Lens top Ligue 1 as we close in on the halfway point, ahead of PSG by one point at the top of the table.
The historic French club has had a meteoric rise over the past five years, considering they were in Ligue 2 as recently as 2020.
Franck Haise guided them to a second-place finish during the 2022/2023 season, which saw them qualify for the Champions League.
Last season, under the direction of Will Still, they ended up finishing in eighth place and decided to look for a new manager.
This summer, they sold key players Andy Diouf, Facundo Medina, and Neil El Aynaoui without making any big-money signings.
Lens made the decision to hire former Lyon manager Pierre Sage, who has turned out to be a perfect fit.
Sage has guided Lens to eight wins in their last nine matches, including notable victories over Olympique de Marseille and AS Monaco.
What is impressive is that Sage is doing all of this with not that much talent compared to the top teams in France.
Per Transfermarkt, Lens have a squad value of €88.35m.
That actually puts them in the bottom half of Ligue 1 and is over 10 times lower than PSG’s squad value of €1.15bn.
In this Lens tactical analysis article, we will examine the tactics Pierre Sage is using to make Lens incredibly difficult to beat, look at the data behind their meteoric rise, and assess whether they have a chance of holding off Paris Saint-Germain over the course of the season.
Pierre Sage Tactics
When Sage was at Lyon, he used a mixture of different tactics, but the main aim was to turn them into a very intense pressing team that was dangerous in transition.
He has brought that over to Lens, but with a different twist.
He typically lined his Lyon teams up in a 4-3-3, but has switched to a 3-4-3 at Lens, as Les Sang et Or have done over the last few years.
Those quick transitions are a big reason why Lens have scored 25 goals already.
A number of their goals come directly from high turnovers, and this goal against Auxerre is a perfect example.
You can see that Lens basically press out of a 4-4-3 shape, but once the ball is played to the centre-back, they jump into a man-to-man press.
Because they cut off all the passing lanes, the centre-back is forced to make a risky pass towards the middle.
Lens pick it off, and one quick pass to Odsonne Édouard sets him up to make one quick dribble to get the shot off and score.
When they are not breaking in transition, their tactics in the final third are very similar to Franck Haise.
What Lens like to do is get the ball wide whenever possible and create overloads, so they can eventually create chances via crosses.
You can see here against Nantes that they are able to overload the wide area and, from there, send in a dangerous cross to the back post.
Lens have a good mixture of playing out of the back and playing direct, as goalkeeper Robin Risser is launching 45% of his goal-kicks long.
When they are playing out of the back, they will use a 3-2-5 that sometimes can morph into a 3-1-6.
Similar to their tactics in the final third, the aim is to overload the wide areas and play through opponents down the channels.
The biggest aspect of Lens, though, and why they are at the top of Ligue 1, has been their incredible effectiveness on set pieces.
We have an entire article devoted to their set-piece routines, which you can check out here.
Lens have already scored nine goals directly from set plays, which is by far the most in Ligue 1.
RC Lens Data Profile
What is fascinating about Lens’ data profile is that they are not dominating Ligue 1 with a lot of possession.
In fact, they are only holding 48.4% of the ball on average, which ranks 10th in Ligue 1.
It doesn’t matter, though, because they are so effective in transition and on set pieces; they are averaging 1.93 xG per 90 minutes, which is the highest mark in Ligue 1.
Per Opta, Lens have 21 shots and four goals directly from fast breaks this season, which is the most in Ligue 1.
In addition to their great transition numbers, they are deadly effective from crosses, completing 37 into the penalty area.
They also have 47 shots directly from headers this season, which is the most in Ligue 1.
What is even more impressive is the players who are providing most of their production.
Florian Thauvin Stats
Florian Thauvin is a legend in French football, playing for Marseille for a number of years before moving to Mexico, then back to Italy to play for Udinese, and at the age of 32, is back in France.
He has five goals with a 0.75 xG + xA rate, which is fifth best in Ligue 1.
He also has 58 progressive carries this season, which is second only to Lille’s Matias Fernandez-Pardo.
Florian Thauvin Pizza Chart 2025/2026
Wesley Saïd Stats
Wesley Saïd, at 30, is having his best season, having already scored six goals and taken more shots than he did all last season.
Odsonne Édouard struggled to find his footing in the Premier League with both Crystal Palace and Leicester City, but has been revived at age 27 in France.
He has scored five goals and has an xG per shot of 0.25, which is the fifth-best mark in Ligue 1.
The real underrated star of the Lens team, though, is 29-year-old full-back Matthieu Udol.
Udol spent a decade playing for Metz before making the move to Lens in the summer.
He’s done everything you could possibly ask of a progressive full-back, leading the team with 30 passes into the penalty area and 17 completed crosses into the penalty area as well.
He also currently leads Ligue 1 with five expected assists.
When you look into the underlying data for Lens, you’ll see a big discrepancy between their expected goals allowed (21.9) and their actual goals allowed (13).
That can be explained in two ways: first, they’ve had five penalties against them, and their opponents have missed three of them, which inflates their expected goal total.
Secondly, Robin Risser has been outstanding in net from a shot-stopping standpoint.
He has a +3.9 post-shot xG +/-, which is the third-best mark in Ligue 1, and also has an 80% save percentage.
Can Lens Hold Off PSG?
The main question is, can Lens hold off PSG and continue competing for the title?
It will take a monumental effort, but I do not think it is impossible.
Opta currently gives them a 6.57% chance of winning the title and a 74.83% chance of qualifying for the Champions League.
Lens don’t have any commitments in European competitions and can put their full focus on Ligue 1 matches.
Of course, the main concern is what happens if they can’t continue scoring at the rate they are from set pieces and transitions?
What happens if teams start sitting back and playing low blocks against them, can they effectively keep creating chances from their wide overloads and crosses.
I certainly think they can, given how effective they’ve been at winning headers in the box and creating these wide overloads.
They have held over 50% possession during their five-match winning streak, so they are certainly capable of dominating as favourites.
Pierre Sage’s tactics worked offensively at Lyon, but they were far too open defensively.
That is not the case at Lens, and their press has been even more effective, forcing 144 high turnovers in 15 matches.
PSG will have commitments in the Champions League that they will likely put a bigger emphasis on, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Lens can continue on this run and hold them off.
Conclusion
What Pierre Sage has done is blend his tactics from Lyon with Lens’ base 3-4-3 structure, which has made them largely effective since 2022/2023.
Emphasising transitions and set pieces with a squad near the bottom of the Ligue 1 table in terms of talent has worked out well, and Lens are deserving of being at the top of the table.
The underlying numbers suggest they are a step below Marseille and PSG, but when you dig deeper, you can see they are every bit as good as both teams.
Pierre Sage has Lens’ fans dreaming of their first league title since 1998, but they will need to keep their winning run going for a long period of time to hold off Luis Enrique’s side.
Lens has a very important match this weekend against Nice and their former manager Franck Haise.
Then, after a Coupe de France match, they have matches against Toulouse and Auxerre, and then a massive away match against Marseille.
