Despite their squad possessing the second-lowest transfer market value in Ligue 1, trailing only Ajaccio who sit second-from-bottom and look destined for relegation at the time of writing, Clermont Foot have enjoyed a solid campaign, with manager Pascal Gastien on course to not just steer his side to safety yet again, but perhaps even secure a top half finish, marking a major leap from last season’s close shave to finish up in 17th place in what was the club’s first-ever top-flight campaign.
All this comes off the back of a summer transfer window in which many of Les Lanciers’ key players from last term departed the club. Mohamed Bayo was the most high-profile departure, with the Guinea international joining Lille for €14m. Salis Abdul Samed (€5m to Lens), Cédric Hountondji (€2m to Angers), Jason Berthomier (free to Valenciennes), Vital Nsimba (free to Bordeaux) and Akim Zedadka (free to Lille) are among the others to have left Stade Gabriel Montpied last summer. All were key first-team players last season.
Clermont recouped a total of €21.4m on summer transfer fees and spent just €2.3m on replacements, according to Transfermarkt. However, with five games left to be played in the 2022/23 campaign, Gastien’s men have comfortably eclipsed last season’s points tally of 36 from 38 games by accumulating 49 points in 33 games&and counting.
The team have overperformed both in terms of exceeding what was believed to be their ceiling and in terms of maximising the results from the quality of performances they’ve delivered. But what exactly has been going on at Clermont Foot and how have they pulled off such an achievement, sustaining this overperformance over the course of the season?
This tactical analysis and team-focused scout report will look at five significant areas explaining Clermont’s positive 2022/23 campaign. We’ll provide some analysis of relevant aspects of the team’s strategy and tactics in and out of possession, as well as look at how the team evolved from last season to this one.
Squad evolution
This section is titled: ‘Squad evolution’ but to an extent, we were very tempted to name it ‘Squad transformation’ — the reason being that so many of their key players departed and were replaced that the names on the team sheet have changed entirely, as has the team’s shape.
However, when observing the tactical approach on the pitch and the roles of some key players, we can make the bridge to last season and better understand how they got from A to B.
Among Clermont’s most-used players this season are Jim Allevinah, Alidu Seidu, Yohann Magnin, Johan Gastien, Saîf-Eddine Khaoui and Elbasan Rashani.
All six men were at Stade Gabriel Montpied last season and comprise Clermont’s most-used starting lineup this season, with Khaoui just about getting more minutes than Muhammed Cham Saračević, who’s been a star man for his club at right attacking midfield this term despite not playing enough to make the theoretical most-used starting eleven.
While all of these players were at the club last season, most wouldn’t have made their most-used starting lineup last term. In fact, only Johan Gastien — not just a namesake but the 35-year-old son of Clermont manager, Pascal — and Rashani would make the most-used starting eleven for both seasons.
Other than them, all players previously mentioned made a big step up in 2022/23, becoming first-team starters after having previously been squad players.
We mentioned a change in shape at the beginning of this section. While Clermont mainly lined up in a 4-2-3-1 shape last season, they’ve primarily been in a 3-4-2-1 this term.
However, while these two shapes share few similarities at first glance, the differences have all been out of possession. In possession, Clermont look very similar from last season to this season.
This is because last season, directly from the build-up, one of their holding midfield duo would typically drop deep into the backline while the centre-backs split wide, the full-backs advanced, the wingers tucked in and the ‘10’ dropped deeper to fill the vacant spot in midfield created by the holding midfielder’s initial movement. This created something of a 3-4-2-1 shape, as visualised in figure 1.
This season, directly from the build-up, Clermont form the same shape but it’s an even more natural transition from their defensive shape.
