Pre-Season Preview: OGC Nice

Blog written by ad_wilkin
Published: 8th August 2024 11:41

One last game before Portman Road hosts Premier League football once again. The visitors this time a Ligue 1 side Nice, who finished fifth last season securing Europa League football in the new format that will come into place this season.

The manager who achieved that feat, Francesco Farioli, is no longer with the club having left to join Ajax over the summer. He has been replaced by former RC Lens manager Franck Haise who two seasons ago missed out on the French title by one point to PSG.

His record at Lens is pretty impressive reading with 79 wins and 46 draws in 167 games. Haise is flexible with his tactics but did play with a back three at Lens, something he looks to be trying to implement in pre-season games so far.

This will be a switch up from last season where Nice often played a 4-3-3. Their pre-season so far has consisted of three 2-2 draws against Lausaune, Leganes and Rizespor and a 3-2 victory over Leece most recently.

<h1>Goalkeepers </h1>

Twenty-four-year-old Pole Marcin Bulka played all 34 league games last season and is set to come into this one as Nice’s number one. He only conceded 29 goals last season, making 77 saves and coming away with a goals prevented rate of +2. One factor behind that was his penalty saving abilities, keeping out three of eight spot-kicks faced in the Ligue 1 season.

His early career was spent in Chelsea’s academy before moving to PSG. Unable to break through there, he moved to Nice in 2022 and hasn’t looked back.

His back-up is Maxime Dupe who signed from Anderlecht in January but failed to make an appearance.

<h1>Defenders </h1>

Forty-year-old Dante must be one of the oldest footballers still playing at the highest level having started 32 games last season. He has played in 572 league games across spells with Lille, Charleroi, Wolfsburg, Standard Liege, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Bayern Munich and Nice and has ten major trophies to show for it.

Despite his age, he is showing no signs of slowing down with his excellent reading of the game meaning his positioning is always spot on and he rarely gets caught out.

With an older defender it’s important to have pace alongside them and Nice have that balance with Jean-Clair Todibo. The 24-year-old was signed by Barcelona as a youngster but never made the breakthrough there only making five appearances for the Spanish side.

While he was there, he spent time on loan at Schalke and Benfica before finding a home in Nice. Whenever a Premier League side is looking for a ball playing centre-back Todibo’s name is commonly linked. He ranked ninth in Ligue 1 for progressive passes and was second behind team mate Dante for total passes with 2,247.

That pair are currently the only two specialist centre-halves in the building for Nice so if Haise does want to stick with a back three a full-back is going to have to fill in.

So far in pre-season both Antoine Mendy and Melvin Bard have been used in that role. Twenty-year-old Frenchman Mendy is naturally a right-sided full-back and made ten appearances last season mainly from the bench.

Bard on the other hand was a regular at left-back playing 32 times. At 23 years old he’s got more experience than Mendy and is a more defensive player making more tackles and interceptions than any of his defensive teammates last season with 38 and 42 respectively.

He could easily fill in as a left sided centre-back if needed, especially if it becomes a hybrid role with Jeremie Boga playing deeper as a left wing-back as he did against Rizespor.

The right wing-back slot looks to be filled by new signing Jonathan Claus. Claus has an excellent season with Marseille last year playing in just that position. He ended up with three goals and four assists and was called up to the France squad for the Euros, scoring against Luxembourg in a warm-up game but not getting any minutes on the pitch during the tournament proper.

With Claus being given extra time off, Tom Louchet has been occupying that position in pre-season so far. The 21-year-old youth prospect made 13 appearances in his first season of senior football last season and will hope to provide valuable back-up as and when he’s needed this year.

The other option is last year's starting right-back Jordan Lotomba. The 25-year-old Swiss defender didn’t stand out in any particular metric and hasn’t featured in pre-season so far which could mean he’s on his way out of the club.

The last member of the defensive unit who we may see in this friendly is Ayoub Amraoui. The 20-year-old Moroccan spent the second half of last season out on loan at Amiens in Ligue 2 and struggled, he was on the bench against Rizespor but will largely be around to gain experience.

<h1>Midfield </h1>

There will be a bit of a change in the Nice midfield going into this season. Young Frenchman Kephrem Thuram has been sold to Juventus and Nice have moved for former Spurs midfielder Tanguy Ndombele as a replacement.

Ndombele spent last season out on loan at Galatasaray and once again struggled with injury problems which plagued his time at Tottenham. Given that, his signing is definitely a risk and Nice will be hoping he can overcome those injury problems and replicate his form from his days at Lyon.

Competing with him in midfield is another former Premier League player in Morgan Sanson. Sanson, who was on loan from Aston Villa last season, has made that move permanent this summer. He was only ever a bit part player in the Premier League but started 24 games in Ligue 1 last year.

He was the most attacking of Nice’s midfielders but those numbers are still low with two goals and three assists. Nice only scored 40 goals last season (sixth lowest in the league) and their high league position was very much built off defensive stability which Sanson’s work rate will help with once again.

Playing alongside Sanson in pre-season so far has been Pablo Rosario. The 26-year-old Dutchman made 30 appearances last season and is another hard-working runner in midfield. He had no goal contributions but his 29 interceptions were the highest of all of his midfield team mates.

Also in that midfield unit are Algerian Hicham Boudaoui and Burundian Youssof Ndayishimiye. Boudaoui has been at Nice since 2019 and made 22 appearances last season, usually on the right-hand side of a midfield three but he also has the ability to cover right-back at a push.

Ndayishimiye is a more recent signing having arrived from Turkish side Basaksehir in January 2023. He made 23 appearances last season, often as the most defensive central midfielder of a midfield three as well as covering at centre-back on occasion. Where the pair will play in this new formation remains to be seen.

<h1>Forwards </h1>

Jeremie Boga might be a familiar name to some. The Ivorian was a Chelsea youth prospect who spent a season on loan at Birmingham back in 2017/18. He didn’t make the cut at Stamford Bridge but was sold for a decent fee to Sassuolo.

He went on to make 102 appearances for the Italian side before another move to Atalanta from whom he signed for Nice in July 2023.

His first season back in France (he had a loan at Stade Rennais as a Chelsea youngster) was a success with six goals and six assists in 29 appearances playing as an inverted left winger.

He’s not afraid to take on his man, can either cut inside or go down the line and scored an incredible solo goal against AS Monaco, receiving the ball just over the halfway line and utilising his pace and tremendous close control to leave a bunch of defenders for dead and drill home from just inside the box. He’d be a perfect fit for Ipswich’s current inside left position.

Boga is 27 years old now but Nice have a bright French prospect who could complement him on the other side in Mohamed Ali-Cho. The youngster was signed from Real Sociedad in January this year and started 11 games in the second half of last season.

With half a season of game time under his belt this season could well be his breakout. He got two goals and an assist in Nice’s recent friendly against Liefering and was unplayable in that game.

He’ll definitely get chances this pre-season with fellow right winger Aliou Balde at the Olympics with Guinea, meaning his main competition will be Gaetan Laborde.

Laborde has spent the majority of his career in Ligue 1 and has 77 goals in 269 games. He joined Nice in 2022 and despite playing as a striker for the majority of his career spent most of last season on the right wing.

This hampered his goalscoring ability with only six goals in 38 games but was clearly a position where he was considered to bring the most to the team.

There are two Algerian forwards on the fringes of the squad. Billal Brahimi who spent last season on loan at Stade Brestois but didn’t impress and 19-year-old right-winger Badredine Bouanani who also spent last season out on loan with Lorient. His form towards the end of the season was good and he scored in the last game of the season as Lorient beat Clermont 5-0.

Sofiane Diop is another player that could be consider for the forward roles but is still out with a long-term foot injury that saw him miss the bulk of last season. He’s still yet to feature in pre-season.

That leaves two other players competing with Laborde for the central striking role, Ivoirian Evann Guessand and Nigerian Terem Moffi.

It was Moffi who started more games last season starting 23 and scoring 11 goals but it’s a position that Nice have depth with Guessand also chipping in with six goals in 14 starts and a bunch more appearances off the bench as he’d often finish games that Moffi started.

Moffi is a strong runner and very comfortable receiving the ball to feet. He doesn’t win many aerial duels but is great at holding off defenders and flicking balls in to runners in behind. He also has a penchant for the odd bicycle kick here and there. Stylistically he is similar to a Romelu Lukaku or a Jean Phillipe Mateta at Crystal Palace.

Guessand shares some of those attributes but is a far more accomplished dribbler, capable of spinning in behind and getting to the byline. He’s not afraid to take on a defender and also possesses a very good stutter step penalty.

<h1>The Teams </h1>

This is the final game for both teams before their respective seasons commence so will in theory be as close to the line-up for the season kick off as possible.

There is no doubt that new signing Aro Muric will go into the season as Town’s number one. Some of his passing shown in the previous two friendlies has been unbelievable with a number of passes, including one outside of the boot one, clipped into Omari Hutchinson and Liam Delap against Hoffenheim.

At right-back, Ben Johnson has a lot of pre-season minutes under his belt so we might get another look at Axel Tuanzebe in that position. My money would be on the latter with his excellent one on one defending ability starting against Liverpool as long as he’s fit.

In central defence, there was a switch of pairings with Jacob Greaves swapping to play with Luke Woolfenden and George Edmundson playing with Cameron Burgess. I think we’re likely to see a half each of both of those pairings again.

Town finally have specialised left-back cover for Leif Davis in Conor Townsend. Townsend is an experienced head and brings a bit more Premier League experience to a squad that is light on it. He didn’t miss many games for West Brom last season and got four assists in a far more defensive side than Town. Davis will again likely start this one but Townsend will hope to get minutes as well.

In midfield we’ve seen Sam Morsy-Jack Taylor and Sam Morsy-Massimo Luongo partnerships, so it could be either of those starting at Portman Road unless there is a new signing in the door.

With George Hirst out injured, Delap will lead the line again with a trio of Wes Burns, Conor Chaplin and Hutchinson likely to be behind him.

For Nice it looks like the 3-4-2-1 formation is being used. Boga will play as an attacking left winger with the more defensive wing-back Louchet on the right-hand side. I really like Cho but with this being the last game for the season proper I think it will be a more senior front three that will start.

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