After the high of beating Lille in the Derby du Nord, Lens were due a hangover. As punishment for the crowd trouble, Lens would play their next two games at the Stade Bollaert behind close doors, although this is slightly less of a punishment now that the players had endured an entire season of it thanks to Covid-19.
With their front three pressing deep into injury time against Lille, they received a well-deserved rest, as Wesley Saïd, Ignatius Ganago and Yannick Cahuzac came into the side. Franck Haise moved away from Lens’ usual 3-4-1-2 formation to a cross between a 3-5-2 and 3-4-3 shape – Seko Fofana would push forward into attack down the left, but he was positioned deeper than Saïd, yet the new signing was positioned more out towards the right than in the centre like Ganago, while behind them Cahuzac would get forward more than Cheick Doucouré but still much less than Fofana.
Julien Stéphan made three changes to the team that beat Metz on Friday, swapping out Dimitri Liénard, Adrien Thomasson and former Lens man Jean-Ricner Bellegarde for Anthony Caci, Sanjin Prcic and Kevin Gameiro. Strasbourg set up in a 3-4-3 formation.
Lens’ hybrid shape set them up well defensively. Seko Fofana would initially stay close to Jean-Eudes Aholou as Cahuzac did to Prcic, but when Lens pushed forward to press he would move forward to close down Alexander Djiku, pressuring Strasbourg’s back three man-to-man with Ganago and Saïd. Once Fofana moved up to pressure Strasbourg’s backline, Doucouré would step up behind him to get tight to Aholou. This saw Lens’ front three hurry the back three, while Cahuzac and Doucouré denied them short passes into midfield. Strasbourg’s attackers would come short to pick up the ball behind Lens’ midfield, but Lens’ defenders would keep tight to them, with each having a direct opponent.
Strasbourg used a more passive, zonal set-up. Ludovic Ajorque and Gameiro would stay quite central, meaning Doucouré was surrounded on all sides in midfield. This would encourage Lens to play wide, where Strasbourg would shift across and close them down.
Strasbourg’s issue was that they were rarely able to pressure Lens’ backline. With the Lens wing-backs positioned far from the centre-backs, Ajorque and Gameiro were left having to choose which ones to stay closer to and generally picked the wing-backs, meaning Habib Diallo was left alone with the back three.
As a result, Lens were easily able to circulate the ball in deep positions, switching from side to side until they found an opening. The speed of their passing was good, enabling them to move the ball on before Strasbourg could shift across.
To enable their wing-backs to push forward into attack, Lens’ midfielders would also spread out across the pitch. This was particularly noticeable on the right, where Cahuzac would pull out to the touchline so that Clauss ahead of him could run in behind, however Przelyslaw Frankowski and Fofana would also share the duty of pushing forward into attack while the other offered a deeper passing option out wide.
This stretching of play opened up space through the middle for Doucouré to receive the ball and play forward, while Saïd would frequently drop off and Ganago would look for passes into feet to lay off for those behind him.
This variety of methods for progressing the ball meant Lens were dominating possession and able to get the ball forward into attack, yet they were still struggling in their search for a goal. Strasbourg were allowing Lens to come forward onto them, but they were also maintaining a solid back five, limiting space for Lens in attack.
Just minutes into the second half, the match completely flipped due to Kevin Danso receiving a very debatable red card.
Haise brought on Christopher Wooh in place of Saïd, switching to a 3-5-1. This allowed Lens to maintain their back three, however with Ganago now alone in attack, they were unable to continue their pressing, instead dropping off and allowing Strasbourg to come forward.
Strasbourg were now able to pass out from the back and advance down the flanks, so used this to bombard the Lens area with crosses.
This eventually led to the only goal of the game. Centre-back Djiku pushed forward down the right and crossed into the box, where three Strasbourg players were going against the Lens back three. Wooh was following Ajorque, causing Gradit to come inside to track Diallo, however, rather than coming inside, Clauss stayed wide with Gameiro, leaving Caci free to make a run behind Gradit. Wooh passed Ajorque on and came across to pick up Diallo, but it was too late: Caci had a run on the back-pedalling Gradit and beat him in the air, squaring the ball to Ajorque to finish.
With the benefit of hindsight, Haise may have been better off keeping Saïd on the pitch and sticking with a 4-3-2: Lens were dominating the match and essentially surrendered this in order to maintain their back three by removing one of the attackers needed to press and pin back Strasbourg.
It was easy to see why he stuck with the back three though. Lens only ever deviate from it when they are chasing a goal and even then that’s not with a man disadvantage. The pressure may have also not as functioned as well with a back four: they were forcing Strasbourg into long balls, but whereas previously they were sending long balls up to a five-versus-five situation, after the sending off Lens’ defenders would have been outnumbered, meaning those long balls would have had a greater chance of being effective. A back four would have also provided less defensive width and with Medina poor in the air and Gradit not the tallest of centre-backs, the crossed goal may well have been replicated anyway. And that’s just defensively – the back three is also key to Lens going forward, stretching out across the pitch to allow them to circulate the ball.
Regardless, Lens were now behind and in greater need of a goal. Needing the ball, they began to press again and Haise switched to a 3-4-2, bringing on Arnaud Kalimuendo and Florian Sotoca for Ganago and Cahuzac. Kalimuendo would lead the line as Ganago did but Sotoca acted as a bridge between the attack and midfield – he enabled Lens to press high up the pitch with his energy, however he would drop very deep to help move the ball forward in possession.
Lens were now back on the hunt for a goal, but Strasbourg also permitted them to come forward, substituting Diallo for Ibrahima Sissoko to switch to a 3-5-2 then sitting back to soak up Lens’ pressure. They were nearly punished for this by an incredible shot from Sotoca that bounced off both posts but they managed to see out the game and claim the three points.
It was Lens’ first defeat of the season, but was more frustrating than disappointing for them – it was only once Danso was sent off that Strasbourg got a look in and despite playing nearly half the match against ten men they were soundly dominated.
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