Lens are title contenders in Ligue 1 – even if their manager won’t admit it

Marseille have a propensity to explode. So when they lost 5-0 to Paris Saint-Germain last Sunday and then lost their manager, it was no surprise. But seeing PSG having to put out fires is an unexpected turn. All the while, Lens have been a tranquil and unassuming force, keeping their dream of a Ligue 1 title alive – even if they don’t yet fully believe in it.

By this time last season, PSG were on the march. Unbeaten domestically until the end of April, after which point the league title was already mathematically ensured, Luis Enrique’s side were infallible. But that is not a word that applies to them in the present, as their 3-1 defeat to a managerless Rennes side proved this weekend.

The ingredients so apparent in what was their biggest ever win over Marseille a week earlier were absent entirely. There was a vulnerability about the team. Rennes exploited the space behind Nuno Mendes throughout; Illia Zabarnyi was a mistake waiting to happen – as he has been for much of the season since moving from Bournemouth; and even Willian Pacho, faultless last season, has not been as imperious in recent weeks. The Ecuador international had his share of blame for Rennes’ first goal and was passive for the third.

It was less defensive fragility and more a perceived selfishness on the ball that incited Ousmane Dembélé’s ire after the match. “Above all, we have to play for Paris Saint-Germain to win matches because, if we play alone on the pitch, that won’t work. Last year we put the club above everything else, before thinking about ourselves. We need to rediscover that. We have to play for the club first and foremost before thinking about ourselves,” said the Ballon d’Or winner.

Quite the contrast from his comments a week earlier, when he proclaimed that PSG were “back”. It is hard to discern whether Dembélé is the firefighter or the pyromaniac but, given the strong response his comments elicited from Luis Enrique, it is more likely the latter. Briefly switching back to his native tongue to ensure absolute clarity. “I won’t allow any player to be above the club. That is clear. I am the person responsible for the team. I won’t allow any player to think he is more important than the club,” said the Spaniard, who nonetheless prefaced his retort with an assertion that “comments from players at the end of the match are worthless”.

Ousmane Dembélé criticised his teammates after PSG’s 3-1 defeat to Rennes. Photograph: Stéphane Mahé/Reuters

Not all is well at the Parc des Princes although the pressure is not being applied by Marseille, who have dropped to fourth in the table below Lyon. The chronic instability that Marcelino complained about on his way out of the door two seasons ago, and that now-former sporting director Medhi Benatia has cited throughout the season, makes building a stable team nigh-on impossible. It is nothing novel. Successive managers and executives have noted the issue and – after Roberto de Zerbi’s exit last week, followed by Benatia’s departure after their late collapse in the 2-2 draw against Strasbourg over the weekend – they are once again building from ground zero.

“Ligue 1 needs a strong Marseille,” is an uncontested maxim in France, but if this season has taught us something, it is perhaps that Marseille can’t handle a strong Ligue 1. It is instead Lens who have been the guarantor of that strength.

They set themselves the objective of survival going into the campaign and, astonishingly, it is an objective that Pierre Sage once again referenced after an emphatic 5-0 win against Paris FC sent them back to the top of Ligue 1 at PSG’s expense. “We are thinking about points and in that sense, we have reached our objective. After that, we will think about the Conference League and then about the Champions League. That is at least three wins away,” said the Lens manager, who added that he is more concerned about Marseille and Lyon than PSG.

His players are showing greater ambition. Wesley Saïd, who scored twice at the weekend, has set up their match against PSG in mid-April as a kind of final, saying: “Everyone is aware; everyone is ready.” Odsonne Édouard, the former Crystal Palace forward, added: “We are in a good position to fight for the title. We are not going to hide away from that.”

Why should they shy away from given they are top of the table with the best defence in the league (Lens have conceded just 17 goals in 22 games) and the third best attack? They have a team full of players with points to prove. Several are on the redemption trail: from Florian Thauvin, who is pushing for a place in France’s squad for the World Cup, having made his return after six years out in the cold; to Allan Saint-Maximin, looking to rediscover his love for the game after his children were subjected to racist abuse in Mexico; Édouard, who spent last season warming the bench at Leicester City; Malang Sarr, Chelsea’s forgotten man; or even Matthieu Udol, who has suffered four ACL injuries in his career but is now making an improbable late push for the France squad. A call-up would not be undeserved.

None of these players could be described as “individiualistic” – a trait that Dembélé ascribed to his teammates over the weekend. But neither do they have the quality of their PSG counterparts. “PSG are takeable … if they aren’t PSG. It depends a lot on them,” noted Sage noted last week.

PSG remain strong favourites for the title given their vast riches but Lens, who are fully united and driven by ambitions of redemption, possess the intangibles that give them hope of upsetting the odds.

Talking points

Europe’s in-form team, Lyon, continued their winning run, registering their 13th in succession. Their 2-0 victory against Nice left Paulo Fonseca visibly emotional as he received the plaudits from the club’s fans after the match. This win came despite the absences of key players such as Endrick, Ruben Kluivert, Nicolás Tagliafico and Afonso Moreira. Lyon were in control of the game at all points, as they have been in almost all of their games since their last defeat, against Lorient on 7 December. Seven points behind leaders Lens, they now enter into a decisive period, with Strasbourg and then Marseille next up in the league.

Finally, a word for Lorient, who have gone under the radar. Olivier Pantaloni’s side were expected to be relegated back to Ligue 2, but they are ninth, level on points with Strasbourg and Monaco. Their key man, Pablo Pagis, was once again on target in a 2-0 win over Angers, scoring his seventh of the season. That is their sixth win in seven in all competitions, with two of those victories coming away to Monaco and Rennes. They are a shining example of how to construct a coherent squad on a shoestring budget. The architect of it? None other than former Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny, now sporting director at the club.

This is an article by Get French Football News