Lens – MHSC: Montpellier wants to return to the North away

Après avoir fait mal aux Lillois, Montpellier compte sur le retour en forme de Mousa Tamari pour bondir en transition contre les Lensois. Midi Libre – JEAN MICHEL MART

Expected in Lens, this Sunday, December 8, at 3 p.m., the MHSC has not yet collected a single point away from La Mosson.
 

This Sunday afternoon, Jean-Louis Gasset will gain height. At Bollaert, the MHSC coach will be perched, almost at the top of these immense stairs, facing the Marek stand, next to his video analysts. “I deserve it” after the “blue wire touched the red”, he explained this week, returning to his anger and his expulsion against Lille (2-2), last Sunday. It earned him a one-match suspension and an exile, so, right up there. To better witness his team's take-off away from home ?

Before closing the year in L1 against Nice, it would be a real affair in the North. Because Montpellier has lost it. If it is doing better, the last in the championship, assured of remaining there no matter what happens this afternoon, has the worst record away from home: six matches, as many defeats. An anomaly for La Paillade. In three of the last four seasons, with the exception of the 2021-2022 campaign, it has always shown a better face away from home and built its survival in the others. The observation was particularly obvious last year with seven successes outside La Mosson, against only three within its walls.

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Finding the spark

After having relaunched his men at home, having touched the local spirit again against Losc after a victory over Brest (3-1), can Jean-Louis Gasset already move on to this second issue, that of exporting?? The quest for the trigger does not wait. “We will have to find it, replied the technician on Friday. For the moment, we have lost against two competitors in our championship but the content was good. At Le Havre or Saint-Etienne (1-0 defeat each time), we had the opportunity to take points, we did not do it. Sunday, the step is a little higher, because Lens is a good team.”

From these setbacks, in Normandy or in Forez, the MHSC has brought back the same bitterness each time. That of not being so far, or even above, but of stumbling due to lack of certainties and confidence, with stories of penalties to maintain his frustration. “We need the scenario to turn in our favor”, implores Gasset, who is gradually recovering his strength, including Akor Adams, who is fit again.

Shudder against Lille

Against Lille, the coach was able to witness a shiver at the end of a match that his team approached like a match outside its bases. Compact in the axis around a Maksimovic-Omeragic hinge that has the face for the job, applied to slide as a block and ready to pounce in transition with a rediscovered Mousa Tamari. “We can't say it's good, but we'll say it's better, he notes. We try to defend better and then do more damage on the counters.”

While waiting for better days and the transfer window, Montpellier is going in the right direction. “Physical progress, confidence progress. The players are better and therefore more sure of themselves”, Gasset is convinced. In a month and a half, he has stopped the decline. This Sunday, it is a question of knowing if his team can also gain height. Even far from home.

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