Red Star FC is a club steeped in history.
It is one of Frances oldest football clubs and plays its home games at the iconic Stade Bauer.
Plus, the Paris-based team was actually one of the founding members of Ligue 1 — spending 19 seasons in the top flight.
1975 was the last time that Red Star played top-flight football.
Since then, they have bounced between Ligue 2 and the Championnat National, the league they currently occupy since suffering relegation in 2018/19.
Former Newcastle and Senegal defender Habib Beye was initially appointed as an assistant manager to Vincent Bordot in 2021.
However, when Bordot was sacked six games into the season, Beye took over the managerial job in the interim.
During this period, he guided Red Star to the third round of the Coupe de France and an 11th-place finish in the league, well away from the relegation places.
His impressive managerial performances saw Beye handed a contract until 2024 and tasked with gaining promotion back to Ligue 2.
This very nearly became a reality; Red Star finished just two points off the promotion places last season.
During last season, Beye recognised when his team was struggling and made some intelligent tactical decisions to ensure his team remained in the promotion hunt.
In this tactical analysis, we will focus on Habib Beyes tactics at Red Star.
We will look at the 4-4-2 system he used during the 2022/23 campaign and what problems this brought.
We will also look at why Beye switched to a 3-4-3 system and analyse the impact this has had on Red Stars style of play.
Last seasons predictable 4-4-2
Throughout most of the 2022/23 campaign, Habib Beyes tactics used a 4-4-2 system that, in his own words, demanded a lot of athletic and mental commitment.
Early in the season, it was reasonably practical; Red Star put up some impressive results, such as a 4-2 victory at home to Dunkerque and a 4-1 victory away at Cholet.
There came a point, though, where it became a little bit too easy for opponents to figure out how Red Star would play.
The manager admitted that his team had become somewhat predictable and easy to play against.
Lets take a look at what Beye meant when he made this comment:
Here, gaps emerged in Red Stars defensive structure, making it remarkably easy for their opponents to play through them.
In this example, Le Mans can fire the ball into their midfielder, who has acres of space to turn and pick out a pass.
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