After seeing life in rosy colors during the 2022-2023 season, Toulouse is now brooding. During the previous financial year, Téfécé had achieved one of the greatest feats in its history, by capturing the Coupe de France at the end of a final won 5 goals to 2 against Nantes, while securing its retention early in the season.
Quite the opposite of this year, which sees them fighting more to keep their place in the elite. This Wednesday evening against PSG, Carles Martinez Novelle’s men hope to win a second title in two years, and find a smile again.
Last year, when Philippe Montanier was still at the helm of the Toulouse group, Téfécé finished the season in thirteenth place in the French championship, then made up of twenty teams. With 48 points on the clock, the Rose city club was 17 points ahead of the play-off team, Ajaccio. But those days now seem far away. This season, Toulouse completed its first leg with only fourteen points, and occupies the place of two points behind Olympique Lyonnais, fifteenth.
Also read: Champions Trophy: “Mission impossible? No,” says Toulouse coach Martinez Novell
But apart from the ranking, it is the dynamics that worry. Toulouse have not won a match since October 1, and a success against Metz (3-0). Since then, they have gone nine matches without a victory, currently the worst series in the championship. More worrying, the defeats against direct competitors such as Lyon, Lorient, Metz and Le Havre do not bode well.
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An alarming observation, but which did not seem to worry Carles Martinez Novell after the defeat against Lyon (3-0) on December 10: “When you don’t win, you have to stay positive. Relations between us are good. We must continue to fight. I feel that the team is playing together, working well and the feeling is good. But we can’t get the results we’re looking for.” One thing is certain, it will be necessary to fight a lot to hope to bring down PSG on Wednesday.
With only fifteen goals scored in seventeen Ligue 1 matches, Toulouse is the seventeenth worst attack in the championship. And this has been seen in previous days: they have only scored once in their last three matches. The fault lies with attackers whose performance has dropped drastically, like Thijs Dallinga who was flamboyant at the start of the season. Performances which earned him a call-up to the Dutch selection, but which he has had difficulty repeating in recent times. A real problem, all the more so given his importance in leading his team: with five goals scored, he scored a third of Toulouse’s goals.
As for the recruits who have come to compensate for the numerous departures this summer, they are currently struggling to get up to speed. Aaron Donnum, who is one of the most expensive recruits in the history of Téfécé (4.5 million euros), has only scored one goal since his arrival. Only Franck Magri manages to relieve his attacking partner, thanks to four goals. Last season, at the beginning of February, Toulouse was the best attack in Europe with thirty goals scored. A comparison that hurts, but which can also give hope for an offensive revival of the Violets. Why not tomorrow ?
This season, the fashionable hit from the Pink City would rather be the Ode to Joy, the European anthem, than the Marseillaise. Indeed, the residents of the Stadium occupy the front of the European scene more than the national one. Qualified for the Europa League play-offs thanks to its victory last year in the Coupe de France, Toulouse achieved the feat of getting out of a group at a very high level, fourteen years after its last appearance in the European Cup. .
For their first match, they went for a draw away against Union Saint-Gilloise. But it was at home that they impressed. Led by the fervor of the purple people, they managed to bring down the ogre Liverpool at the end of a breathtaking scenario (3-2), and definitively validated their ticket by winning in Austria against LASK. They thus demonstrated that they were capable of raising their level in high-stakes matches, and causing problems for any team. So after knocking out Mohammed Salah’s Reds in the Europa League, will they be able to catch Kylian Mbappé’s PSG in their hunt?