Rennes is “in the mix with the L1 leaders”

- Danzé joins the century club:
Against Auxerre, Romain Danzé celebrated his hundredth start of a match in Ligue 1. This “landmark” occurs a bit less than five years after his first appearance in the top flight. It was on 4th November 2006 against Lyon (1-0), when he replaced Olivier Sorlin for the last fifteen minutes. Danzé started a professional game for the first time a month and a half later, for a match in Lorient (0-0). A special match for Rennes, since it was the game following an inglorious elimination in the Coupe de la Ligue against Reims (0-1, with Julien Féret on Reims’ side).
For now, the defender is the Rennes player who started the most matches with the “Rouge et Noirs” in L1, five starts ahead of Kader Mangane (95).

- Successful squad rotation:
Criticized on Thursday evening after the rotation practiced against Celtic, Frédéric Antonetti has benefited from this strategy this time. Of the eleven players who started the Europa League match, only Costil, Mangane, Kana-Biyik and Féret were lined-up again on the ground of Abbé-Deschamps this Sunday, at 5.00pm. «Physically, as I changed several players from the match against Celtic, there was no issue. Rotating the squad is also a way to keep everyone involved», the Rennes manager said.
Wednesday in Le Mans, more rotation is expected, with players who were on the substitutes’ bench on Sunday, and maybe a few players from the reserve team.

- The defence recovers:
In difficulty since the beginning of the season, the Rennes’ defence is pulling itself together. For the third time of the season – after the victories in Marseille and against Lorient - Benoît Costil didn’t concede a goal in a league game. An improvement which allows the “Red and Blacks” to climb back up on the defensive rankings. Rennes is now twelfth of this ranking, after having remained at the last position for a long time. A consequence of Mangane’s return?
It remains now to the Rennais to find a real balance between attacking and defensive phases, since this renewal of solidity comes with a decrease of the number of goals scored.

- Féret finds his way back to the goal:
Almost invisible on Thursday against Celtic, Julien Féret was decisive in Burgundy by scoring the only goal of the match. Author of his fifth goal of the season, Féret didn’t score since the match in Sochaux, on 21st September. He also has the particularity to have scored only one goal at home, the other ones were scored on the road (in Rustavi, Dijon, Sochaux and then Auxerre).
His total of goals is now identical to the ones of Jirès Kembo and Jonathan Pitroipa, second best scorers of the club behind Victor Hugo Montaño (8 goals).

- Muscular injury for Kembo:
Since the month of August, Jirès Kembo thought to be at long last rid of his thigh issues. Starting the match or entering as a substitute during the fourteen last matches of Stade Rennes, the forward even conquered a privileged position in the starting XI during the last few weeks..
After a sprint just before half time, the Franco-Congolese finally had to be substituted, holding the back of his thigh. An injury reminiscent of his recurrent troubles of last season, from the beginning of winter to June. If no diagnosis has yet been given, Frédéric Antonetti noticed with optimism that the injury, obviously muscular, seems not to be « too serious », since the player has «no pain when he walks ». Verdict in the next hours...

- Second assist for Boukari:
Entering the game in second half after the injury of Jirès Kembo, Razak Boukari offered a goal to Julien Féret. The Franco-Togolese delivered his second assist of the season, after a first one on the first game week, in Dijon, where he perfectly served Montaño for the first goal of the match.
Last season, between January and June, the former Lens’ player delivered no assist in championship, but he gave three on a single Coupe de France game, against Cannes.

- The curses are falling :
After victories in Marseille and Sochaux, Stade Rennes once again won on a ground which is usually not favourable at all to their club. In the last twenty-two matches in the league, the “Red and Black” only ended five games with something else than a defeat.
For this eleventh game week of the 2011-2012 season, the Rennais achieved to bring the fourth victory of their history back from l’Abbé-Deschamps. But on contrary to the Stade Vélodrome or to the Stade Bonal, the last success wasn’t so distant in time, since it occurred in 2007-2008 (2-0).

- Auxerre lowers its ambitions:
While Stade Rennes played the first of its two away Ligue 1, AJ Auxerre played its second consecutive home game. This series didn’t end on a positive way for Laurent Fournier’s players, since Auxerre lost both matches against Lille (1-3) and then Rennes (0-1).
Currently, just as in Rennes, the big dilemma of Auxerre is to find a balance between attacking and defensive organisations. Laurent Fournier already chose: «We are at our level, we saw it from time to time, we have to hurt ourselves to creating attacking opportunities , the coach pointed. We have to choose: either we play lower and we are dead ly boring, or we try to play forward in order to create chances, but we will lose some matches like tonight. I will not change my way to see football, and we will lose more games ».

- Stade Rennes, the best team on the road:
With twelve points (out of twenty-one) gained on the road, Stade Rennes is more successful away than at home, where it is remains undefeated nevertheless. This number of points allows the club to be at the first position of L1’s away ranking, one point ahead of Paris, Lille and Montpeller (with the first two clubs having played one less away game).
«It is our fourth victory away, where we always have good abilities in attacking phases, Julien Féret explained. We finally play away just like at home. We try to not take any goal and in the same time, we bring the danger over to the opponent’s side. Then they are on the alert, under pressure, which allow us to take benefit from this situation, just like tonight».

- Rennes at the side of the podium:
With two successive victories in Ligue 1, Stade Rennes – which was ranked at the seventh position during the international break – won three positions and is now ranked fourth, one point away from the podium. Since the leading teams (PSG, Montpellier and Lille) keep a sustained pace, Frédéric Antonetti is satisfied with this victory which allow his team to stay «in contact with the L1 leaders ». Next week-end at the Stadium of Toulouse, Stade Rennes will have the opportunity to outdistance a direct opponent, currently in sixth position, two points behind the “Red and Black”. «If we let the leaders escape ahead, we do not know if we will be able to catch them back. We therefore have to take as much points as possible, since the season is long, with a lot of matches to play», Antonetti reminded.

- Source of declarations: ouest-france.fr, lequipe.fr, francefootball.fr
- Photo: srfc.frenchwill.fr