Reims boss Will Still garnered a cult following as the 30-year-old led his team to a 17-game unbeaten Ligue 1 run after taking charge back in October.
However, his team’s unbeaten run finally came to an end a couple of weeks ago, as Marseille toppled Les Rouges et Blancs away from home, claiming a 2-1 victory at Stade Auguste-Delaune.
Now, the title of ‘longest unbeaten run for a Ligue 1 coach’ goes to 36-year-old OGC Nice boss Didier Digard, who’s overseen 12 league games (13 in all competitions) since assuming the Nice hot seat back in early January.
He’s won six of those Ligue 1 fixtures (seven in all competitions) and drawn six.
This piece will combine tactical analysis and data analysis to compare the reigns of the highly respected 65-year-old Lucien Favre, formerly of Bundesliga sides Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengladbach, among others, and the young up-and-coming coach Digard from their time at Nice in 2022/23.
We’ll analyse where Nice have improved under Digard and what’s changed compared to earlier in the campaign.
Improved defensive performance
Nice have earned an average of two points per game in their 12 matches with Digard so far — an improvement of 0.76 over the 1.24 points per game they managed in 17 fixtures under Favre at the beginning of the campaign.
One key aspect of Nice’s strategy, tactics, and performance that has improved under Digard compared to Favre has been its defensive phases.
At the beginning of the campaign, Nice conceded 19 goals in their 17 games under Favre, an average of 1.12 per 90 minutes.
With Digard in the hot seat, Nice have conceded seven goals in 12 games, an average of 0.58 per 90.
This is obviously a stark contrast.
With that said, Nice’s defensive record wasn’t terrible under Favre — they had conceded the fifth-fewest goals in the league at the time of the Swiss coach’s departure.
However, only Lille have now conceded fewer goals than Nice (26).
Additionally, Nice have the second-lowest xGA (34.11) of any team in France’s top flight.
So, even though Nice weren’t enduring a defensive crisis when he took charge, Digard has engineered a significant improvement in the defensive areas, making Nice one of the most challenging sides in France for their opponents to break down.
Nice have defended relatively similarly under Digard to how they defended under Favre, though they’ve positioned their defensive line ever so slightly higher in the last 12 games than they had done in the previous 17.
Other than that, the average area of engagement is almost identical.
