Ligue 1 Review | Doom and gloom as Metz and Nantes circle the drop

The sound of a church bell rang out at the Stade Saint-Symphorien as AC/DC’s Hells Bells blared from the FC Metz PA system. Les Grenats familiar entrance music is intended to pump up the crowd, but it took on a more funereal tone on Sunday afternoon as they entered the field alongside the yellow shirts of FC Nantes. It was hard not to shake the image of two struggling teams making the long walk to their open graves. 

Ninety minutes of football did little to dispel that notion with a goalless stalemate, despite Tylel Tati’s 39th-minute red card. It’s been a miserable season for the two clubs as they circle the drop down into Ligue 2. Metz sit bottom of the table on 15 points with Nantes just ahead of them on 18. Already, it feels as if the relegation race has been solved with six games left of the season, with AJ Auxerre pulling slowly away in the playoff spot with a five-point buffer. 

Nantes do have a game in hand, although that’s against league leaders Paris Saint-Germain. I don’t need to look up the latest odds to tell you that Nantes should probably expect that five-point buffer to remain in place once they’ve played their rescheduled game. 

Squad composition exacerbates psychological problems at Nantes

Last month, Nantes made history when they appointed Vahid Halilhodzic in their relegation fight. The Bosnian, who had been out of work since 2022, is the oldest manager to take the reins of a Ligue 1 side at 73 years old. Nantes have history of appointing elder statesmen, and it felt obvious that the management hoped experience would be enough to guide the club out of their current quagmire. However, that doesn’t feel enough this time around. 

After a promising defeat to RC Strasbourg (3-2), Halilhodzic seemed at a loss to explain the weekend’s performance. “Psychologically, there’s a real weakness,” He mused. “I’ve said it before, but since arriving, I’ve noticed the players don’t talk much. We need to shake things up, get everyone communicating, helping each other out. I’m working hard to try and improve that.” 

Squad composition certainly doesn’t help this. Ten of the first team squad are out of contract or return to their parent club at the end of the season, while the prospective sales of talents like Tati and Mathis Abline will become necessary if the club is to offset the financial cost of relegation. To put it simply, no wonder there are psychological problems when so much of the squad doesn’t have survival at stake. 

Last flickers of hope die out at Metz

Benoit Tavenot faces a similar dilemma at Metz with a squad that seemed consigned to relegation even before the season began. A former assistant with Les Grenats between 2019 and 2022, he came in midway through the campaign for Stéphane Le Mignan, but has done little to change their fortunes. Since replacing Le Mignan in late January, Tavenot has seen his side lose seven and draw three. 

Ahead of the match on Sunday, he gave a frank assessment of his side, saying, “It is a nightmare! I have tried many things and I have been criticised, too, but my biggest regret is not having completely convinced [my team] to believe in staying up… We can’t hide from it: we have to win, no matter how, in order to give ourselves any hope.”

The cruel thing for Tavenot is that in the fifth minute of added time, he likely still thought there was hope left in this season when local lad Gauthier Hein tucked home what could have been the winner, only for VAR to rule him offside. It was a matter of millimetres, something that wouldn’t have been spotted in a previous era. 

It was crushingly inevitable, like this season in microcosm. If the white flag wasn’t visible before, that moment certainly made sure that it was raised high for even the last remaining believer to see. As the poet T.S. Eliot once wrote, “April is the cruellest month.” 

This week’s Ligue 1 sub-plots

• It’s hard not to think the Ligue 1 title race was settled on Saturday evening when RC Lens lost 3-0 in the Derby du Nord to Lille OSC. The defeat leaves Les Sang et Or potentially seven points adrift of PSG, with the league leaders still to play Nantes (see above why I think it’ll probably be seven). Read how it happened HERE.

• AS Monaco’s win over Olympique de Marseille on Sunday night has blown open the UEFA Champions League race. Lille sit third, Marseille fourth, Monaco fifth, but level on points with Marseille, while Olympique Lyonnais are a point behind, and Stade Rennais a point behind them. It’s turning into an all-out brawl for the remaining spots. Read more HERE. 

• OGC Nice are in dire straits following their 3-1 defeat to RC Strasbourg Alsace. While automatic relegation seems unlikely, only a four-point buffer separates them from Auxerre. The club’s co-president called his side “Catastrophic” in a damning indictment. Read the full quotes HERE.