When we think of the fire trainer who arrives in an emergency to put out the fire, we inevitably think of him. Over the years, Pascal Dupraz has forged this reputation. From Evian-Thonon-Gaillard to Caen, obviously passing through Toulouse, the 59-year-old coach wears this label and even assumes it without problem. The problem is that this formula hasn’t worked for a while. If there was an electric shock in Saint-Étienne when he arrived, we saw that, over time, his grip was struggling to hold. We can obviously respect his convictions, but his vision of football in 2022 comes up against a reality: we can no longer be so minimalist.
So yes, there are mitigating circumstances, such as its unbalanced squad and a very weak defense. Fortunately for ASSE that, in this L1 2021-2022, there is a much more terrible team with the Girondins. If he manages to maintain this Saint-Etienne team against all odds, thanks in particular to the individual exploits of Khazri and Bouanga, we will not fail to ask ourselves questions. When we see the turn of his adventure in the Forez, we even wonder if the Savoyard did not see himself too handsome. As soon as he arrived at Geoffroy-Guichard, Pascal Dupraz validated the presence of a film crew for a documentary. A priority, really?
(L1) Saint-Etienne – Pascal Dupraz: “Defensively, I’ve been tinkering since December and before me, a much more prestigious coach was also tinkering” ??https://t.co/NDN0kN6Sbh
The cult of the person has no place in the Stéphanois stagnation. We have the feeling that he wants to reproduce the (formidable) scenes experienced in Toulouse in 2016, except that the context is not at all the same. The rescue mission of the TFC concerned ten meetings, while in Sainté he had a whole second part of the season to raise the bar. If he did better than Claude Puel, with a great start, the rest was much more complicated. In his speech, the words have not changed and, unfortunately, neither has the game. We also saw that his ASSE had to be above all solid, to the detriment of the show.
In addition, Pascal Dupraz did not fail to send spades when his team raised their heads. He even attacked Pascal Gastien, coach of Clermont. Ligue 1’s latest budget tries to deliver engaging content, and that mentality doesn’t sit well with the proud Savoyard. He had not failed to tell him after a victory on Auvergne soil: “It’s good to have beaten the pawn to this Clermont team which claims the principles of Pep Guardiola. […] I am happy to have shown Pascal Gastien that a mountaineer could make his team play. He’s a great boy, but he’s not fair play. He’s always squealing all the time, it’s annoying. »
The ASSE coach has decided to make this mission yet another crusade against the romantics of the round ball, except that the backlash could be very violent in the event of a disappointment in Nantes on Saturday evening. And lovers of the Greens would then not have much to do with the famous documentary.