Claudio Ranieri In Miracle Mode Again

Claudio Ranieri In Miracle Mode Again
14:00, 30 Sep 2017

The three and a half months that Claudio Ranieri has been in charge of Nantes have been a battle from the very beginning, yet increasingly it is one that the master squad builder appears to be winning.

The man who so unexpectedly led Leicester to the Premier League title and ignited the careers of N’Golo Kante, Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy has been at it again, albeit on a smaller scale.

Four wins from their last five matches have lifted the Stade de la Beaujoire side into sixth place in Ligue 1, heady heights for a team predicted to struggle after they unexpectedly lost mercurial but highly successful coach Sergio Conceicao to the lure of Porto in the summer.

In recent weeks, Ranieri has reprised the defensive solidarity that he made something of a trademark as he unexpectedly led Leicester to unexpected glory. Three of their four victories have come by a 1-0 margin and all of them have been by a single goal.

Aside from Leo Dubois’ stunning long-range winner against Strasbourg last weekend, there has been little spectacular about the play of the eight-time French champions. They have been dour, defensive and thoroughly unattractive for neutrals, but for Ranieri his task has been about implementing the basics first.

“The aim is to have one of the best five defences in France,” he explained at the start of September, when the squad was starting to come together.

At one stage, there was a very real chance his move back to Ligue 1, where he previously bossed Monaco, was in danger of being stymied by bureaucratic red tape. As he was aged over 65 when he agreed to take the post in June, he needed special dispensation from the league’s governing body, the LFP.

He got it, but not everyone was entirely enamoured by the LFP bending over backwards for him.

“We wouldn’t have granted him this exemption, and we wouldn’t have given it to a French coach either,” Raymond Domenech, a former France national team boss but now president of the body that oversees coaching in the country. “We follow the rules.”

Nevertheless, the success such a high-profile coach promised has arrived, albeit with the pragmatic style apparently programmed into him by his heritage.

“He’s Italian, so for him tactics are very important,” Jean Petit, Ranieri’s former assistant at Monaco explained in local newspaper Presse Oceane before the season had even begun.

“The team must have a very solid bloc, everyone must work, defending and attacking. Each player knows what’s expected of him. Physically, his teams are at the top level – look at the number of victories Leicester pinched at the end of games.”

Discipline has been the forefront of Nantes’ surge under the Italian, both mental and on the field.

“He gave each player at Monaco a little bell, a reference to the sound when a player came late onto the training ground: ‘Ding, ding, dong’. He had a lot of humour,” Valere Germain remembered of Ranieri’s time at Monaco. He has not changed.

On the face of it, the job he has been presented is a difficult one with apparently unrealistically lofty expectations.

“He’s asked for no guarantees and I’m not going to make him any promises,” president Waldemar Kita ominously explained in the wake of the appointment. “We finished last season well and he must continue in that style … It would be great to qualify for Europe.”

Given the limited resources of Nantes, even in comparison to the likes of Bordeaux, Saint-Etienne and Rennes, let alone PSG, Monaco or Marseille, those ambitions were great.

Ranieri gave the existing squad their chance, but after opening defeats against Lille and Marseille it was clear there was a need to strengthen his options.

 

A rush of signings late in August arrived, although of these, only former Fiorentina goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu, ex-Chapecoense midfielder Andrei Girotto and forward Kalifa Coulibaly have featured regularly.

These additions have typified Ranieri’s ethic of functionality over aesthetics and all have come in to reinforce the spine of the side. They are physical players, designed to play a role in bolstering the solidarity of the panel, making them harder to breakdown and wearing to play against.

There is no Mahrez or Vardy to work offensive magic as they did during Leicester’s remarkable title success. Injuries and suspension have meant there has not even been a settled defensive unit as he enjoyed with the Foxes.

Nevertheless, the results have been there.

With the focus on keeping goals out rather than trying to score them, Nantes have conceded only once in their last five outings, winning four and securing a commendable 0-0 draw with Lyon.

They might only have five of their own, but Ranieri knows the value of substance over style.

“I’m asking the fans to be patient,” he said after a typically scruffy win over Caen. “If you play well and you lose once or twice, then you’re playing the wrong way. So the important thing is to win.”

With plans for a new stadium unveiled earlier this month and the club able to turn down a €7 million offer from an unnamed Italian club for Under-17 midfielder Abdoulaye Dabo, the long-term future of the club looks in good hands, but more immediately Ranieri has them moving in the right direction.

There may not be the same fairy tale element to this Nantes side as there was to Leicester, and neutrals certainly will not appreciate their staid brand of football, but there is no question that the Italian is once again doing fine work.

Keep up with their next game via our match centre.

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