Jean-Marc Furlan is set for a return to management. The 65-year-old has been announced as the new manager of Ligue 2’s Caen, a club that finished the 2022/23 campaign in fifth place. With a fifth-place finish to build on for next season and Furlan now taking the reins, perhaps spirits should be high for Les Vikings heading into 2023/24; there may not be a better man for the job of helping the team make the final push towards promotion than their new boss.
Furlan’s promotion record is highly appealing, with the former Libourne, Troyes, Strasbourg, Nantes, Brest and, most recently, Auxerre coach having won promotion to Ligue 1 from Ligue 2 in one way or another on a total of five occasions. While he hasn’t got as much of a stellar record once he gets to Ligue 1, his ability to take teams to the promised land of the top flight is as good as anybody.
This tactical analysis piece and team-focused scout report will provide a brief overview of what Caen fans can expect from Furlan in terms of strategy and tactics before taking a look at the Normandy-based club’s squad and where they may be able to bolster their squad this summer in order to give their promotion specialist coach the best possible chance of working his magic one more time to give Caen the push they need to reach Ligue 1 once again for the first time since 2018/19.
What to expect from Jean-Marc Furlan
In terms of what you can expect from this coach, Furlan summed it up well himself during an interview with Ligue 1’s official website back in 2015 following, ironically, a 3-1 Ligue 1 loss for Furlan-led Troyes at the merciless hands of Caen themselves.
When I was 20 years old, Johan Cruyff and Ajax were dominating Europe, it was totally innovative football, revolutionary and that method — that Dutch schooling — really stuck with me”, the French coach explained.
This is a coach who’s passionate about the work that goes on at the training ground and really takes pride in developing a group over time; a coach that other coaches can look at and draw inspiration from through his passion for the art of the session.
His love of Cruyff and the 1970s Ajax sides that dominated the Eredivisie and, for three straight years at the beginning of the decade, the UEFA Champions League is evident in his approach to the game and how he typically sets up his teams, as well. Furlan will generally favour a 4-1-4-1/4-3-3 in possession and an aggressive, high-octane approach without the ball. Caen fans can expect his team to set up to dominate the ball in most games next season and showcase some creative attacking exploits to generate goalscoring opportunities game after game.
At the same time, Furlan’s teams are often a lot better with the ball than they are without the ball, and can be vulnerable in defensive scenarios. This is a coach who’d probably much rather see his team win 5-4 than win 1-0.
Figure 1 illustrates this shape that Furlan can typically be expected to set his ideal team up in — of course, with parts moving around depending on individual roles — this is just a very basic outline of how he’ll typically set up his teams.
Generally, the build-up play from the back is methodical as his players work their way through their half of the pitch. Hopefully, once they reach the final third, he’s created a scenario that puts his attackers in a beneficial scenario where they can feel comfortable showcasing their abilities while helping their team slice the opposition open and create a goalscoring opportunity.
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