Ligue 1 2018/19: Strasbourg vs AS Monaco

He knew all his gestures were going to be watched and dissected, and his first result highly anticipated. At 41, Thierry Henry began his new coaching career on the bench of AS Monaco with a bad night. It included a goalkeeping blunder, a major injured player, another ruled out and a defeat to boot.

Monaco lost 2-1 to Strasbourg on matchday 10 of Ligue 1 on Saturday 20 October. As a result, they continued their fall down the table to 19th in the standings. The top scorer in the history of the French team has confirmed that his mission is complicated. He added that he would quickly find the right boosts to get his team out of the doldrums.

The game

After Jardims regular 4-4-2, this team finally lined up in a hybrid system. They alternated between 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 at Henrys request. Aleksandr Golovin was closer to Radamel Falcao and Stevan Jovetic shifted to the left. For 4-3-3 build-up phases, the Monegasque side had Benjamin Henrichs on the left and Djibril Sidibé on the right. The pair were positioned very high, almost like wingers, with the definitive aim of forcing their Strasbourg counterparts back.

However forward players like Golovin and Jovetic were too wooden to bring danger to the Strasbourg defence. Subsequently, Monacos possession was too oriented towards width rather than depth.

More surprisingly, midfielders Jean-Eudes Aholou and Nacer Chadli were off-centre when their team had the ball and found themselves behind. This left Youri Tielemans the responsibility of organizing everything in midfield. This offensive setup, whose structure was more common in a 4-4-2, nevertheless stumbled against Strasbourgs block. They did not provide a single opportunity, although there was a threat from set pieces.

The Monegasques purr