With Marseille keeping the pressure on with a win over Lorient yesterday, Lens could have done with three points against Brest given they still have to play title challengers Paris Saint-Germain, Lille and Monaco as they chase European football.
Franck Haise continued with their usual 3-4-1-2 formation, yet made two changes to the backline from their win over Lorient. Loïc Badé missed that game due to testing positive for Covid-19 but was welcomed back for the trip to Brittany, whereas Jonathan Gradit tested positive this time around and missed out. Struggling with a knock, Clément Michelin was also removed, with Massadio Haïdara moving back into central defence and fit-again Issiaga Sylla taking his spot at left wing-back.
Olivier Dall’Oglio made just one change to the team that drew with Nîmes, replacing one Romain with another – Faivre for Philippoteaux – in their 4-4-2 shape. Philippoteaux was injured exactly a minute into the match though, coming off for Jérémy Le Douaron.
Much as they did against Lorient, Lens had Yannick Cahuzac pull out to the right flank, allowing Jonathan Clauss to push forward into attack, while natural left-back Haïdara would frequently pull wide on the opposite flank, with Sylla advancing ahead of him too. Not only did this allow the wing-backs to advance secure in the knowledge they were being covered, this made it easy for Lens to play out from the back as Brest’s front two were unable to cover all four men.
Lens realised fairly quickly that this wasn’t really necessary though. They were just as capable of playing out with their back three stretched wide, as Steve Mounié and Irvin Cardona were unable cover all three men – if they were dragged across to one side, the centre-back on the opposite side was free to receive the ball and advance. This meant Cahuzac wasn’t pulled back into defence and could instead support the attack.
The problem for Lens was while they could easily get the ball into Brest’s half, they were struggling to create chances once they got there. Brest kept two narrow, deep banks of four which made it difficult to play through the centre. Lens would pass wide to the wing-backs in space to whip in crosses, however the box was packed full of Brest defenders and so they never really came to anything.
Brest didn’t offer much attacking quality either. Lens would try to press them, but even when they weren’t under any pressure their plan revolved around pushing their wingers forward with the strikers and pumping long balls toward them, which Lens dealt with easily.
Brest took the lead before half-time from a corner, with Cahuzac accidentally turning in the near-post cross.
Lens’ equaliser came from one of the few times their attacking pattern worked. Haïdara pushed forward with the ball and picked out substitute Ignatius Ganago, however he had little space to turn into and the ball pinged around in midfield after Julien Faussurier won the ball back. Lens managed to reclaim the loose ball and feed it quickly to Clauss, who pulled it back for Ganago. Brendan Chardonnet clipped the Cameroonian, winning Lens a penalty that Gaël Kakuta converted. Even when they finally got their breakthrough, you could see why Lens were struggling, as Brest had six men in the box when Clauss pulled back the ball.
The game continued like this, and fell into farce toward the end when three men – one for Brest and two for Lens, three if you count Haise receiving one on the touchline – were sent off. Despite the match only turning testy towards the finish, the referee had been keen to dole out cards throughout so dismissals seemed inevitable, and it scuppered any possible late push for a breakthrough goal.
Lens have improved their attacking variety since they were profiled on this site in January but this was a display more in keeping with the first half of their season – getting the ball to the wing-backs to hit the box with crosses of mixed quality. This was largely because Brest appeared perfectly happy to settle for a point from the off, however it does raise questions of what Lens will do if more teams see their success and prefer their chances of frustrating them to going toe-to-toe.
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