Beaten 3-0 at Guingamp on Saturday in Ligue 2, AS Saint-Étienne reverted to the Sohaib Naïr – Julien Le Cardinal centre-back pairing. According to But! Football Club, the statistics argue against that combination ahead of the visit of Laval.
Sohaib Naïr, the Moroccan centre-back at AS Saint-Étienne, was back in the starting line-up on Saturday 1 November at Guingamp, alongside Julien Le Cardinal, his partner in the middle. Absent against Nantes through illness, he was restored by head coach Ian Cathro, who also brought in João Ferreira on the left, according to OneFootball/Peuple-Vert. The result was a shipwreck: 0-3 in Ligue 2, as reported by But! Football Club.
The figures put forward by the press have now made the centre-back pairing the centre of debate. The Le Cardinal – Naïr duo is singled out as the weak point of a team that nonetheless remains top of its league.
Five matches, ten goals conceded
The data compiled by But! Football Club makes grim reading. Since the 4-0 against Grenoble on 22 August, ASSE have not managed a single clean sheet when Le Cardinal and Naïr have played an entire match together. Across five full matches paired together, the two centre-backs have conceded ten goals, two per game.
Conversely, Saint-Étienne’s last three wins, against Rodez (2-0), Red Star (1-0) and Nantes (1-0), were all achieved with a different centre-back pairing, the same outlet points out. Enough to feed Ian Cathro’s thinking before the visit of Laval, Ligue 2’s next fixture.
Pedro pushing, Ndiaye conceding
In the middle, there is competition. Kévin Pedro, the defender and outfield player most used by Cathro, with 954 minutes in eleven matches according to OneFootball/Morning Foot, is pushing for a place in the centre.
Between the posts, goalkeeper Mamour Ndiaye started for the third game in a row in the absence of Gautier Larsonneur. He conceded three goals at Guingamp, with the Bretons’ shots on target finding the net 75% of the time, according to But! Football Club.
Nancy close to within three points
The defeat at Guingamp has not yet cost AS Saint-Étienne top spot, with the club still leading Ligue 2. But Nancy, winners at Red Star, are now just three points behind, according to Ouest-France.
The next fixture, the visit of Laval, will force Ian Cathro to make a call on his centre-back pairing: keep the Le Cardinal – Naïr combination, or return to the pairing that accompanied Saint-Étienne’s last three wins.