Blas des aces / French Cup / Half / Nantes-Monaco / SOFOOT.com
At 24, Ludovic Blas is having the best season of his young career, taking FC Nantes to the top 10 of Ligue 1 and to the semi-finals of the Coupe de France, where the Canaries have an appointment with AS Monaco. this Wednesday (9:15 p.m.). A way to finally show the full extent of his talent before, no doubt, to see higher.
If he had been offered, in 2018, that it was with Antoine Kombouaré three years later that he would break his glass ceiling, Ludovic Blas would certainly not have believed it. When the Kanak takes the door to Guingamp after a disaster start to the season, the year of the sacred of the Blues in the Russian world, the goodbye between the two men is at best cordial. “It is sure that we did not part very wellreplayed Blas for So walk last April. […] There were things that I didn’t understand and that I understand now. He didn’t make me play, and I didn’t fully understand his complaints, or why he left me on the bench, when I came out of Euro U19 and walked on water. I fought, and that’s why people said there was a problem between him and me. I didn’t understand his expectations, and that’s why it didn’t really work out at Guingamp. »
“I am no longer the same player”
We are in 2022, the destinies of the two men have finally crossed paths 200 kilometers to the south-east, in Nantes, and the situation has completely changed. After a first sawtooth Nantes exercise (2019-2020) and an exceptional final sprint to close the 2020-2021 vintage and save the skin of the FCN, the attacking midfielder has maintained the pace this season, and it is not for nothing if the Yellow and Green have already (almost) ensured the maintenance and the gaze towards the first third of the classification in addition to offering themselves an exploit against PSG and a course to be extended in the Coupe de France. Relying in particular on his complementarity with the nugget Randal Kolo Muani, the attacking midfielder shines in the game and has taken care of his stats in particular since August: 28 games in all competitions and twelve pawns, including two doubles on the lawn of Angers in September and in the eighth of the cup against Brest at the end of January. Above all, the official penalty taker from the yellow house (five out of five this season) is often the Canaries’ barometer and has gotten into the habit of tipping matches on the right side.
Sometimes posed as a false number 9 to animate an attack devoid of a probable center-forward this season, sometimes dismissed on the right side to get back on its strong foot, sometimes aligned in the midfield to feel the leather upstream of the actions like in Metz on Sunday, the player trained at the EAG has finally taken on the dimension he was surely aiming for by moving to the city of the Dukes of Brittany in the 2019 off-season (against eight million). And his rise coincides strangely with the appearance of Kombouaré on the Nantes bench, a year ago. “When he arrived, I felt a little apprehensivehe explained at the end of last season still for So Foot. But in the end, I’m not the same player anymore […]. With my experience, it is no longer the same. Since his arrival, we have had discussions. He wants me to be the technical leader of this team, to have responsibilities. That’s what I need, and that’s what I like. »
Blas the masks
Six years that we waited for the technically polished left-hander to finally find his cruising speed. Six years between the click that occurred in 2021 and the triumph of Bleuets at Euro U17, of which he had been one of the main players during this summer of 2016, surrounded by Kylian Mbappé, Amine Harit, Issa Diop, Lucas Tousart, Faitout Maouassa, Paul Bernardoni, but also… Marcus Coco and Jean-Kévin Augustin, two teammates today. Six years, too, since the first bursts of brilliance at Guingamp and the first promises of a future which promised to be radiant. During all this time, the one who has offered himself the services of a personal physical trainer for several months now had the time to experience a few low periods (at the end of his Costa Rican adventure or at the start of the Nantes) and to question yourself: “There are still times when I am not at my top levelhe testified in December for The Team. But I manage to watch these phases where I start to lower my head a little. I like to have the ball, so as soon as I’m not touched, I start to think too much, to want to do everything on my own […]. Now I encourage myself, I tell myself that it is in these moments that I must show that I have become another player […]. The repeated efforts, I know I have the capacity to do them, but I didn’t do them all the time. If the ball didn’t arrive, I said to myself: “Ah, I went there for nothing!” And the next shot, the ball was coming, and I wasn’t there. »
Requested – on the side of England in particular – this winter, but remained in the 44, the great friend of Marcus Coco certainly lives his last weeks at Jonelière and could land in a more ambitious training in a few months, having done what ‘ he had to do on the banks of the Erdre. At least Pedro Chirivella, not the last of the fools when it comes to the ball, will have had the time to savor life with him, as he claimed without restraint in our columns, in November: “I played with Coutinho, Firmino, Salah, Mané, I know what they are capable of. And when I see what Ludo does in training or in matches, he has nothing to their envy when it comes to talent. He is incredible, spectacular, and his future looks bright. We are often lined up together in the middle, we see football in the same way, and it is a pleasure to play alongside him. » It remains to be seen whether he will shine as much when he no longer has Nicolas Pallois for him as a caviar distiller.
? THIS BUT OF BLAS!? Huge clearance from Pallois; Ludovic Blas takes care of the rest!#FCNSB29 #CDF pic.twitter.com/Ld6PsAhplB
— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) January 28, 2022
By Jeremy Baron