Having lost two consecutive matches against Lille OSC and Olympique de Marseille, AS Monaco faces a tough test vs. RC Lens in their quest to return to winning ways.
The Marseille loss in particular was extremely frustrating, for Les Monegasques gave the ball away cheaply prior to both Dario Benedetto and Florian Thauvin’s goals. This meant they were 2-0 down inside 15 minutes, and with a real uphill battle to come back into the match.
Despite the defeat, there were some positives attached to the performance, as Niko Kovac made some tactical and personnel tweaks in the second half that saw some tangible improvement.
In his pre match presser, Kovac reinforced the need for his team to cut out the mistakes, saying: We’ve conceded too many easy goals lately. This is something we have to work on, and for that, I repeat that we have to reduce the number of errors. If we do that, we will get positive results, for sure. Because we have also scored a lot of goals, we are among the teams that have scored the most in the league.”
With only two points separating Lens and Monaco in the standings, grabbing all three points is vital. It certainly won’t be easy against the newly promoted outfit, though, who’ve already recorded some sterling wins over Paris Saint-Germain, Bordeaux and Rennes. Franck Haise’s men will come out in typically robust and intense fashion, as they too are coming off a loss, as they went down 3-2 to Montpellier last weekend.
Back at home following those two losses on the road, Monaco will be confident they can arrest their slide. Indeed, having won six and drawn two of their eight matches at the Stade Louis II this campaign, Monaco will be desperate to keep up their exceptional home form.
In what will be a fascinating clash on the French Riviera, if Monaco can cut out the errors and get their offensive game flowing, they’ll be well on their way to victory against this hard to beat Lens side.