Noël, coal and control: Strasbourg’s festive blip strikes again as Rosenior feels heat

As one of the few areas of France which celebrate Saint Nicholas Day, Alsace had festive processions and performances taking place across the region last Saturday. The travelling Strasbourg fans, though, were in no mood for a party on their way back from Toulouse after a third consecutive defeat.

“It’s not the time to panic,” Liam Rosenior insisted after his Strasbourg team failed to find a response to Emersonn’s early opener for Les Violets. “We have to stay consistent and keep working hard. I won’t change our style of play, because it’s brought us success.”

The Englishman’s tactical persistence, while commendable, does leave his young team struggling to break down low blocks once they go behind. Having failed to register a shot on target all match, the Alsatians were visibly short of invention as the injury-related absences of Valentín Barco and Abdoul Ouattara noticeably weakened them.

“The players need to take accountability when you have that much control,” Rosenior lamented, while also taking his own share of the blame for the result. “Now, I want to see what my squad is made of in terms of character and desire to come back from a difficult moment.”

On 6 December, Alsatian children are traditionally either brought gifts by Saint Nicholas or coal by the Père Fouettard, depending on their behaviour over the year. At Strasbourg, the proverbial coal was given to Emmanuel Emegha, who was suspended by the club for the weekend for failing to “respect the values, expectations, and rules of the club”.

The captain had already irritated the Stade de la Meinau faithful over the announcement of his move to Chelsea next summer. Several ill-judged media appearances have since added to their frustration, with the striker notably making a geographical faux pas while on international duty with the Netherlands last month.

Emanuel Emegha will join Chelsea from Strasbourg at the end of the season. Photograph: Dave Winter/Shutterstock

“I thought it was in Germany, but it turned out to be in France. Well, I think everyone knows Strasbourg now,” Emegha proclaimed regarding his move to Strasbourg, raising eyebrows both at the club and within the fanbase. “I know I need to do better,” the forward recognised after his one-game suspension was announced this week. “I will do better on and off the pitch to represent the club. It’s important to me.”

The ultras’ protests against the club’s ownership have somewhat died down since the start of the season, although fears that Strasbourg could be reduced to a mere feeder club to Chelsea remain at the forefront.

Emegha is not the only player to have fallen foul of a tougher approach in the club’s management of its young squad. Félix Lemaréchal, the young attacking midfielder who impressed during last season’s run-in, has only been in the squad for one of the last five league games. The 22-year-old’s performances so far this season have ostensibly been below expectations, with Rosenior explaining last month that Lemaréchal had “several aspects of his game to improve on”.

The No 10’s absence would not necessarily have been felt a month ago, given Joaquín Panichelli’s explosive start to the season during which he scored nine goals in 10 games. Since then, though, the Argentina international has gone through a five-match goalless run. “I felt sorry for him, because his movement was excellent but we couldn’t find him,” Rosenior pointed out.

While qualifying for the Champions League seemed a realistic objective only a few weeks ago, Strasbourg are now in danger of dropping out of the race for Europe entirely. Some unconvincing game management, with 11 points dropped from winning positions this season, has laid bare the team’s inexperience and reliance on a handful of key players.

“We have to have more points on the board,” Rosenior recognised on Saturday. While the team remain on track to beat last year’s points total, there is a sense that the return on the summer’s €100m-plus investment should be greater.

It would be too early to conclude that cracks are starting to appear in the BlueCo project, not least given the Alsatians bounced back from a similar run of form this time last year. Events on and off the pitch, though, are increasingly testing the goodwill fans have afforded the club’s relationship with the Premier League side.

Talking points

• Khvicha Kvaratskhelia turned in his best performance since arriving in Paris, scoring a double and tormenting wing-back Przemysław Frankowski throughout the champions’ 5-0 thrashing of Rennes. It wasn’t enough forPSG to reclaim top spot, though, as Lens continued their unexpected title charge by leaving it late to beat Nantes.
  

• Pierre Sage, the northerners’ head coach, believes this could be their year. “If we keep this energy going, we’ll continue to exist and challenge,” he told L’Équipe. Led by an increasingly confident Florian Thauvin, the Sang et Or will end the calendar year top if they beat Nice next weekend.

Florian Thauvin scored against Nantes to continue his excellent form for Lens. Photograph: Stéphane Mahé/Reuters

• Last week, French football journalist Christophe Gleizes was handed a seven-year prison sentence in Algeria on charges of “glorifying terrorism” for being in contact with a club official of JS Kabylie who is also a member of the region’s pro-autonomy movement. Gleizes, who writes for monthly magazine So Foot, had been arrested in May 2024 while reporting on the Tizi Ouzou-based club, Algeria’s most successful team in terms of domestic titles. The LFP, the governing body for France’s professional leagues, released a statement underlining its support for the “fundamental principles of justice, freedom and freedom of expression”, and calling for the journalist’s release. The call was echoed by several Ligue 1 clubs before this weekend’s action, including PSG, Lyon, Nantes, and Lens. In a rare show of unity, French football as a whole has shown support for Gleizes, with the FFF, the French players’ union and the various journalists’ unions also releasing statements. While on a state visit in China, Emmanuel Macron described the sentence as “excessive and unfair”, adding that he was hoping for a “favourable outcome” to the situation.