What started off as a potential promising campaign for RWD Molenbeek after promotion to the Belgian Pro League has turned into one with the imminent threat of relegation. After a very poor winless run of eight matches in all competitions, the club sacked Claudio Caçapa, with his replacement being confirmed as former ESTAC Troyes and Quevilly-Rouen boss Bruno Irles on a deal until the end of the season.
The 48-year-old Frenchman did lose his first match in charge, 3-1 away to Genk, and now has four matches left in the regular season to attempt to save the Brussels club from being involved in the relegation playoff, with RWDM currently three points off of safety. This tactical analysis will take a look at Irles’s tactics from his time in charge of Troyes and where he needs to improve the side immediately to secure safety.
ESTAC Troyes in possession principles under Bruno Irles
During his time in charge of Troyes, Bruno Irles opted for a counterattacking style of in-possession football with not much emphasis on dominating the ball and being more methodical in build-up phases of play. This was similar to Irles’s time at Quevilly-Rouen in the French third division, where they averaged the third-lowest possession percentage of all sides in the division.
During the 2022/23 Ligue 1 season, Troyes finished with the lowest average ball possession (42.8%). Breaking this down into the matches that Irles was in charge of last season, the number is slightly higher (43.8% in 14 Ligue 1 matches). Still, it begins to paint a picture of how Troyes tended to play in possession under the 48-year-old Frenchman.
The image shown above shows the typical shape during the build-up that Irles looked to use during his time at Troyes. Regarding a starting formation, the Frenchman usually opted for a more defensive 5-4-1 or a more aggressive 3-5-2 formation, which allowed the wing-backs to start in more advanced positions. Though they usually did not hold the lion’s share of possession during matches, their shape tended to resemble the figure above when they did look to build out from the back.
In build-up phases of play, Irles looked for his side to be numbered even with his attackers against the opposition back line, so the build-up shape sometimes alternated depending on the opposition’s defensive shape. For example, the phase of play above against Angers shows Troyes in a 3-2-5 shape, with this allowing the French side to be 1v1 against the opposition’s defenders, as Angers opted for a back five shape defensively. This tendency to consistently go numbers even with their attackers allowed the wide players or wing-backs to utilise their dribbling ability to get past opposition defenders, with most of Troyes’s chance creation during Irles’s time in charge coming from the wide channels.
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