Football Season Guide

Returning to the Ligue 2 and professional football after 5 years spent in the Championat National, Red Star had a troubled past season, lacking consistency and displaying serious problems both defensively and offensively. In fact, they held one of the worst defences and attacks of the league. Nevertheless, despite winning games only occasionally, an injury crisis that heavily affected their defence and the lack of a prolific striker, they managed to finish on the 15th place, thus avoiding both straight relegation and the relegation playouts. Something rather unexpected, also considering that they failed to win any of the final 8 games. Coach Grégory Poirier, at his first season in charge, can be happy for the result obtained, especially since they also offered a good football at times. Red Star had a busy summer with 13 players leaving, while only 6 arrived so far. First of all, they renovated the goalkeeping department with starting Risser returning to his parent club and Avognan and Bonet released. If nobody else arrives, Beunardeau should thus regain starting status after losing it to the Strasbourg player midway through the past campaign. At the back, they lost starting right-back Fodé Doucouré, and he was not properly replaced yet. Starting centre-back Kouagba also left, together with injury-prone back-ups Meyapya and Mendy, from whom a lot more had been expected: versatile left-back/centre-back Huard arrived from Ajaccio but more players are needed, also considering that Rayan Doucouré and Danger are still recovering from injuries. The midfield saw starting Dembi and key attacking midfielder Ifnaoui, their top assistman, leaving. While the former was not replaced yet, they signed two possible alternatives for the latter in Trani, a non-entity at this level, and experienced Khaoui, returning to French football after a couple of seasons. Last but not least, the attack lost their top scorer Badji and back-up Fall, while Benali is still recovering from injury. None of the new arrivals, Hachem, who lacks any Ligue 2 experience, Ikanga and Anani, both returning from loans, seem to be prolific enough to solve their offensive problems, though.