FC Sochaux-Montbeliard: Preventing A Plateau

Ahead of the upcoming 2027/28 season I was keen to ensure we avoided a situation where we began to stagnate, plateau and eventually fall into decline. We'd worked hard to battle our way through the Leagues, and I didn't want us to fall into the trap of thinking we'd 'made it' - we have to keep pushing forward.

But first, a quick recap on the journey so far.

In 2023/24 we found ourselves competing in the National - French footballs third tier - following the clubs 'administrative relegation'. Being one of the stronger sides in the division, I was keen to seize the initiative and take control of games. Large parts of the plan for this season was inspired by Liverpool.

Our 4-3-3 shape when defending became a 3-2-5 when attacking. A constant theme throughout this save so far has been maintaining the 3-2-5 attacking shape, but experimenting with different systems when out of possession. I wanted the team to evolve, and I wanted to try new things rather than simply sticking to the same things, and just improving the playing squad.

We played an aggressively high defensive line on our way to winning the title, boasting a strong defensive record and giving opportunities to our young talent - the ideal start to our renaissance.

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In 2024/25 we were back in Ligue 2 and were considered among the favourites for relegation. With tougher challenges awaiting us this year, I wanted to ensure we remained strong defensively. We changed up our out of possession shape, opting for a 4-4-1-1 with a double pivot instead of a lone defensive midfielder. We also dropped the wide players a little deeper to give us a little extra protection when defending.

The idea for this season was partially inspired by Manchester City and how they have begun to regularly field 4 central defenders in a back 4. The use of two inverted full-backs, a libero and a segundo volante meant we retained our 3-2-5 attacking shape, but out of possession we defended in a mid-block and with more players in deeper positions.

Our only Summer signings were two centre-backs - Billy Koumetio on loan from Liverpool and Willy Kambwala following his release by Manchester United - and several youngster were promoted into the first-team picture. In January we added two more defenders. Leo Petrot, a left-back/centre-back arrived from St. Ettiene for €46k and Christopher Jullien joined from Montpellier for €75k.

With just 27 goals conceded in the 34 games - we had the best defensive record in the division and secured a play-off place with our 4th place finish. Sadly, an extra-time loss to Caen ended our promotion charge.

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In 2025/26 I really focused on adding quality to our squad in order to maintain another promotion challenge. With no major outgoings, we upgraded our options for the goalkeeper, left-back, defensive midfield and wide positions, while also adding depth up front all while keeping our spending relatively low.

With several key positions upgraded, and extra pace and power added to the squad, I was really pleased with our Summer recruitment and quietly confident ahead of the new season that we could have another real go at winning promotion to the top flight.

The Summer recruitment shaped my tactical choices for the season ahead and another new season brought another out of possession shape - this time opting for a 3-4-3 shape. The extra central defender along with the height and power at defensive midfield was designed to increase the physicality of the side, and improve our attacking and defensive set pieces.

Our defensive quality has become my primary concern. First and foremost, I'm thinking about our defensive shape and this was reflected by another strong showing. We conceded just 25 goals as we surprised our board, fans and media alike by winning Ligue 2 and sealing promotion to the top flight.

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So in 2026/27 we were back in Ligue 1 and had a big challenge on our hands to stave off relegation. I decided to keep the 3-4-3 out of possession approach, but would tweak a lot during the season. We were all but written off as relegation fodder, which I'm pretty happy with as it allows us to go about our business without any real pressure.

Sidy Diagne, Christ Makosso, Nolan Galves, Malcolm Viltard, Leny Tela, N'Dri Phillipe Koffi & Sany Faraj were all with us in the third tier and we would still be relying heavily on them in Ligue 1. It was clear we needed extra quality to give ourselves the best chance of staying up. Alain Sutter was recruited as our Director of Football and tasked with handling all our transfers, with the manager having the final say - so let's have a look at our Summer business.

No first-teamers were sold, but we moved on a few squad members to ensure our transfer business resulted in a small net profit. Here's who we brought in during the Summer:

• Former Lyon forward Bertrand Traore was signed from Girona for €425k. He definitely adds quality and depth to our forward line, as well as versatility.

• We made the loan deals for Jason Pendant (€500k) and Alan Virginius (€1.8m) permanent. Key players last season, and bother are products of the Sochaux academy.

• Goalkeeper Gaetan Poussin joined from Zaragoza on a free transfer to provide competition for Sonny Laiton. He has the attributes to play the Sweeper Keeper role so suits our style well.

• Former Huddersfield striker Steve Mounie joined from Brest, also on a free transfer. He is another player who adds great height and power and provides a good alternative to Koffi.

• We also signed Jerome Onguene on loan from Werder Bremen. Chris Jullien's physical attributes have fallen off a cliff, so Onguene arrives on a 'try before you buy' basis. He is also an academy graduate.

We lost our first two games of the season which was cause for concern, but we did recover and found our feet in the division pretty well. Our chance creation and goalscoring statistics were on the low side, but our defensive strength was something we could really lean on. Our defensive solidity is what was separating us from the teams in the relegation scrap, and by December we were challenging for a European place.

When January rolled around I decided to move on Benjamin Bouchouari (€525k) and Mohamed Diaby (€1.6m). Neither ever really made the grade, and Diaby didn't really have the mobility or quality in possession I'd have liked.

In their place we signed Issouf Sissokho on loan from Bordeaux and Bryan Lasme on loan from Lorient. Sissokho is a smaller, more mobile midfielder who is a tenacious ball-winner with the ability to carry the ball forward from deeper areas. Lasme, another Sochaux academy alumni, is a forward who combines excellent pace and power, while lacking a little in technical ability.

Inevitably, we fell off the pace in the chase for a European place but with four games to go we achieved our goal of avoiding relegation and secured another season in Ligue 1. Our 11th place finish is probably just about fair. Never really in danger of relegation, but also never a serious candidate to challenge for a European spot.

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So what do the numbers say about our performances, and how can we learn from it?

Well, the first thing is that we defend very high up the pitch. On average we have the 3rd highest defensive line in the League with only Nice & PSG positioning their defence higher up the pitch.

Interestingly, we allow the opposition a lot of passes. We face the 4th most passes with only Strasbourg, Toulouse & Concarneau facing more - but not a lot of passes in our defensive third (4th fewest).

I'm pretty comfortable with that, and it suggests that we're defending well in quite a compact block. Opponents make a lot of passes, but they're not making them in or around our penalty area. We're not being penned in for long spells.

Continuing our look at the defence, we allow the 6th fewest shots and shots on target against in the League. Again, this suggests we're not facing long spells of pressure and doing a lot of backs-to-the-wall defending. We have the 7th most clean sheets, concede the 8th fewest goals and rank 9th for xGA. So defensively it would seem we're doing reasonably well.

In attack, we're a fairly middling possession side. We rank 8th in the League with our 50% and in terms of chance creation we're a lower half side. We rank 15th for both goals scored and xG, and are 11th for chances created. We rank 13th for shots, and 17th for shots on target.

In terms of set pieces, we're average defensively but well below par for attacking set pieces. We scored 4 goals from corners - which is well below Strasbourg who top the charts with 20.

In simple terms, we're relatively good defensively, poor in attack and inefficient from set pieces. Lots to think about ahead of the new season.