METZ: So You Think You Can Dance?
By: Sam | July 25th, 2007
As the start of the season looms, it’s time for the France Offside to give you an in-depth look at each of the 20 teams vying for Hexagoal. Today, we meet FC Metz, the team that thinks it’s good enough to stay up, as opposed to the media.
The team: Quite simply, Metz produced jack shit from a transaction point of view this summer. Swiss international Daniel Gygax has come from Lille and Cedric Barbosa from Troyes, but that’s just about all there is to say.
The slimness of FCM’s squad can be seen right from the back, where they’re without a decent keeper, for one thing. They’ll rely on last season’s number one, Christophe Marichez, who has very little Ligue 1 experience despite his age, but has been a second-flight starter for quite some time. However, there’s not much slimmer than Metz’s backline, a mess of inexperienced and unknown players. There’s hope, however, with StĂ©phane LĂ©oni, Pascal Delhommeau and SĂ©bastien Bassong. Otherwise, nothing to write about. The midfield is no doubt better than their latter support. Barbosa, SĂ©bastien Renouard, Gygax and Togolese international Mamam ChĂ©rif TourĂ© provide a decent package, but still not ideal. Up front, they’ve got comfort in knowing they’ve got one of the top Ligue 2 scorers from last year, Babacar Gueye. Again, that’s just about it, though, with Peruvian mystery Wilmer Aguirre.
Weak, just weak. Champions of Ligue 2 last year, but this squad can’t really expect the same voyage in the big leagues.
The coach: You may not have heard of Francis de TaddĂ©o, but that doesn’t mean he has no coaching skill. Having coached Metz’s reserves for quite some time, he took charge of the first team after last summer’s relegation. Locking up promotion after only 32 matches, he was voted best Ligue 2 coach by his peers.
The stadium: Stade Saint-Symphorien is an ugly-ass stadium, and seats 26,000. Metz’s fans are also quite bland.
The final say: They just don’t look apt. Relegation looks like a very, very possible possibility.
Category: 
Tags: Babacar Gueye, Daniel Gygax, France Ligue 1, Ligue 2, Montpellier (MHSC), Switzerland, Team News, TogoSubscribe
|
Print
|
Share
      |
Comments
-
they call Metz “Little Senegal” and I love that.
Look out foir these kidsPosted from
United States
-
[...] Metz, on the other hand, have only collected two points out of a possible 21, have yet to win a game but lost five (they drew the other two). So Metz will be looking to prove themselves in front of their home fans. Sam at the France Offside wrote a nice review of what we can expect from Metz this season, so check it out here. [...]
Posted from
United States -
[...] Metz’s top scorer is Momar NDiaye, who has three goals to his name so far this season. Beyond that, I don’t have much to say about Metz (but Laurie loves them). They don’t have any players that particularly stand out and could probably be classified as a team that doesn’t really belong in the top flight. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Metz are the whipping boys of Ligue 1. If you want to know some more about Metz, read Sam’s pre-season preview here. [...]
Posted from
United States
Comments are closed
Home 
