Petkovic, stop ou encore à Bordeaux ?
This may be the last chance game for Vladimir Petkovic. Bordeaux is 19th and therefore relegated. However, the Girondins coach does not have any obvious lever to revive his Girondin team. He could see his future sealed tomorrow, Sunday in the event of further disillusionment with Strasbourg in Ligue 1.
The rout in Rennes (0-6) last weekend haunts the spirits at the Château du Haillan, the Bordeaux training center, strangely silent this week. Nothing to do with the upheavals of the previous week, between announced dismissals of several players, like captain Laurent Koscielny, and reassuring words from President Gérard Lopez repeating that no ultimatum had been given to his coach.
This time Petkovic seems without a net, even if his dismissal would have a cost not negligible for Girondine finances not the most brilliant. In terms of image, it would also be a disavowal for the long-term project carried by Lopez, who had poached this summer for three seasons the former Swiss coach following the good course of the “Nati” at the Euro. Despite the rumors and the names circulating in particular to replace him (the Portuguese João Sacramento and Thierry Henry), despite the discontent of the supporters who find it difficult to understand his maintenance in place, Petkovic will be on the bench against Strasbourg.
“We did not feel it elsewhere this week”
Yacine Adli, promoted to captain on Sunday
“Me, I’m quiet“commented Petkovic, not one to get emotional in public.”I know that I am doing my best and that I can only influence things on training I can have influence: the work, the mentality of the team. It is a difficult situation but it’s part of football.“
To see him still there seems almost incongruous given his record (3 wins in 21 matches), his inability to stop the defensive bleeding (50 goals conceded) or to remobilize troops at the bottom of the bucket and perhaps varnished lately. “It always rains where it’s wet“, he also imaged.
While a semblance of thinning had chased away the clouds in mid-December thanks to a draw against Lyon (2-2), a cohesion stage at Clairefontaine leading to a victory at Troyes (2- 1) bringing smiles, the Covid-19 has ruined this fleeting and rare happiness this season.
Reduced against a Lille in reconquest before Christmas, his men had not sunk so far (2-3). Obliged to call on the reserves in the Coupe de France in Brest (0-3), the Bosnian-Swiss technician suffered as much as his club the lost battle against the authorities, inflexible on the question of match reports while the positive cases are multiplied in the Bordeaux workforce.
His eleven of odds and ends lined up in stride against Marseille could not compete (0-1) nor maintain invincibility at home against this historic rival, with an unprecedented defeat since 1977 in a Matmut Atlantique behind closed and very sad.
The ultramarines 87 then released a press release asking for a strong reaction and a reinforced workforce in the transfer window: “It’s time to put some order by removing those who are no longer worthy of wearing the Girondins shirt and replacing them with new blood“, could we read “only option“according to the ultramarines 87 to provoke”an electroshock“.
The Koscielny episode, deprived of his captain’s armband and the banishment of undesirables (Paul Baysse, Mehdi Zerkane, Otavio, Samuel Kalu), on January 11, did not have the effect proposed by management if we rely on the sinister overall copy made in Rennes. Not to mention the new tile of the week, Benoît Costil’s calf injury just two days after the arrival of Grégory Coupet, the new goalkeeping coach had to bring his positive energy and his joie de vivre.
Face “in disarray” supporters and to respond to ” un unfair and unwarranted outpouring of anger and hate messages“on their twitter account, the ultramarines 87 posted a few updates on January 17. They denied all allegiance to Gérard Lopez but called for responsibility:
“And if we are not more demonstrative, it is good that we are aware of the extreme gravity of the situation. More than ever, adding noise to the current slump risks being counterproductive.” they wrote. They promised a communication on their vision of things, still waiting.
What can we hope for now against Racing, the second best attack in L1 to a unit from Paris SG, which had owed the Girondins a severe 5-2 at La Meinau in early December and which has just won three times in 10 days, replacing it in foot of the podium?
“We must be ready to give everything“, says Adli. For the club, for the team, and for the future of his coach…