Three more successes this season, and FC Lorient will have already equaled the number of victories acquired over the whole of last season, when the Merlus won a laborious maintenance on the penultimate day and finished 16th in Ligue 1. revolution underway on the side of Moustoir, where Régis Le Bris settled on the bench at the end of June, starting a new cycle after the end of the Christophe Pelissier era.
He arrived in Brittany in May 2019. With a Ligue 2 trophy followed by two consecutive stays in Ligue 1, we can say that he fulfilled the objectives, but his departure seemed inevitable as the quality of play offered was deemed disappointing.
The Merlus finished worst attack in Ligue 1 last year with only 35 goals scored in 38 games.
To discover
Calendar and results Ligue 1
League 1 standings
Best start to the season in club history
This season, the Merlus are currently on an average of 2 goals per game.
They have just scored three against Lyon, then three more against Nantes, and are quite simply making the best start to the league in their history.
The game played is enticing, and the club even won its first victory in the derby against Rennes since November 2016. Surprising results, but not internally, where the leaders have never hesitated to place all their confidence in Régis Le Bris .
Régis Le Bris FRED TANNEAU / AFP
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Régis Le Bris, an “identity choice”
The native of Pont l'Abbé (46) had never trained at the highest level before this season, but he knows the club perfectly, having joined it in 2012 as director of the training center.
Champion of France in 2015 with the U17s before taking charge of the reserve team which received the honorary title of "
best reserve in France
", Régis Le Bris obtained "
very good results
" according to Loïc Féry, president of FC Lorient , which therefore made it pass in the big leagues.
A bet ?
"
I don't like to talk about betting
," says the leader of Les Merlus.
“
He does not arrive like that in the function, he has been training for years.
“The current season is however a risky exercise for Ligue 1 clubs since four of them will be relegated with a view to increasing the championship to 18 clubs.
Le Bris has nevertheless initialed a three-season contract, a strong sign of the confidence placed in him by Loïc Féry, who does not hesitate to speak of “
identity choice
”.
The Christian Gourcuff legacy
Because yes, FC Lorient has a strong identity, recognizable outside and on the pitch, with a style of play based on possession and resolutely forward-looking.
A legacy largely due to Christian Gourcuff.
“We cannot work at FCL and ignore a heritage of this nature, it would be nonsense
”, explained Le Bris last season in the podcast “All the talk”.
Gourcuff, apostle of the beautiful game, remained 25 years on the bench of the club, and it was in particular to learn from him that Le Bris joined Lorient in 2012.
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: "If I say that I love all my players, I'm cheating"
To the old principles of the master, the student now adds everything that is the prerogative of modern coaches, from the use of video to the use of other sports, including management and psychology.
A recipe first tested in the antechamber of the professional world, with the players of the training center whose best elements are called Mattéo Guendouzi (OM), Illan Meslier (Leeds), Alexis Claude-Maurice (Nice) or Enzo Le Fairy.
The strength of the collective… and of the youth
The latter chose to stay at the club this summer to the delight of Lorient supporters who saw him make a very good start to the season, culminating in a delicious free kick scored against OL (3-1 victory ).
The Fairy (22) blends into a collective where his friends Terem Moffi (23), author of 5 goals in 7 games, or Dango Ouattara (20), 3 goals and 5 assists, also flourish.
A young team (the 4th youngest in Europe according to the team), malleable dough on which Régis Le Bris can imprint his principles of play.
The technician has built a well-oiled collective that gives pride of place to individual responsibilities, plays exciting football and has no reason to mourn the loss of Armand Laurienté, transferred for more than €10m to Sassuolo this summer.
A big check that the FCL kept warm, barely touching it to make a few good shots, in particular goalkeeper Yvon Mvogo whose quick raises are the basis of the game deployed by the Hakes.
If aesthetics is an attractive philosophy that can sometimes make you forget about winning, for the moment it rhymes with victory for the Hakes.
Can this last?
“
To last in Ligue 1, I do not make an obsession of it.
At the end of the season, I would especially like the players to say to themselves: "We played the football we wanted to play", and even: "We discovered unsuspected possibilities..." And that, generally, it produces good results …
”confided the Breton coach to World.
The Moustoir public, in any case, appreciates: more than 15,000 spectators attended the victory against Nantes last week (3-2)... and are enthusiastically awaiting the next outing of their protégés (Auxerre-Lorient, Friday 8:45 p.m.) .
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