Team Focus: Angers’ Dream Start to the Season Continues

“I have intelligent players who fought against human nature,” said Angers coach Stéphane Moulin after Saturday’s win over Bastia. “There could have been a sense of relaxing or decompressing after the feat we managed in Marseille (winning 2-1 at Vélodrome last week), but they weren’t satisfied.” 

The coach was right, but his team had already shown incredible durability and desire this season. Angers started the campaign impressively, but many assumed that the defeat at Lorient that followed the last international break was a sign of gravity beginning to weigh in.  

Instead, they have won 3 and drawn 1 of their 4 games since. Victory over Bastia left Angers second in the table, behind only defending champions PSG. Only two promoted clubs in this century have amassed more - or even as many - points after the first 9 matches than their 18 - Claudio Ranieri’s Monaco in the 2013/14 season (21 points), and the 2009/10 version of Montpellier (20).   

This staggering statistic is a tribute to the likeable Moulin, who was quite justified in saying after Saturday’s match that “our number of points is deserved – we haven’t stolen anything from anybody.” His opposite number, Bastia’s Ghislain Printant, echoed those thoughts, with Angers at pains to disprove the cliché that you can’t judge a book by its cover. 

Moulin’s side have been totally faithful to the first impression they gave in Ligue 1 this season, the club’s first in the top flight for 22 years and only their sixth campaign ever among the elite. Expected to be easy opening night pickings for Montpellier when they travelled south back in August, Angers surprised the French football community not only by winning 2-0, but with the control and poise they exercised in extracting the three points from Stade de la Mosson. Despite having just 37% of possession, Angers restricted the experienced Rolland Courbis’ team to just 11 shots compared to their own 16. A fine away performance? Certainly. A smash and grab? Absolutely not.  

The keys to their success, as demonstrated right at the beginning, are fairly clear. Angers are built on an excellent defence. Only PSG and Lille (4 each) have shipped fewer than the 5 goals they have conceded, allowing just 10.1 shots against them per game. They went through the first 326 minutes of the season without conceding at all, before Valère Germain of Nice equalised at the Stade Jean-Bouin in the second half of the fourth game of the campaign.  

Only four Ligue 1 sides are conceding fewer shots per game this season, and when that miserly defence does allow the opposition a glimmer, their excellent goalkeeper Ludovic Butelle often bails them out. The 32-year-old, enjoying a long-awaited second chance at the top level, is the side’s second-highest performing player this season, with an average WhoScored rating of 7.08. 

Set-pieces are a strength too, at both ends of the pitch. 5 of Angers’ 10 goals so far have come from dead ball situations, and they are rated ‘very strong’ on ‘defending set-pieces’. There is plenty of height in the side, something that is put to good use, with captain Cheikh N’Doye the prime example. The 29-year-old wins 5.2 aerial duels per game, pitches in with 2.5 clearances per match and scored both goals to defeat Gazélec Ajaccio in the third match of the season. 

Moulin’s commitment to keeping it simple is admirable, with the idea of keeping the momentum and good habits from last season’s promotion success working for now. Integrating new players into that template is easier said than done, however, and it’s when you consider that 15 players came into the club and 14 left during the summer that you start to grasp the full extent of Moulin’s skill. 

The coach has quickly decided on his first XI, with fresh arrivals like N’Doye and Romain Saïss rapidly becoming central figures. Saïss is one of seven players to have started every match in Ligue 1 so far, while Butelle, midfielders Abdoul Camara and Romain Thomas and defender Yoann Andreu have all played every minute of the campaign.  

If the group is strong, it’s because Moulin has adaptable, savvy players at his disposal. Perhaps most noticeable within that collective on Saturday night was the performance of Billy Ketkeophomphone - or Ketkeo, as he’s simply known in France, with the abbreviation used on the back of his shirt saving the club shop staff at Angers - as well as commentators - from a stressful week. The 25-year-old Clairefontaine product hit the winner just before half time, following up to score after the excellent Jean-Louis Leca saved his initial effort, but Ketkeo’s influence in the game spread way beyond that.  

Ostensibly an attacking midfielder, the right-footed Ketkeo has spent most of the season playing on either side of Moulin’s front three. In this game, he played as a de facto centre-forward, as we can see from WhoScored’s player average position chart of the game. Ketkeo isn’t one of the giants in the side, measuring a relatively modest 180cm, but causes problems with his smart movement. He took responsibility in his central role against Bastia too, having 5 of the team’s 17 efforts on goal, well above his season average of 1.3. 

Ketkeo is, in this sense, Angers in microcosm - defying expectation and revealing hidden depths. Even those dismissing Moulin’s side as long-ballers might have to change their minds as the shooting stars stay in the sky longer than anticipated. It could have been a lot worse for Bastia had it not been for Leca, who notably stopped a Camara penalty. With Toulouse and Guingamp next up on the fixture list, Angers might make a few more eat their words before winter hits.

Can Angers maintain their excellent start to the season once domestic duties resume later this month? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below