The 2024/25 Ligue 1 season is the first since 2019/20 that RC Lens have begun without Franck Haise at the helm.
After a stellar period of about four-and-a-half seasons or so at Stade Bollaert-Delelis, during which time he guided Les Sang et Or to as high as a second-place finish in France’s top-flight, which they achieved in 2022/23, Haise departed at the end of last season, deeming it time for a fresh start at OGC Nice.
His replacement in Pas-de-Calais would be Will Still, the now 32-year-old coach who drew considerable attention as manager of Stade Reims in Ligue 1 from October 2022 to May 2024.
Still’s reign as Lens boss has begun positively, with the club currently sitting in sixth place at the time of writing this piece after playing seven games — two of which they’ve won and five of which they’ve drawn.
Lens remains one of only three unbeaten teams in France’s top flight at this point in the season, sharing that honour with the top two—league leaders AS Monaco and second-placed PSG.
Additionally, RC Lens have the joint-best defensive record in France’s top flight at this stage of the campaign, conceding just four goals in their opening seven games.
They’ve also conceded the third-fewest expected goals (xG) (6.63) so far, despite having the third-lowest xG per shot against at 0.095 — pretty encouraging defensive statistics.
To add to the above, none of Lens’ four goals conceded have come from open play, with two coming from corner kicks and two resulting from penalties.
So, it’s relatively safe to say Still’s side are one of Ligue 1’s most formidable forces in defensive terms at the beginning of 2024/25.
This Will Still tactical analysis piece and team-focused scout report analyze Will Stills Lens and their defensive tactics at the beginning of the 2024/25 season under Will Still’s coaching style.
We’re going to focus mainly on their performances in the mid-block phase of defence, their usage of the wide centre-backs in their formation as a result of their use of the 3-4-1-2/5-2-1-2 shape, and their central midfielders’ defensive roles within this currently thriving tactical setup.
RC Lens Central Midfielders
First, we’ll analyse what to expect from Lens’ central midfielders in the defensive phases.
Lens have been one of Ligue 1’s most aggressive sides without the ball in 2024/25, with a PPDA of 8.0 putting them second-lowest, only behind Monaco, in that particular metric at the time of writing — a solid indication of high pressing intensity as is their high ‘challenge intensity’ of 6.1 — third-highest in France’s top-flight so far.
They tend to press aggressively from the mid-block, with their central midfielders often getting dragged quite high and/or out of position, following players who’d previously entered their zones.
Lens do use a zonal marking system, but the central midfielders are prone to getting dragged away in a man-oriented fashion once they pick up a player who’d entered their zone unless they’ve safely passed the player off to another teammate.
This was the case in the game from which this example was taken—their 0-0 Ligue 1 draw with Lyon on September 15th.
As both central midfielders got a bit fixated on their man, with no teammate appearing to pass them off safely, a fairly large amount of space opened up in front of Lens’ backline, which an opposition player could move into and exploit with some intelligent off-the-ball movement.
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