A new lease of life for Stade Rennais. Mired at the bottom of the Ligue 1The Bretons have decided to bring in some new blood on the bench. Gone is the wise and quiet Julien Stéphan, replaced by the Argentinian madness of Jorge Sampaoli.. The former OM coach, who was presented to the press on Tuesday, has arrived at the bedside of “a team in pain”, as he put it.
Present in the stands at Roazhon Park on Sunday to witness a defeat by Toulouse (0-2), Sampaoli explained that he had seen a team that “didn’t manage to play the game it needed to”. Asserting that he had watched many Rennes matches with his assistants before his arrival, Rennes “is a team that suffers from not being able to achieve its objectives, and we have to help it so that this suffering is replaced by confidence”, continued the Argentine.
Mental work
Known for his very particular and demanding playing principles, he acknowledged that his work will be at least as much psychological as tactical: “Our job will be that: to comfort a group of footballers so that they don’t feel uncomfortable on the pitch, but enjoy themselves and play much more energetically.”
“The first objective will be to try to have a much more organized team so that we can develop a collective operation that allows us to have an identity through the construction of the game and then for the team to regain confidence,” he also emphasized. Despite their 13th-place finish in Ligue 1, just one point clear of the red zone, Rennes “is a great clubassured Sampaoli, who said he was “very excited to be here. [d’avoir] a great challenge”.
He also expressed his satisfaction at returning to a championship where he had done well with Marseille from February 2021 to the summer of 2022, leaving OM in 2nd place in the championship, before slamming the door because the club could not allow him to aim for the championship title.
I’m an admirer of the French League,” said Sampaoli. After Marseille, I followed the championship a lot, because I really like the teams here, how the transitions work, it’s a very good experience. It’s a challenge for me to be here.”