It took Lens a while to claim their first victory of 2021 – a mid-week trip to a Marseille side in freefall doing the trick – but Montpellier are still waiting, having failed to win any of their games since their journey to Pas-de-Calais in December.
Two back threes made for a boring game in Lens’ last outing against Nice, however it was a problem they would have to face again. Franck Haise set up in his usual 3-4-1-2 formation, replacing Jonathan Gradit, Ismaël Boura, Yannick Cahuzac and the injured Ignatius Ganago with Jonathan Clauss, Massadio Haïdara, Seko Fofana and Simon Banza, moving Clément Michelin from wing-back to centre-back on the right to cover for Gradit’s suspension.
Just as Adrian Ursea did, Michel Der Zakarian set his team in a 3-5-2 shape, making five personnel changes from the team that was thrashed by Paris Saint-Germain to go with the change in shape. Jonas Omlin – sent off after just 19 minutes against PSG – Arnaud Souquet, Damien Le Tallec, Téji Savanier and Florent Mollet were swapped out for Dimitry Bertaud, Joris Chotard, Jordan Ferri, Keagan Dolly and Stephy Mavididi.
It didn’t take long for Lens to take the lead. Montpellier headed away a corner but Dolly’s attempt to get it away further deflected back off of Chotard into the path of Cheick Doucouré. The Malian picked out a wonderful first-time shot from the edge of the area – an even better finish than his one from a similar area against Lyon.
Montpellier had looked fairly promising in those opening minutes though. With former Lens man Hilton often dropping deeper than the outside centre-backs to provide a different angle, Pedro Mendes and Daniel Congré spreading very wide across the pitch, and a willingness to play longer aerial balls out to them, Montpellier had none of the problems with Lens’ pressing that Nice had. This forced Lens into dropping off, although they may have done this anyway after taking the lead.
Kakuta would sometimes look to push up alongside the strikers to press the backline three-against-three, however this would leave Ferri free in midfield to receive the ball.
With Kakuta typically hovering around Ferri as Dolly and Chotard pushed high, Montpellier didn’t usually look to play back inside to the midfielders. Instead they would try to find runs in behind Lens’ backline with balls over the top, with some players coming short to draw Lens’ defenders up the pitch, leaving gaps to exploit.
Out of possession, Montpellier’s midfielders would look to man-mark Lens’.
This made it more difficult for Docuouré, Fofana and Kakuta to pick up the ball – although Montpellier’s midfielders often let enough space between them and their man to make it possible – however it left more space for Florian Sotoca and Banza to drop off and pick up the ball between the lines. As a result, it didn’t do a great deal to disrupt Lens’ build-up.
Particularly as Lens seemed to be trying to play over the top of them. Kakuta would push up with Sotoca and Banza, but, unusually, so would Clauss, tucking inside off the right. Haïdara would stay further back on the left to balance this out, leaving Lens with a four man attack to compete for long balls. Using five defenders, Montpellier never looked especially troubled by these attacks though.
Having taken an early lead, Lens were content to sit back and protect their lead. With their gameplan based around trying to hit balls to chase in behind Lens’ backline, this was a death sentence to Montpellier. You can’t look to get in behind a team that isn’t leaving any space to do so, and Montpellier didn’t appear to have any other ideas.
Worse still, with three men in attack, Lens would regain the ball then immediately counter-attack at Montpellier’s exposed backline.
On 62 minutes, Der Zakarian made two changes, substituting Mendes and Dolly for Souquet and Elye Wahi. This saw Montpellier change to a 4-2-3-1. Wahi led the line, Gaëtan Laborde and Mavididi split wide to the right and left wings respectively, while Junior Sambia moved inside from right wing-back to a central attacking midfield role, and Chotard dropped back in alongside Ferri at the base of the midfield.
Lens doubled their lead minutes later though. Fofana dragged Ferri wide, opening up space for Haïdara to dribble through the middle. Chotard cut out his pass to Sotoca waiting in space, however the loose ball fell to Kakuta, who touched it down for Doucouré. Dragged away to defend against Haïdara, Chotard couldn’t get close to Docuouré before he returned the ball to Kakuta, who had made a run into space behind Sambia. Lens’ star man ran at the Montpellier backline before unleashing a shot past Bertaud from the edge of the area.
Wahi pulled one back for Montpellier with a spectacular overhead kick following a corner and Der Zakarian continued to throw on attackers in search of a goal, getting Sambia to pump long balls forward from the half-way line. On came Yun Il-Lok, Petar Skuletic and Le Tallec.
Haise made defensive changes to protect against the mounting threat, switching to a 3-5-2 by bringing on Tony Mauricio for Kakuta, then a 3-4-3 – a 5-4-1 when Lens didn’t have the ball – as Sotoca dropped back to defend the left, while Loïc Badé and Cahuzac replaced Clauss and Fofana.
It’s difficult to judge Lens’ strategy due to the early goal and their second coming as soon as Montpellier finally made changes, however they defended well to nullify the home side. The win pushes them up to sixth, making them an outsider in the hunt for a Europa League place.
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