Ligue 1: Lille vs Reims! Reims’ weaknesses are so obvious, why is it still difficult for Lille to exploit them?

Let's start with our first topic todayLigue 1: Lille vs Reims!

Reims as a team may have a somewhat weak head coach.

Yes, Steer, last season as an unlicensed rookie coach, took charge of Reims in a difficult situation,and then remained undefeated in 17 Ligue 1 matches, with 11 of those games being shutouts.This made the management happily pay €25,000 fines for each match; without a doubt, his results were outstanding.

Although his offensive coaching is lacking, and Reims still doesn’t have a stable attacking system,

their defensive organization is quite well trained.This is also the reason behind their 17-match unbeaten streak in Ligue 1.

Reims’ defense relies mainly on two tactics.

The first is high pressing.

They press aggressively, often committing 6 to 7 players to press in the opponent’s half.

Their current PPDA (passes allowed per defensive action) is 7.9, which is officially the best in Ligue 1 and actually the best across the big five European leagues.

Effective high pressing not only disrupts the opponent’s build-up but also creates good scoring chances,making it one of their key methods to score goals.

The second tactic is chain defense.

Yes, it sounds odd — a team using both trendy high pressing and classical chain defense at the same time?

But at least last season, this worked well; in the tactically less advanced Ligue 1, opponents found it very hard to break through their two central defensive lines.

However, this season, after opponents figured these two tactics out, they have become less effective.

Now every team has specific strategies against Reims.

Firstly, they attack more down the wings,thinking: “You have many players in the center? Then I’ll break through the flanks.”

Secondly, they shoot from distance more often— you like to compress centrally and defend against breakthroughs and through passes, right? Then I won’t dribble or pass through; I’ll just take shots from afar.

Lille’s coach Fonseca is very experienced and surely knows Reims’ vulnerabilities.

But,knowing the problems doesn’t necessarily mean you can exploit them effectively.

For example, everyone knows Reims’ flank defense is weak, but Lille isn’t good at attacking from the wings either.

In fact, Lille relies most heavily on central attacks, with 32% of their offense coming through the middle — the highest in Ligue 1.

They prefer direct passes and set pieces to attack the opponent’s center, currently scoring 4 goals from set pieces, the most in Ligue 1.

But Reims focuses their defense on the center; although they’ve conceded more goals this season,none have come from set pieces.So Lille’s set-piece offense might not be very effective.

Also, while others frequently score from long-range shots against Reims, Lille might struggle with this because their long-shot ability is weak,scoring only 4 goals from distance last season,which ranked near the bottom in Ligue 1.

Even compared to Reims, Lille is far behind, since Reims already scored 3 long-range goals this season...

On the other hand, Reims’ high pressing might give Lille a hard time,because their young goalkeeper is poor at distributing the ball.

In their previous match against Lorient, they were robbed embarrassingly; although Lorient’s striker was inaccurate, they managed to escape once...

but not the second or third time.

This problem likely won’t be fixed soon, as in the last round against Rennes, they suffered similarly from losing possession painfully.

Therefore, although Lille’s total squad value is 2.4 times that of Reims, and the individual quality gap is large, and Reims’ weaknesses are very clear,

there is a clear tactical counterbalance between the two teams. Can Lille really fully leverage their superior strength?

What do you think — can Reims satisfy their fans? I hope they at least avoid defeat!

Alright, for today’s other matches, I will still send text analysis in the evening. If anything is unclear, feel free to ask me. “Watch football and understand it,” see you there!

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