We barely saved the draw.
Monaco is now in fever; the top club does not have enough stability to stay in the race with Paris Saint-Germain all season. It is significant that the team almost lost to the Ligue 1 underdog.
I lost track of the game
For quite a long time, Adi Hütter’s team remained close to the Parisians in the standings. A draw in the first seven rounds, eight consecutive rounds without defeat, the Monegasques immediately gained solid momentum. But they couldn’t support him. From December onwards, the team simply fell apart. In a crucial match, Monaco lost to Marseille and dropped the Provençaux to second place in Ligue 1. The defeat against Arsenal in the Champions League was followed by a 0:0 draw with Reims and a draw 2:4 against PSG. The team is hopelessly behind the championship leader. Later there was another failure. Adi Hütter’s team, after beating Union Saint-Jean in the Cup, lost again to the Parisians and lost the Super Cup to France.
The Monegasques do not suffer from injuries, like the conventional RB Leipzig, they have worked with their coach for a long time, unlike, for example, Borussia. The German giants’ crisis is understandable, but Monaco’s decline is hardly so.
The Russian’s absence is a big blow for the team
Another important introduction is the absence of Alexander Golovin. The midfielder played 72 minutes of the match with PSG and was replaced. Hütter explained his decision as follows:
Golovin was upset, but not at all by the substitution. Sasha felt pain in his ankle again, and that’s what made him nervous. I can understand it.
It must be taken into account that the Russian has a huge influence on the Monegasque game. It gives it variety thanks to its universalism. The footballer often played on the flank, and when he was physically ready, he returned to the center of the field – France has athletic football, so the physical characteristics of the central half are important. We talked more about Golovin’s importance to Monaco here. For now, we’ll limit ourselves to Hütter’s comment, which reveals how Alexandre’s versatility expands the team’s functionality.
Today (against PSG) Golovin played deeper, in the support zone, next to Zakaria, we wanted to have more possession of the ball, by the way, in previous matches we made simple mistakes when we were without the ball – for this , we put Sasha. Overall I’m happy with him, he’s great.
The absence of the midfielder therefore reduced Monaco’s potential against Nantes.
The Monegasque defense in all its splendor
It is true that Golovin’s absence is only a poor explanation for the start of the nightmare. In the 47th minute, the Monegasques “burned” 0:2, and both goals were the result of the errors of the Monaco defense, and not the skill of Nantes or their standard plan for the match.
In the first case, Ouattara lost the duel against Sorbe Thomas in the 12th minute. He enters the penalty area. Kehrer played after Douglas, but a few meters away from him stood another Canary player, Matthias Ablin. The striker managed to adapt to the pass and shot without resistance – the Monaco central defender turned to him late (and generally found himself in a trap).
On the second goal, the Monegasques once again forgot Thomas on the flank. Ouattara let him go, Salis had to advance on Sorbet. Amyan burst into the area he had abandoned, but Zakaria did not have time to bring him reinforcements.
Monaco’s de facto defense immediately collapsed as soon as Nantes increased the pace of their attack. It’s strange to talk about this when we’re talking about the confrontation between a top club and a championship outsider.
Back in seven minutes
Hütter’s team spent a lot of time figuring out how to construct their attacks. It is quite possible that an adaptation was necessary due to the absence of Alexander Golovin – the midfielder read the game and competently moved the ball forward, controlled the pace of attacks and was able to attract opposing players towards him (they often ask him to play individually). ). The visitors began to create chances more or less regularly in the second half of the first half. Kamara connected from long distance, a dangerous throw was made to Embolo (he directed it inaccurately), closer to the break, Zakaria connected well with the attack, Singo’s throw in stoppage time almost turned into a goal.
We finally woke up after missing the second goal. In the 52nd minute there was a diagonal pass from the flank towards Embolo. It was a slim goal in every sense of the word – Breel found the moment to dive behind the defender and made a timely play with his body. If you don’t get the timing right, you could lose the fight. Furthermore, if the attacker had positioned himself a few centimeters closer to the goal, he would have been offside.
Seven minutes later, the visitors were back on level terms on the scoreboard. During this period, the Monegasques systematically inflated the game – there were shots from Ben-Segir and Singo, in one of the episodes Salisu signaled that there was a handball. But Salisu himself finally scored the second goal. In the remaining time, Monaco still had a 100% chance – but Nantes also hit the crossbar. A draw is a natural result.
The goal is not to get out of the Champions League zone
The championship race is already lost. If we were talking about Manchester City and Arsenal, everything would not be so obvious. But between Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain there is a class gap. In addition, the Parisians are much more experienced and have managed to build up a comfortable advantage. At the same time, it is time for Hütter’s team to achieve a kind of mini-feat. They continue to fight for the Coupe de France and have had a good run in the Champions League, thanks to which they are fighting for the playoffs. In the Cup, the Monegasques are strong enough to fight for the trophy, and in Champions League You can perform like in the 16/17 season. Then we reached the semi-finals. Now the quarter-finals would be enough. It is too early for a modest project to claim more.
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