Monaco were unable to give new coach Philippe Clement a winning start to his tenure with the principality club as they could only pick up a point with a goaless draw at Nantes on Sunday.
THE MATCH
Clement, who replaced Niko Kovac ahead of Monaco's first Ligue 1 Uber Eats outing of 2022, had said he wanted "a dominant team", and with Wissam ben Yedder among those sidelined by COVID-19 or injury, he sought to find that with Caio Henrique — usually a left-back — employed in an unfamiliar playmaker role.
The Brazilian slotted in alongside Sofiane Diop behind Kevin Volland, and the three teamed up to provide Diop with the game's first opportunity — the stylish young midfielder saw his low effort kicked away by Alban Lafont (5'). Nantes, who came into the game having won their last three league matches, responded with the ever-enterprising Ludovic Blas forcing Alexander Nübel into a stop at the opposite end (7').
Diop wasted two good chances — heading one wide (13') and fizzing a drive off target (24') — before Clement was called on to shuffle his pack earlier than he would have liked with Djibril Sidibé forced off with injury and replaced by Ruben Aguilar with barely half-an-hour gone (31').
Randal Kolo Muani is one of the French top-flight's most sought-after prospects, and the Nantes forward showed why when he burst into the box, played a neat one-two with Samuel Moutoussamy before another January transfer window favourite, Benoît Badiashile, produced a desperate but impeccably timed tackle (32').
The towering centre-back was then forced off with injury before half-time (41') as Clement's best-laid plans were ripped by the fates. Better finishing by Blas would have added to the ex-Club Brugge tactician's concerns, but he wasted Roli Pereira de Sa's excellent approach work by firing over (50').
Volland was also wasteful (52') before Pedro Chirivella's long-range effort brought Nübel into action — the on-loan Bayern Munich goalkeeper leaping to his right to push out the Spanish midfielder's shot (57').
Blas fired over (58') as Nantes dominated, but were unable to find the breakthrough; Monaco subsitute Myron Boadu should have provided it after being teed up by fellow subsitute, new signing Vanderson, but the Dutch striker dragged his effort across goal (77').
THE PLAYER: Alexander Nübel
The German goalkeeper has had his critics since arriving in France from Bayern this summer, but produced one of his best displays in a Monaco shirt to earn his team a point. Could 2022 be the year we see his full potential come to fruition?
THE STAT: 4
This was only the fourth time in 14 top-flight matches since Nantes returned to Ligue 1 Uber Eats in 2013/14 that they have avoided defeat against Monaco. Les Canaris have won just one of those encounters.
Elsewhere, with Montpellier's home game against Troyes postponed due to a COVID-19 cluster at the latter club, there were only two other matches on Sunday afternoon. Strasbourg had Ludovic Ajorque's tenth league goal of the season and a Jean-Eudes Ahoulou strike to thank for an Alsace-Lorraine derby win at Metz in the duo's 100th top-flight meeting — Reunion-born forward Ajorque struck five minutes into the second half while Ahoulou found the net in added time to lift Strasbourg into eighth place in the table and leave Metz second-from-bottom.
Clermont and Reims played out a goalless draw that leaves the former just two points above the relegation places. Despite Clermont being reduced to ten men after the 13th-minute red card shown to Alidu Seidu for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity, Reims required a number of fine saves from goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic to extend their unbeaten run to four league matches.
