Rennes-Reims preview: Stéphan back to boost Rennes

>> LIVE TEXT COMMENTARY, STATISTICS AND SCORING 

Rennes have slipped into the lower half of the table following a run of just one win in their last 11 Ligue 1 Uber Eats matches, and Bruno Genesio decided to step down from his role as first-team coach during the November break. 

That led to Stéphan returning to the club where he had spent nine years, progressing from youth academy coach to first-team boss and winning the 2018/19 Coupe de France before leaving in 2021. Following an 18-month spell at Strasbourg, Stéphan is back in the city where he was born, and with work to do following the dispiriting 1-0 home loss to struggling Lyon before the international break.

WATCH: Rennes lose out to Lyon

“It’s been an intense, busy, passionate week. There’s a lot of things to do, talking to a lot of people, and it’s also been a little particular, because we started the week with half a squad and we have little by little got the internationals back with us,” said Stéphan, who is without the suspended Guela Doué and Warmed Omari.

“We were only really able to start preparing the game on Friday, to present a project to the squad and telling them what we want to put in place. We have had two days to get our message across by being pragmatic, by sticking to the important things.”

Reims are hardly the ideal visitors to Brittany as far as Stéphan is concerned. Will Still’s men are without defeat in five top-flight games ‘on the road’, and despite their 3-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain last time out, the 20 points they have accumulated in their opening 12 games represents a club record.

WATCH: Reims are beaten by Mbappé-inspired PSG

Following the summer departure of Folarin Balogun, who scored 21 league goals last season while on loan from Arsenal, Reims have shared the goals around with midfield trio Teddy Teuma, Marshall Munetsi and Amir Richardson contributing 14 goal involvements, which is more than the squad’s four forwards: Junya Ito, Mohamed Daramy, Oumar Diakité, and Keito Nakamura.

“We have needed to find different solutions with quality players capable of creating danger in various areas,” explained Still, who remains without injured teenage midfielder Valentin Atangana and on-loan Manchester City defender Josh Wilson-Esbrand. 

“When Amir and Teddy came in this summer, they quickly understood that they were coming into a real family that goes forward together. They have the DNA of what we want to put in place, and we keep telling them that we are ‘only’ Stade de Reims and that the team comes before everything else.”

Probable teams

Rennes: Mandanda (cap.); Wooh, Theate, Belocian; Bourigeaud, Matic, Le Fée, Truffert; Gouiri (or Blas), Kalimuendo, Terrier.

Reims: Diouf; Foket, Agbadou, Okumu, Abdelhamid (cap.), De Smet; Matusiwa, Teuma, Munetsi; Ito, Daramy.

>> OPINION: The job facing Stéphan in Rennes