 15 starts, also covering at LB, Camara 12, Sakho 10, Tiene 11, with alternatives provided by Bisevac and Jallet (8 - Jallet also appearing on the RW), Lugano and Armand (6).


In midfield, Matuidi had 12 starts, Bodmer 12 (mostly in a holding role but initially in the attacking three) and Sissoko 9.  The front four was very consistent over the games Kombouaré was in charge - Nene 18, Menez 17, Pastore 16, and Kevin Gameiro was the only outfield player to start all 19 games.


Then came winter, and Ancelotti - there's a Christmas tree joke in here but I'm damned if I can find it - his preferred formation a 4-3-3, and starters per the graphic:

 It was the back four that changed the most - of Kombouaré's preferred starters, only Sakho held on, with 10 starts (and is muttering darkly about doing one if another central defender arrives, a view with which we may have some sympathy if the rumours are true and that CB is EBJT) - Jallet was promoted to first choice RB (with another two starts on the right wing), and January signings Alex Costa (15) and Maxwell (13) were immediately installed as fixtures. Bisevac stayed fairly level with 9 starts, but Camara was downgraded to 5 and Ceara to 2; his contract has now been terminated.


Another new boy strode confidently into midfield, Thiago Motta getting 14 starts, but the change in formation meant less disruption here, Matuidi and Sissoko both holding steady with 13, and Bodmer managing 9 as cover.  Clément Chantôme, who had got 7 starts at the start of the season under Kombouaré, started only once under the new boss, and now looks to be on his way to Lyon.


In attack, the usual suspects Nene (17), Menez (16) and Pastore (14) were regulars, with rotation employed if Ancelotti actually picked a striker - the big difference was that this was not, as before, always Gameiro; he got only 8 starts in 2012, Guillaume Hoarau (who I was surprised to find is 28) got 6, and was the preferred sub option (10 as opposed to Gameiro's 6) when Ancelotti changed things up.


Ancelotti has hinted (warning - includes auto-start video) that Gameiro will have more joy next season but the poor guy looks a bit crumpled - as well as causing frustration week-to-week, Ancelotti's formation change probably killed his chances of going to the Euros; 9 goals in 2011 (he was competing with Giroud to be top scorer) collapsed to 2 in 2012.


The purchase of Lavezzi is interesting - it could mean that Ancelotti wants to be able to rotate more with the CL to play, but what effects this will have are unclear; it could dislodge Nene, or push him into the centre if the strikerless 4-3-3 is retained; or Menez could suffer, with his manager recently stepping away from the FFF disciplinary panel issue and also saying, rather exasperatedly, that he'd rather Jeremy didn't pick up "12-13" cards a season for arguing with referees. That number was not picked out of the air - his Ligue record was in fact 12. Cover seems the most likely explanation if PSG are to make a better job of competing in Europe than they did last season, but the window well open and the frique there to be spent, this will not be the end of the story for PSG.


Click here for a visualisation of the selections throughout last season (another visual that works as well as a pillowcase cover design as for information purposes).  


Note: the formation creator used above is http://www.footballuser.com/ and also allows for the creation of fantasy teams; Death Metal Rovers? Check. Coalition Cabinet DisUnited? Check - if you can name more than four of them.  Have fun.

Whither Montpellier?

The transfer window is swinging gently in the breeze, Giroud has relocated to the Francophone enclave that is Arsenal FC, LouLou has come over all sensible (for now) about the target for next season, and René  Girard is seeking to apply the rumoured €15m received for Ligue 1's best striker last year in doubling up in a couple of areas to prepare for fighting on several fronts in 2012/13 including, alleluia, the Champions League.

So far, MHSC have added winger Anthony Mounier (€3.5m) from Nice, striker Gaetan Charbonnier (€1.5m) from Angers, and defender Daniel Congré  (tbc) from Toulouse.  Several loanees are back, the most likely of which to feature next season should be Bengali Fode Koita (4 sub appearances before going to Lens in January), and there are rumours that striker Emmanuel Herrera will be coming in from Union Espanola in Chile.

Having trawled through the full list of L'Equipe's team formations by match, the usual starting team (number of starts in brackets) for MHSC in 2011/12 was:

With apologies for playing the RB so far forward, but I couldn't fit them in on a single line. And the holding mids might be the wrong way around a bit. Anyway.

The key position to cover will of course be the CF - Camara and Utaka stood in once apiece when Olive was on the naughty step, but both have their own preferred positions, and with Dernis having moved on to Brest, Camara's claim on the right would presumably solidify.  Charbonnier claimed on signing that he would be happy to be a back-up striker, but that was before the Giroud deal was closed; if Herrera comes in, and/or Victor Hugo Montaño comes back (another rumour), that would look like a shared position. The purchase of Mounier, a left-winger, might suggest that Utaka could move to the CF position but it seems more likely that they will cover the left between them; a further covering option for either side would be Karim Ait-Fana (5 starts left, 2 right, 5 subs at both), and Montpellier's very own Lolcat Remy Cabella can slot in as well (5 starts right, 13 subs across the park).

In central midfield, Belhanda is the obvious first choice but Cabella has covered there in CAN / ban situations.  Girard has also, where necessary, moved to a 4-3-3 playing all three of his most-used holders (Estrada, Saihi, Marveaux) as the middle three.  Stambouli's versatility comes in useful here, starting and subbing on both as holding mid and centre back, and Romain Pitau (35, having agreed a one-year extension) is available also.

At the back, the go-to four are Bedimo, Hilton, Yanga-Mbiwa and Bocaly; Hilton moving across to cover for his captain, Stambouli / El-Kaoutari slotting in for him, and Cyril Jeunechamp covering both full-back positions as necessary.  The purchase of Congré gave rise to concerns that Mapou might be off to pastures new - nothing is confirmed as yet, but rumour has it he has signed an extension on his contract (otherwise due to end next year): if he stays, this would allow for more rotation in multiple competitions; if he goes, Congré is a good replacement, and can also play at right-back.  If Bedimo goes, as is also rumoured, despite only signing last summer, that could be a bigger problem - Jeunechamp has extended his contract for another season but he's not getting any younger (36), so having an alternative at LB would appear necessary anyway. 


LouLou recently set out his suspiciously reasonable targets for 2012/13 - top five or six in the league, 'pourquoi pas une petite coupe', finishing third in the CL group and going into the Europa League.  Given some of his previous pronouncements, this restraint is a little surprising, but having actually gone and bloody won the title, MHSC are no longer the annoying kid kicking the big boys on the shins and running away; they've got something to defend - and lose - now.


So, while most focus is rightly on replacing Giroud up front, I would also like to see alternative back-up at the left side of defence - if no more preferred starters leave, that would give options in every position and the flexibility of younger players such as Stambouli, Cabella, and Ait-Fana who have not been, until now, majority starters will be very useful.


I will now stand by and watch as the midfield is sold as a package deal to Newcastle, if my predictions history is anything to go by.  When does the window close?