Davide Ancelotti was annoyed on Saturday afternoon in the press conference after watching his Lille OSC side pick up their fourth win of the season, a 1-0 win over Le Havre AC, which would send Les Dogues temporarily to the top of the Ligue 1 table. It wasn’t necessarily the performance that left him perturbed, but the reaction surrounding his team, who have so far failed to impress despite ending the weekend second in the league, only a point behind AS Monaco. 

“If we’re always frustrated and sad when we win and when we lose, then we’ll be sad all the time, and we’ll give up. We have to be satisfied with these three points because it was a difficult match,” he explained. “Of course, we have the ambition, the expectation to be better, especially with the ball, but defensively, the team was very solid.” 

It was easy to see why the 37-year-old was getting irked by the criticism of his team’s success. Every result has so far been met with a collective shrug and this pervasive sense of pessimism that says that even when winning, Lille very rarely look like the better side. For a young head coach, who already faced dismissive criticism that he was a ‘nepo-baby’ appointment before he even arrived at Lille, it must have been starting to feel like he couldn’t win. 

Davide Ancelotti points to results

However, the latest reaction to his team seemed to sting more than the others, precisely because it was not unfounded. Ancelotti may want to point to results and celebrate them, but the whole point of the matter was that results have been a mask obscuring the weaknesses present within this side. The victory over bottom-of-the-table Le Havre was no exception. 

Dilane Bakwa would score the only goal in the fifth minute of the game. It would be one of only four shots Les Dogues would take in the match, and the only one that was on target. Le Havre would create 14 shots (two on target) and would end the game with a better expected goals total (0.74 to 0.49). Le Havre, as Ancelotti alluded to, have looked better than their position in the league table, but regardless, this should be a game that a side of Lille’s quality should be comfortably winning. 

Part of the problem for Lille has been their inability to control games and reduce the pressure they face. As Ancelotti admitted in the press conference, “I’m not afraid to give the ball to the opponents.” According to statistics from Wyscout, Lille have recorded an average of 46.9% possession in Ligue 1 under the Italian head coach. It’s possible to control the flow of the game when you don’t have the ball, but it is certainly harder than when you have possession. 

Lille living on fine margins

Lille have the individual quality in most games in Ligue 1 to push the fine margins in their favour, but that doesn’t seem like a game plan that has longevity in mind, and you wonder how living by the skin of your teeth will work out across the length of a long season. Regression to the mean often catches up in the end. 

In Europe, this remains an even bigger question. Lille’s success last season under Bruno Génésio saw them qualify for the UEFA Champions League. In these games, Lille will evidently not have that same individual edge as they do in Ligue 1, and will be playing teams that have far more quality and depth than themselves. 

If performances don’t improve and Ancelotti doesn’t drop the comfort of hiding behind the mask, their European run could prove to be a bruising affair. It’s hard to see anything other than a long and difficult night tomorrow evening when they travel to the Emirates to face an Arsenal side that look hungry for more success under Mikel Arteta. 

This week’s Ligue 1 subplots 

• Luis Enrique wants to rest his stars for the Champions League, but they keep having to dig out the team in Ligue 1. Once again, the bench was called on as the B-team struggled to see off Le Mans FC. Read the full story HERE. 

• OGC Nice spent almost a year without a home win, and now they have two in quick succession. A comeback win over RC Strasbourg Alsace would lift Oliver Pantaloni’s side up to 9th. Read how it happened HERE. 

• Olympique de Marseille ended a four-game losing streak in Ligue 1 with a win over newly promoted ESTAC Troyes. Despite being given the primetime spot on Sunday evening, it was a match that looked more like a relegation dogfight than a luxurious advert for the league. Read the full match report HERE.