Florian Sotoca has played in four different positions this season but has not missed a match: the Lensois striker is now part of the furniture but only Franck Haise knows where his centerpiece will play on Saturday against Paris SG in the 31st day of Ligue 1 .
Faced with Paris and its army of stars, Lens will present itself both as a dolphin and as a Petit Poucet, with its workforce without a star but with cohesion demonstrated many times over. A difference of philosophies perfectly illustrated by Florian Sotoca, “anti-hero” who was still playing in CFA (D4) at 26, with Grenoble.
After playing this season as center forward, second striker and right winger, the 32-year-old has been discovering yet another role for a few matches, that of right piston.
This “new life” began on March 18, against Angers.
That day, Franck Haise decided to renew the four-man defense which had shone the previous week in Clermont (4-0). But Lens is non-existent for 20 minutes, and the Blood and Gold coach decides to return to the three-man defense that has made the club so successful since the start of the season.
Initially aligned as a right winger, Sotoca then retreated into his lane. A new position for him.
“I know Florian’s game and tactical intelligence, I knew he would adapt to this situation”, reacts Franck Haise after the final whistle and his 3-0 victory. “He had a very good match,” congratulates his coach.
Tested and approved: in Rennes (1-0) then against Strasbourg (2-1), Sotoca evolves again in this role.
“He really has the qualities for that, for this position. This does not prevent him from also having the qualities and the intelligence to play higher”, greets Franck Haise again at a press conference on April 5.
“Higher”, precisely, Florian Sotoca has had trouble in recent months. After a brisk start to the season, marked by a hat-trick against Brest on the 1st day then a double against Lorient on the 5th, the tall striker (1.87m) experienced a long period of doubts, he who did not has scored more in the league since October 2.
Under such conditions, many attackers would have ended up on the bench.
But, and this is perhaps the best proof of his contribution to the Lensois game, Franck Haise preferred to push him back on the pitch rather than deprive himself of it in his starting 11.
It must be said that in matches, Sotoca is everywhere, from pressing to the surface, where his size has often allowed him to be at the reception of his teammates’ crosses.
In his new role, he is now the one who addresses these centres. With success.
In Rennes, in a shock in the fifth, he placed a millimeter ball on the head of Loïs Openda, who scored the only goal of the match there.
Against Strasbourg, it is again a cross from Sotoca which, repelled by an Alsatian defender, ends up at the feet of Facundo Medina. Which registers the goal of the break there.
“The inexhaustible, the inexhaustible, the tireless Florian Sotoca”, as the announcer de Bollaert describes it before each home game, has started 28 times in 30 Ligue 1 days, for two appearances.
When Lens plays, Sotoca is there. But at what position, his opponents now wonder.
