Scores Rennes en direct
1 April 2011 | à 19h39

Keys to the end of the season

With ten match days left, everything is still at stake for Stade Rennes, third, who host Auxerre this Saturday. Frédéric Antonetti reckons that « in the final straight, everything is important ». Overview.

Keys to the end of the season

After the international break, the Stade Rennais prepare to finish the season with ten games in two months. Third with 50 points, the club is five units behind leaders Lille and eleven clear of sixth placed Saint Etienne. Frédéric Antonetti only gives Rennes « slight chances » to be crowned France champions. But the situation is far from problematic. “There is something to play for, and great things to expect”, Nicolas Douchez also promises.

Rennes’ strengths

No more complex

After the confrontations against Marseille (0-2) and Lyon (1-1), Frédéric Antonetti could realise that their level isn’t that far below this of their competitors. “We have our chances to finish in the top three, it depends of us, the manager reckons. Lyon and Marseille have got more assets that we have. (…) Not so much in terms of aptitude, more on the experience.” Nicolas Douchez confirms: “Since the beginning of the season, we have been good enough.” According to him, Marseille won in Rennes thanks to their use to great matches and weren’t superior “in the game, but in the attitudes and the solidity”.

Mental strength and enthusiasm

We have to compensate our lack of experience with a lot of enthusiasm and good will. We should also repeat what we have already been able to do”, Frédéric Antonetti requires. “We are in a very tight group and the fight will continue until the end. I can’t see us giving in mentally this season, Nicolas Douchez considers. We are ambitious, motivated, and slightly crazy thanks to our youth. (…) The squad lives well together. We are serene, happy and conscious of what we’re living. We are not making too much of it and we keep on having fun.

A favourable calendar

Except for the final game in Lille, Stade Rennes will not meet any direct opponent during this last stretch of the season, The team will receive five times at the Route de Lorient and will met five struggling teams (Auxerre, Monaco, Valenciennes, Caen and Nancy).”Lille gad difficulties against Lens, Valenciennes and Brest, Nicolas Douchez ponders. We know every game will be difficult since there is much at stake both at the top and at the bottom of the league.

Rennes’ weaknesses

Injuries in the attacking line

Honnestly, if we had forced these teams (Ed.: OM and OL)to play with as many attacking players missing as we’ve had, it would have been very difficult to them”, the Breton goalkeeper continues. Against Auxerre, Jirès Kembo is out, Victor Hugo Montaño is banned and Abdoula Camara is a major doubt (with back injuries). Injured to the left thigh on Wednesday, Brahimi is back to the medical unit. Since the beginning of the season, physical issues are piling up. Brahimi’s injury, whose duration remains to be confirmed, penalises Frédéric Antonetti’s tactics a bit more. In attack, the tactics require the presence of a free role player (such as Marveaux before Brahimi) to offer solutions that can unbalance the opposition.

Fame and influence

In the final straight, everything is important », Frédéric Antonetti insists. Before the game against Auxerre, he comes back on a scene he witnessed after Lyon-Rennes: “the interjections” towards the referees from members of the Lyon management, “including” Jean Michel Aulas. “If I did what I saw happening in the corridor, I would be summoned to the commission of ethics!”, he remarks. In the football, there are “significant power relationships (…) Some have more weight than us, and a bit more influence. I congratulate Lyon because they’ve earned that sort of influence, they play the Champions League, they have often been Champions or in the Top 3”.”This is not at our level, it’s more the staff and the management that could invert this trend, Nicolas Douchez finishes. It will take time for Rennes to become a big club, it can’t happen in a day, unfortunately.

Nicolas Auffray - Le Mensuel de Rennes

Photo : www.rennes.lemensuel.com

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