Disciplined defence, tricky transitions, and rousing rotations: Gregory Poirier at FC Martigues during the 2022/23 campaign – tactical analysis

FC Martigues were relegated from France’s top flight 27 seasons ago after they finished bottom of the table. It would be the last time, as of this moment, that they played among France’s elite.

Things went from bad to catastrophic for the club based not far from Marseille in 2003, as financial problems forced them into liquidation — a crushing blow that ensured any aspirations of a return to the top tier would be long-term goals.

Martigues would reform and rebuild, reaching the heights of the third tier once more but this is as far as they’ve managed to climb back up the pyramid since their liquidation.

In 2012, they were relegated from Championnat National and Martigues toiled away in the lower divisions for 10 years before they earned another crack at the third tier, which they earned following their Championnat National 2  Groupe C victory last season.

Martigues have taken the division by storm in 2022/23 and currently sit in third place on the table, four points off the top spot having played a game less than the two teams currently placed above them.

Plenty of credit for Martigues’ promotion last term and their positive start to life back in Championnat National this season should go to manager Grégory Poirier. The 40-year-old coach is on his fifth club in senior management and hasn’t stayed for long at any of his previous clubs. However, he seems to have discovered a great match in Martigues; perhaps the Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur club could represent a long-term project for the relatively young manager.

Without a doubt, Poirier has impressed with his performance as Martigues boss so far, but how does his side play their football? Well, we’ll try to provide some insight into the 40-year-old coach’s tactics with the Championnat National club in this tactical analysis piece and head coach-focused scout report. Our analysis will look into some key tactical elements of Martigues to observe some reasons why Poirier has been so successful with this club so far.

In possession

We’ll kick off our scout report by looking at Martigues’ tactics in possession. This section of our analysis encompasses the build-up, ball progression and chance creation phases of play, hopefully showing how each one transitions into the next and helps Martigues to go from back to front and generate goalscoring opportunities.

Martigues have scored the third-most goals of any National 1 team this season (25) while generating the eighth-best xG (20.39), so have certainly been no slouches in the chance creation department. But what have the National 1 newcomers done to forge their chances?

To answer that question, we first need to look at how Poirier’s side begin their possession phases and start to build their attacks. Martigues generally defend in a 4-2-3-1 shape but with the ball, it’s common to see one of their two holding midfielders advance upfield, effectively forming more of a 4-1-2-3. The advanced holding midfielder and the ‘10’ will occupy the half-spaces on either side of the centre-forward, with the wingers positioned outside them.

At the same time, as the possession phase begins for Martigues, the other holding midfielder will drop to make himself a good short passing option for the centre-backs. We see this movement from the holding midfielders in action in figure 1.

Meanwhil