Stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before. For the first six months of the season, Will Still puts together a team that looks on the cusp of challenging for the Champions League and then after a winter transfer window where the club hierarchy sells his key players, the team begins to slip out of contention. 

I could be referring to last season when he had Stade de Reims salivating over a return to a competition they have an intimate history with, having reached the inaugural final of the European Cup in 1956, before a mid-season collapse precipitated by a lack of reinforcements and the departure of Azor Matusiwa saw the club’s dreams slip away. However, instead, I am talking about the here and now with RC Lens. 

Three weeks ago, Lens had the best defensive record in Ligue 1 having only allowed 18 goals to pass their posts. They were sixth and only two points behind Lille OSC in fourth. However, after this weekend they find themselves down to eighth and seven points behind Lille as three losses in a row have made their mark. 

Ill-discipline and poor results 

2-0 defeats to OGC Nice and RC Strasbourg Alsace could be explained away as losing out to two of the better teams in the league. However, a bruising 3-1 loss to FC Nantes raises concerns, even if La Maison Jaune had until two weeks ago been hard to beat since the start of the new year. 

Even so, Nantes were entering this game having been humiliated the weekend before when AS Monaco ran out 7-1 winners. Nantes’ morale was low and it was the perfect time for Lens to right themselves. And yet, they would leave Stade de la Beaujoire licking their wounds, and lamenting a disciplinary record that has seen them receive a red card in each of their last three games. 

The reason behind this downward turn appears obvious, the squad has undergone an even bigger upheaval than the one Still experienced last season. This January, Lens sold goalkeeper and club captain Brice Samba, as well as the two pillars of their defence, Abdukodir Khusanov and Kevin Danso. Losing just one of the players would be testing for any manager, to lose all three is an unenviable challenge. 

The search for the right recipe 

Still has been left to bear the burden of these lucrative sales and rebuild the balance of his side midway through the season (a matter not helped by the series of suspensions his players have picked up). As he explained to reporters following the latest defeat, “It’s not for a lack of effort, but we’ve yet to find the right recipe.” 

“I’m not complaining. We knew the situation coming out of the transfer window, the difficulties that could be there, and now we’re encountering them.” It’s a far more measured approach from the head coach compared to his comments last season when Reims rejected his pleas to strengthen a squad depleted by AFCON and the Asian Cup and instead sold Matusiwa. 

Back then, Still had been highly critical of his previous club’s decision to sell the midfielder, as he told The Athletic, “I wanted to be really ambitious and challenge myself and the team right to the end. And it’s like, right, we won’t get the chance to do that.” It’s hard not to ignore the similarities with last season and wonder whether Lens have also missed out on the chance to be ‘really ambitious.’ 

This week’s Ligue 1 subplots

• Olympique de Marseille president Pablo Longoria made headlines following Derek Cornelius’ sending-off in Saturday’s loss to AJ Auxerre. After the match, he told reports “You can write it down: Pablo Longoria calls it corruption.” A comment he has since regretted making. Read the full story HERE.

• Lille hosted Monaco in a big game at the top of the table on Saturday. Lille landed a heavy blow on their rivals in the race for the Champions League playoff place when they recorded a 2-1 victory. It was enough for Bruno Génésio’s side to take the fourth spot from Les Monégasques. Read the full match report HERE.

Paris Saint-Germain would turn out 3-1 winners over Olympique Lyonnais to maintain went 13 points clear at the top of the table. A game that was dominated by the growing animosity between Nasser Al-Khelaifi and John Textor. Read the full match report HERE.