Home » News » principles, recruitment, prize list … The tactical moment of Antoine Kombouaré (Nantes)

principles, recruitment, prize list … The tactical moment of Antoine Kombouaré (Nantes)

On the occasion of the new issue of Onze Mondial, available on newsstands and on our online shop, Nantes coach Antoine Kombouaré talks about his job as a coach. The opportunity to return in particular to his philosophy, to recruitment or to his precarious condition as a coach. Extracts.

On his playing philosophy

“I like to attack, contrary to what one might think. It doesn’t necessarily mean having the ball. Ideally, we would all like to be like Guardiola, but I’ve stopped dreaming. I like having a team capable of creating dangers, of moving forward, of scoring goals. This is what drives me. I have coached many teams that were struggling to keep up: Guingamp, Lens, Toulouse, Dijon… When I arrive in Nantes we are in difficulty, we play in order not to go down. But it is not because we are less strong than others that we should only think about defending. For example, in Valenciennes, we were able to create exploits. We were in a very difficult situation until recently, so we won seven games out of fourteen. We won against PSG, at the Parc. We are in trouble, but we play to win games. I hate to see my teams only think about defense. It is not possible. “

On the charts

“Yes. You can, but today’s football is:” What is your record? “. Let’s talk about legitimacy, unfortunately that’s all. Guardiola, Ancelotti, Deschamps, have trophies at home. I, I have a small resume, don’t worry. But in clubs like Nantes, Dijon, Guingamp, keeping up is like a trophy. Set your goals for the club you lead. When I get here and we manage to keep the club, it’s a trophy for me. It is practically a miracle. Me, I do my job. After I am happy because I have been here for a while and I continue to work, people continue to trust me. The hardest thing is to last. A career is judged by time. It is the most important. “

On the certainty of being fired

“This is the first thing I had in mind when I decided to do this job. It’s my twentieth year as a coach, I’ve never had to go to the labor courts. I accepted the rule from the beginning: come and at any time you can be fired. From there, I have zero worries. In Strasbourg I am a year and a half, the first season is going really well. After three months, the second season, the team is in trouble, Marc Keller comes to see me and says: “We are asking ourselves some questions and we have decided to withdraw the team from you”. I said: “Don’t worry. I have a contract, you pay me what I have left, we shake hands.” And I add: “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work, I’m grateful, but it’s up to you.” it’s important to do things well. Life goes on. Me, I’m just passing through, the job doesn’t belong to me.

On recruiting

“It depends on the clubs. Normally, there is a lot of research work on the player, on the man. Mine is a technical opinion. I look at the quality of the player. Once we’ve worked on it, let’s look at what it’s humanly worth. When you recruit, you spend a lot of money, so you have to try to limit the risks. The main feature we will be looking for is whether it will enter the system and make us win games. “

Find the complete interview with Antoine Kombouaré, Nantes coach, on newsstands and on our online shop.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.