A Quick Glance At World Class Nice Coach Lucien Favre, Who Sits Atop The French Ligue 1 With A Team Of 23 years Average.

By Ewah Chika.

A Quick Profile Of World Class Swiss And Nice Coach Lucien Favre Who Sits Atop The French Ligue 1 Table With A Team Average Age Of 23.


A glance at the French Ligue 1 table will shock the viewer as unheralded Nice are sitting atop the league on 20 points one point ahead of second placed Monaco.

While much of the praise has been to Italian prodigal son Mario Balotteli who seems rejuvenated since joining the club scoring six  goals in five league games, much of the praise should be extended to Swiss coach Lucien Favre  who has turned the Southern French club to giant killers.  Favre has built the team on a limited budget unlike PSG, Monaco and Lyon who have the funds to spend. The former Borussia Mochengladbach coach has gradually evolved the team building on the success of departed French man Claude Puel who left for Southampton in the summer after guiding Nice to a fourth place finish last season.
What makes the success of Favre more impressive is the fact that Nice lost the three most  important and consistent players of last season , Hatem Ben Arfa -moving to PSG on a free transfer, club captain Nampalys Mendy- moving to Leicester City and Valere Germain- rejoining Monaco after the expiration of his loan spell. To illustrate the pain of losing these players it is important to note that Ben Arfa and Germain together contributed a total of 31 league goals for the Southern French club last season. In their place, Favre has signed Wylen Cyprien from Lens, Arnaud Lusamba from Nancy, Anastasios Donis- promoted from the academy, Youness Belhanda from Dynamo Kiev after failing to replicate his League title Montpellier  form in Ukraine, veteran Brazilian defender Dante from Wolfsburg and Mario Balotelli who flopped at both Liverpool and AC Milan scoring only two league goals in two years for both clubs.

Favre has not changed much at Nice as regards Claude Puel's last season style  although he sets up his team to be more balanced defensively unlike Puel who was more attacking and adventitious relying so much on outscoring his opponents .  Favre's Nice however, play a deep defence in a more quick and  aggressive style with so much emphasis on winning the ball back as quickly as possible. To play this style, the Swiss has made 17-year-old Malang Sarr the star man in a three man defence.

"The constant movement is a vision that I love, with the speed as a driver . Everything moves faster in the world , internet, trains , cars ....

"Adaptation is one of the precepts of Switzerland: I demand that my team is able to posses the ball, but also to conduct rapid attacks," were his words when explaining how he sets up his team.

This is not the first time the former Zurich manager is exceeding expectation as he led an unknown Hertha Berlin  to fourth place in his second season at the club (2009) a record yet to be replicated till date. What makes it more shocking is that at the time Hertha Berlin had the 13th highest budget in the Bundesliga. As if that wasn't enough, he soon took charge of  bottom placed Borussia Mochengladbach (16 points from 22 games) in the middle of the season in 2009 after his sacking by Berlin as a result of poor results at the start of the new season. Lucien and Mochengladbach will later escape relegation after beating Bochum 2-1 on aggregate in the relegation play-off. The Swiss will later finish fourth, sixth and third in 2013, 2014 and 2015 with unknown and young players like Granit Xhaka, Marco Ter Stegan, Max Kruse, Raffael, and Christopher Kramer qualifying for the group stage of the Champions League in 2015. He would later resign in the 2015/2016 season after losing his first five league games yet this did nothing to dent his legendary status in Mochengladbach and his record of winning Bundesliga's coach of the year thrice in his seven years in Germany.

In Nice, his record is much admirable given that the average age of his team is 23 which clearly shows that although they are playing perfectly they are still an experienced side and one for the future . At Nice, Favre relies so much on Cyprien and Seri to shield the defence while Perreira, Bodmer, Plea and Dalbert help Balotelli and Belhanda in attack. This has worked out perfectly mainly due to the team's defensive discipline and quick counter attack which allows then to alternate in ball possession yet changing tempo at will. Presently, Nice have scored 14 goals conceding six in seven games so far, winning six and losing none.

Although the season still has a  long way to go with more than 31 games yet to be played , there is no denying the fact that Lucien Favre is doing wonders at the Allianz Riviera with every Nice fan praying he ends up with the Ligue 1 title this season just like he did in FC Zurich having won the Swiss League in 2006 with youngsters like Gokhan Inler and Blerim Dzemaili (average age of 22) making it Zurich's first league title in 35 years .