Football Season Guide

Now in their fourth successive season in the top flight, Angers are beginning to establish themselves as a Ligue 1 side. However, they will be acutely aware that their finishing position has become increasingly lowly over the course of the last three years, starting at ninth and dropping to 14th last term, when they picked up only 41. As such, head coach Stephane Moulin will be under no illusion that improvements have to be made over the coming campaign. With a reputation as being a direct, physical side, they have once again suffered a major blow in losing top scorer Karl Toko-Ekambi, who made a big-money move to Villarreal after a prolific season. As such, there is significant pressure on Stephane Bahoken to replicate his goal tally. While he is coming off a good campaign with Strasbourg, he would not seem to possess the potential of scoring 15-20 in a season and really needs more support than Angers can give him at present. To further highlight the problem, only Flavien Tait otherwise scored more than three Ligue 1 goals. The arrival of Harrison Manzala from Amiens is a start, but hardly revolutionises a team that has lost a good deal of depth and quality in the forward areas of the park. The experienced Vincent Pajot has arrived and can shore up the midfield, which wasn’t as strong as the coach would have wished last season, while the defence remains untouched. The back four was an area Angers would have expected to fare better in last term, with Romain Thomas having an uncharacteristically shaky season.