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ESPNsoccernet - Europe - Marshall: Blanc going down well at Bordeaux

DAVID BELLION IS STILL ALIVE!!!!

When the less-than-fickle footballing fates threw together Laurent Blanc and Bordeaux, a fevered rush of excitement must have raced through sports newsrooms around France at the prospect of the host of oven-ready puns that appointment spawned.


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Man Utd fans look away now: Laurent Blanc signed David Bellion in July - and it's paid off.

'Bordeaux' is, traditionally, synonymous with red wine, while Blanc - for the less linguistically gifted - means 'white,' and the sports press have - much to their credit - run through the gambit of the glaringly obvious, bar the French equivalent of 'Blanc corks it up.'

That's because, while not quite a vintage just yet, Bordeaux has yet to experience a hangover during the former Manchester United defender's first foray into football management.

After Sunday's comprehensive 3-0 win over Paris St. Germain, 'Le President' and his side lie second in the table - just three points behind Lyon, and look as though they may take the title race past Easter for the first time since Karim Benzema played in France's under-11 league.

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas - in a tired piece of kidology which fooled no-one - even claimed last week that Bordeaux are 'favourites' for the title, reasoning that as they no longer have Europe to worry about after their recent pitiful UEFA Cup exit to Anderlecht, they can focus all their energies on purely domestic chores.

Aulas is conveniently overlooking the fact that Lyon are also likely to be able to tuck away their passports for another year come the middle of this week, but that he can even feasibly make such a statement is a startling phenomenon in France after six years of Lyon-opoly.

In fact, Bordeaux finished second only two years ago under Ricardo, a Brazilian about as samba-esque as Stockport. However, coming up 15 points shy of Lyon at the finish gave the sense that they were very much the 'best of the rest.'

Ricardo - now at Monaco - could justifiably argue that the Lyon of two years' ago was a far more fearsome prospect than Alain Perrin's current crop. But there is the feeling that, under Blanc, les Girondins are being rebuilt on the ethos that saw Sylvain Wiltord et ak win them the title back in 1999 and could see them mature into Lyon's first genuine challengers since Didier Deschamps' Monaco in 2004.

While Ricardo produced ultra-defensive line-ups that beat opponents by dimming their wits rather than outwitting them, Blanc - a defender more associated with culture than clogging - has fashioned a side in his own image, and the players - like escaped convicts - are revelling in their new-found freedom.

'It's like a big release, we feel like we are allowed to do our job and play football again,' said parolee David Jemmali of Blanc's modus operandi earlier in the season. 'When Ricardo was here, even the strikers were defenders.'

There is not too much danger of that under Blanc, who immediately abandoned the 4-5-1 of his over-cautious predecessor to install a 4-4-2 habitually on the front foot and spearheaded by the familiar features of David Bellion - well, 'familiar' if you were a regular at Manchester United reserve team fixtures a couple of years ago.

Blanc's departure from Old Trafford in 2003, Premiership winners' medal in hand to go alongside the World Cup and Euro 2000 gongs, coincided with Bellion's arrival from Sunderland, which means the former international never got to see his pacy but headless-young-chicken of a compatriot bullying Northwich Vics in the Lancashire Senior Cup.

However, Blanc - like Peter Reid, Sir Alex Ferguson and unlike your average football fan - clearly spied something in Bellion that appealed, and he has been handsomely proved right since taking him off Nice's hands in the close season.

Before his form, like a New Year's Day bather, took a dip after Christmas, Bellion was France's second-top scorer - behind Benzema - with 11 goals, and though he is still stuck on that figure, his all-round displays have provoked cooing praise from public, press and - most importantly - Blanc.

“ When Ricardo was here, even the strikers were defenders. ”
— David Jemmali

Like all good managers, Blanc has also had a happy knack of marrying his own sound judgement with simple, blind luck, stumbling across the unpolished diamond that is Fernando Cavenaghi, a hirsute Argentine striker left in the back of a training ground drawer by the former regime.

Plucked from Spartak Moscow in January 2007, the 24-year-old looked out of his depth in the handful of games he played under Ricardo, and started this campaign as Silver to Bellion and Marouane Chamakh's Lone Ranger and Tonto.

But Chamakh disappearing for a month-long holiday with Morocco at the African Cup of Nations proved the catalyst for Cavenaghi, who has compensated for Bellion's goal-drought by poaching 8 goals in seven starts since the winter break.

A fly in the ointment is Cavenaghi's penchant for cards, of the 'yellow' rather than 'Michael Owen poker school' variety, which has helped Bordeaux to second-from-bottom in the Fair Play table and - far more significantly - is likely to deprive Blanc of one of his most potent weapons come 'squeaky bum time'.

Blanc, an intelligent and eloquent philosopher on the game on his rare sorties into media land, has also employed his man-management skills and tactical changes to coax a final hurrah from the dying embers of Johan Micoud's career.

Known as the 'Zidane of the Weser' in his Bremen days, the 34-year-old, back at the club where he first flourished and won the title eight years ago, had become the target of abuse from the habitually docile Stade Chaban-Delmas crowd after a series of anonymous performances last season.

That he was often played out of position by Ricardo escaped the attention of most, but Blanc has sensibly opted to employ his former international team-mate in his favoured central position just behind the front two à la Zidane, where Micoud has proved a calming and effective influence.

Coupled with the Brazilian Wendel - who notched an impressive hat-trick in the defeat of PSG - on the left and either Fernando Menegazzo or Alejandro Alonso on the right of a diamond-shaped midfield, Blanc's Bordeaux can boast the second most potent attack in France, again behind Lyon.

However, while Blanc's Bordeaux possesses an excellent finish, it is the notes of defensive frailty which could fatally undermine their title ambitions this season.

The use of Micoud means there is just one holding midfielder in Blanc's diamond, a role Alou Diarra has filled admirably since joining from Lyon in the close season.


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Wendel: Brazilian midfielder scored a hat-trick against PSG as Bordeaux kept the pace with Lyon.

The World Cup finalist spent more time whinging to the press than playing on the pitch in an ill-advised season at Lyon, but has flourished under Blanc, more than filling the hole left by Rio Mavuba's departure by putting in the sort of displays which had him earmarked as the next Patrick Vieira at his first club, Lens.

However, the support Diarra has received in snuffing out the opposition has been flimsier than a schoolboy's excuse. The loss of the athletic Julien Faubert to West Ham, compensated for by the additions of Lille cast-off Mathieu Chalmé and former Charlton man Souleymane Diawara has predictably failed to reinforce Blanc's ageing back four, which ranks as only the sixth best in the league.

That over-reliance on their attackers has left the side vulnerable when the front men have had an off-day, as capable of beating Monaco 6-0 - as they did in February - as losing 5-0 to Caen, a feat of underwhelming proportions achieved in November.

Blanc needs to spend his summer trying to blow his paltry summer transfer stash on shoring up his defence and keep his digits crossed that his strikers can repeat their form of this season come the next campaign.

Sunday's encounter with Lyon should give Blanc an inkling of just how much tinkering is still to be done, but there is every sign that Bordeaux and their boss - like a good wine - will simply get better with age.

[Dirtycheat]

is this some sort of early april fool's joke?

first forlan gets golden boot just after he left us and now bellion has scored 11 goals.

Im truly shocked.

It's great to see former united players doing well. How many of fergie's ex players have become managers now?

[.aK122]

Ive always like Laurent Blanc tbh. Was always a very composed defender and i wish him all the best with his managerial career.

Bellion on the other hand...

[funkdoctorspock]

Bellion has been an absolute monster in Ligue 1 this season.

He always had pace. But his skills are now catching up. If Bordeaux are able to finish in a CL place, I'm interested to see how they do next season in the competition.

From the matches I've been able to see of Bourdeaux play (3 or 4), they play some fluid attacking football. Its actually similiar to United's style of play. Just minus the quality players.