Kevin Volland scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 victory for AS Monaco against Red Star Belgrade at the Stade Louis II on Thursday, ensuring their progression to the knockout stages.
Prior to the clash against Red Star, dubbed a “final,” Monaco manager Philippe Clement said that it was important not to “calculate” and think about the different scenarios that could play out on the night. Whatever happened elsewhere, a win for Monaco was enough to send them through to the knockout stages of the Europa League for consecutive seasons.
It was immediately clear that Clement’s players had received the message. They immediately sought to put Red Star under pressure, and the pressure quickly told.
Caio Henrique’s sumptuous, pin-point delivery was met perfectly by the head of Kevin Volland, who nodded into an empty net with the goalkeeper caught in no man’s land.
A flurry of half-chances followed, Krépin Diatta had a shot saved, whilst Wissam Ben Yedder had the ball in the back of the net, only for the offside flag to deny the Frenchman.
Photo by Monaco Life.
The lead was doubled, and it was Volland again with the finish. Found on the edge of the box, his curling effort nestled into the bottom corner, the goalkeeper rooted to the spot.
There was no let-up after the break. Aleksandr Golovin, arguably Monaco’s most consistent and improved player this season, dribbled around the Red Star defence, before putting a shot across goal, which was diverted into the goal by the recovering Milan Rodić.
A rash Benoît Badiashile challenge in the box gave Red Star an unlikely route back into the match with Guélor Kanga stepping up to convert the resulting penalty. The Serbian side almost got a second, but VAR ruled out Aleksandar Pesić’s sliding finish.
After the Red Star scare, Monaco shored up their defence and thereafter looked unthreatened. The night was perfectly capped by Volland who secured his hat trick in the latter stages, his first in Monaco colours.
Clement’s comments
“There were those who said my team had problems in big matches. I’m happy my team showed otherwise. They were ready, and started with a good tempo, created chances, and played collectively and with aggression. The first half was very good, one of the best first halves during my time as manager here,” said Clement post-match.
He was also happy with his side’s mentality after conceding the goal that gave Red Star an unlikely route back into the match. “It was dangerous at this moment. We continued to play to score goals and create chances. It’s important with a young squad, who have received setbacks in the past months, to show that they have grown. I see a team that is growing every week,” Clement told Monaco Life.
Man of the match – Kevin Volland
The German has been a support act for much of the season so far, playing second-fiddle to Breel Embolo, who has hit the ground running. However, Volland made his case to start more regularly on Thursday. He met Henrique’s pin-point cross well, before doubling his account on the night with a technically adept, curling finish from the edge of the box.
His return to form is potentially pivotal not only for club, but also for country. Timo Werner’s injury gives Volland a glimmer of hope of making Germany’s World Cup squad. His performance against Red Star will certainly have caught the attention of his Hansi Flick.
Monaco next face Toulouse in Ligue 1 on Sunday in the penultimate match before the World Cup break.
Photo by AS Monaco
Interview: ASM director of performance James Bunce on the psychology of football
Once again, AS Monaco is at the forefront of evolution. Possessors of an avant-garde performance centre and recruiters of the first nutritionist in the Ligue 1, the club is now harnessing the “under-tapped” psychology of football.
“Everyone looks at sport from the neck down,” AS Monaco director of performance James Bunce told Monaco Life. The Principality club are taking steps to change that. Through recruiting two full-time psychologists – Emilie Thienot and Sophie Huguet, the club is harnessing “one of the most under-tapped advantages in football and even in the wider sporting environment,” says Bunce.
Whilst this almost certainly won’t remain the case for long, no other Ligue 1 club is currently innovating in this way by challenging the status quo of how health and sporting performance is perceived. Following Paris Saint-Germain’s dramatic capitulation against Real Madrid in last season’s Champions League, there was talk of the club recruiting a psychologist, although no arrival was ever officialised.
But Monaco’s approach, in line with the societal shift towards an increased focus on mental health, is based not on reacting to an issue, but on optimising and revolutionising an “under-tapped” facet of the game. Questioned by Monaco Life on whether the mental aspect of the game has been overlooked in the past, Bunce replied:
“I wouldn’t say that [physical well-being] is favoured deliberately over [mental wellbeing]. Everyone concentrates on the neck down and looks at sport from the neck down. We have become very good at monitoring the neck down: physical outputs, training loads, accelerations, sprinting, duels won. We’re really good at looking at that. Not deliberately, but I think we often overlook the mental side because it’s really hard to evaluate. It’s really hard to train and to teach, and to have objective moments in that.”
He continued, “However, even if you anecdotally look back and listen to players and coaches speak after games, a lot of them will talk about a mental attribute that either helped them or caused the problem. “We switched off, we weren’t at it, we didn’t put the effort in, we weren’t motivated”, and so it’s a really ironic situation where we talk about struggling with mentality, but we don’t train it to anywhere near the same extent as we do other things. So that’s why psychology for me is one of the most under-tapped advantages in football and even in the wider sporting environment. I speak a lot about this topic, and how we try and get this right.”
Innovation is engrained into the DNA of the Principality club, and the prioritisation of the mental side of the game is the latest manifestation of that. “Prior to my arrival, but also since Paul’s (Mitchell) and my arrival, we as a club have been trying to innovate and push forward. We were the first to get a full-time nutritionist, so we were breaking new ground there, and one of the first to invest in the performance and medical department. So, psychology for us is about getting a competitive advantage but also trying to develop our players to be the best they can be, that means on and off the pitch, trying to develop champions, trying to develop French national team and international standard players, and we know the mind has to be a part of that,” said Bunce.
Last season, it was manager Philippe Clement who took on the mantle to provide mental support to his young squad. Whilst it was a role that he gladly assumed, he is happy to be relieved of his duties with the arrivals of Thienot and Huguet.
Photo of Emilie Thienot and Sophie Huguet, source AS Monaco
“[The psychologists] are very important. I spoke with Paul and the president after the season and I said I thought it was important to grow as a club, for the players, for the staff, for everyone [to have them]. For me, it’s very important to have psychological help here, because last year I was the psychologist here, but in the end, I am also the man who decides. It’s important, because these are young players who were all big stars during their formative years but they weren’t really in competition, and now they come here and there is a lot of competition. That can have a mental impact, and an impact on confidence as well. We have to help the players, give them tools to channel their emotions,” said Clement in a pre-match press conference at the end of September.
Giving players the “tools to channel their emotions” is the key to this shift, as Bunce explained in greater detail. Asked how the club’s latest advancement would manifest itself on the pitch, he replied:
“To get an objective marker is really difficult. We speak to the players about their mental fatigue, about their emotions and things like that, but it’s not like a blood sample; it’s not like a metric that we measure like running speed. If we do a fitness programme we can say that they’ve increased lifting weight from 100kg to 150kg – that’s a 50% increase, they’ve gone from that speed to this speed. There isn’t a concrete, objective marker. However, what we hope manifests in the building is that the playing group begin to develop attributes that they didn’t have, that they might then use. So it’s not about seeing that in every moment they are using a mental skill, but about giving them a tool case full of ways to handle different situations.”
“If we are in a moment where we are 1-0 up and it’s the 90th minute and we need to see out the results, we have the mental skills to deal with that adversity, or with the motivation, or with the capacity to manage the game in a better way. What the psychologists are always trying to do is give the players the tools to cope with scenarios, and when they come to those scenarios, they are better equipped than they previously were to deal with them,” Bunce continued.
The in-house psychologists aren’t restricted to who they work with. “The way we have built the department of psychology is that it doesn’t only extend itself to players. Obviously, the players are hugely important and we want to develop their psychological characteristics, abilities, and traits, but we also wanted to develop the staff within the building,” Bunce told Monaco Life.
The sessions themselves will be specifically tailored to the individuals and their pathways and put on a level footing with physical conditioning. “The players can visit them any time they want. Being players, they aren’t here until 9pm. Some do it at different periods, some like to have conversations before matches to focus, some are working on different long-term strategies, imagery, motivation, leadership, and things like that. So those will be structured into their working week like a gym session is. It is no different than physical conditioning. Then we build the team aspects into the programme like we would an analysis meeting,” said Bunce.
Whilst the benefits of the club’s latest innovative approach will naturally be difficult to quantify, centre-back Guillermo Maripán believes that it will allow him and his teammates to “express [themselves] better”.
“Personally, I think that psychology is very important, not just in football. I think it will be a plus for the team, to allow us to be better, to think better, to express ourselves better. I think the two professionals will be very important for us and will help us a lot,” said the player.
The capacity to “be better, think better and express [oneself] better” would constitute a significant competitive advantage in a sport where success or failure hinges on such minor details. By tapping into the psychology of football, the Principality club are at the forefront of change. They may be an outlier for now, but they are unlikely to remain so for too long.
The creation of the latest AS Monaco fan group in New York pushes the boundaries of the club’s slogan, ‘Everywhere, Always’. Monaco Life spoke with its founder, Damien Malatino, to learn more.
Damien Malatino may no longer be living in the Principality, but he isn’t forgetting his Monégasuqe roots – quite the opposite. Now living in New York, where he works as a project manager, Malatino is the founder of the AS Monaco Fans NYC, the Principality’s latest antenne.
Partout, Toujours
Of the 16 fan groups officially registered by the AS Monaco Supporters’ Club, the New York City group is the second most distant from the Principality, after ‘Dom Tom,’ based in Martinique. They are also only the second group outside of France, the other being Liguria Biancorossa, based in Ventimiglia.
Following a meeting with the Supporters’ Club in the Principality during a trip back to the Principality in August, ASM NYC officially became a group in September. The officialisation was announced by the club itself on all its media channels, which according to Malatino, “really helped for visibility.”
“Since the article, we’ve had people contacting us directly saying that they’d seen the article, and asking how they can meet up. Since then, we’ve recruited members and now we can’t wait for the next event,” added Malatino.
The aim of the group is to allow Monaco fans to meet up and share their passion for the Principality club. Prior to the creation of ASM NYC, Malatino frequented the famous ‘Football Factory’ bar located in Manhattan to watch his childhood club in action. Seeing fans of other Ligue 1 gather there to watch the matches, inspired him.
Photo by Damien Malatino
“At the start, I watched matches on my own at a bar where they show all the matches, called The Football Factory. It is well known in New York amongst football fans. There might not be many from Monaco, but there is also a French community and there are fan clubs of other Ligue 1 clubs that I have seen when going to watch Monaco matches. I saw a couple of Monaco-PSG matches for example and I saw that there was a group of Parisian supporters with scarves. I told myself, ‘why not create something to bring together people like me, who are supporters of AS Monaco?” he said.
The recruited becomes the recruiter
The idea is not only to facilitate gatherings but also to recruit fans on American soil. “We can meet up to watch the matches and eventually recruit members that like football, but don’t necessarily have a favourite European team. So creating fans and finding sympathisers, that’s how it’s done, and also by bringing together ex-pats,” Malatino told Monaco Life.
Malatino himself was drawn into the game by his father from an early age. Growing up not far from the famous arches of the Stade Louis II in La Condamine, his passion was imparted by his match-going father, whose support for the club pre-dates the creation of the new Louis II.
“The passion came from my family and especially from my dad. He has been a season ticket holder at the Louis II before the new stadium had opened. He is a huge fan of the club, so even when I was young, I remember him taking me to the matches. We watched the matches on the TV as well. My dad did all of the away trips. He took me to watch a few matches when the season ticket holders could bring guests and it was there that my passion started to grow. I went to see matches in Ligue 1. I also watched them play in Ligue 2, where there were some good moments,” he said.
Maintaining a direct link to the Principality
From the 8-3 Champions League victory against Deportivo de la Coruña, Malatino’s first footballing memory, to relegation to Ligue 2, the Monégasque has truly experienced the highs and lows of being a football fan. Having watched Radamel Falcao (his favorite Monaco player alongside Fernando Morientes) in the flesh, the two-time season ticket holder he is now getting used to following his side from distance.
“Thanks to the antenne I maintain a direct link to Monaco. The fact of just being able to share my passion, go to watch the matches, and meet up is something that allows me to keep a link to Monaco. Everyone keeps a bit of a link to their country of origin. We are all there to maintain a link to our country, through football,” he said.
But following European football from the United States is no easy task. The time difference makes watching some games, especially the Europa League ties, which take place mid-afternoon on Thursdays, near-on impossible. Regardless, the goal is to gather twice a month, the next one being this Sunday for the match against Lille.
Malatino admits that the antenne will take years to blossom, he is hoping to slowly build the fanbase in ‘The Big Apple,’ picking up supporters throughout the season as Philippe Clement’s men hunt after another podium finish in Ligue 1.
Photo by Damien Malatino
“We are really making up for our difficult start to the season, which was due to the calendar. Clement has done good work and we are getting back to where we should be in the standings,” said Malatino on Monaco’s start to the season. “I am very confident that we’ll reach the podium by the end of the season, and I’m hoping that we qualify directly for the Champions League,” he continued.
Whatever the outcome of the current campaign, Clement’s men can count on the support of its newest fan group in New York City, where a Munegu scarf hangs on the wall of the Football Factory symbolising not only the ubiquity of the club but its importance, both at home and abroad.
AS Monaco were comprehensively beaten by Trabzonspor (4-0) in Eastern Turkey on Thursday, in a result that throws their Europa League group wide open.
Philippe Clement said pre-match that he believed that his side had shown themselves capable of playing in intense, heated atmospheres after their showing in Belgrade earlier in the competition.
A similar atmosphere awaited them at the Medical Park Stadyumu. Every moment of possession for Monaco was met with deafening whistles that reverberated around the stadium.
Monaco were imperiously dominant, at least statistically, in the opening moments. As Trabzonspor manager Abdullah Avci said post-match, “For the first 25 minutes, Monaco dominated the game.” However, despite multiple corners, and half-chances, the Principality side couldn’t convert their performance into a concrete advantage. And they were made to pay for that.
On the stroke of half-time, Clement’s men fell behind in a moment of folie. There was no danger evident when the ball was played back to Alexander Nübel. Looking to find Malang Sarr, in for Benoît Badiashile who felt discomfort in the warm-up, his pass caught the former unawares. The ball ricocheted off the Frenchman and into the back of the net, sending the almost 30,000 home fans into raptures.
With their tails up, Trabzonspor pushed in the final minutes of the second half against a Monaco side that had lost all rhythm and were grateful for the half-time whistle.
The break didn’t interrupt Trabznspor’s intensity or their rhythm. Vitor Hugo, a half-time substitute got on the scoreboard within three minutes of being on the pitch, rising highest at a corner to double the lead.
Things would get worse, and considerably so for AS Monaco. A sublime Enis Bardhi free-kick, slid under the monégasuqe wall made it three, before former Aston Villa man Trézéguet made it four.
The result ensured both times allowed the game to drift toward its inevitable conclusion. In victory, Trabzonspor have thrown their Europa League group wide open. For now, Monaco drop to third in Group H, behind Thursday night’s opponents only on goal difference with two games remaining.
Man of the match – Youssouf Fofana
On a difficult night for Monaco, Fofana showed his burgeoning experience. In the circumstances, he put in a calm performance. He displayed a range of passing in the first half, whilst also finding space in dangerous positions.
As his side struggled for control in the second half, his influence in possession waned, but he remained positionally aware in the defensive phases, despite the team conceding four goals. With injuries to N’Golo Kanté and Paul Pogba, his form could very realistically earn him a place in the France squad for the World Cup, especially following his positive performances for Didier Deschamps’ side in the most recent international break.
Clement’s comments
Post-match, Clement rued how his team let Trabzonspor take the upper hand in the tie after a positive start. “We started the match well. We mustn’t forget that. We were dominant and did the right things. We attacked well, we defended well, and created chances but weren’t efficient in taking those chances. We concede a goal that shouldn’t concede. Everyone knows that, including Alex.”
He was also disappointed by the manner of their second-half capitulation. “One by one, we tried to force things and stopped playing how we like playing. We had enough shots on targets, but without enough quality. After 2-0, we tried to force things, to play with emotions, and not play together. Playing together has been our strength. That’s been our strength in the past weeks and months. When we do things together, we do things well. Today was a big lesson. When we play as individuals and force things, we don’t play well,” he said.
He added, telling Monaco Life, “In the past weeks, we have won together and now we lose together; that’s how it is.”
However, looking forward, Clement knows that there is still everything to play for in their group. “There are still two matches and we still have our destiny in our own hands,” said Clement. Monaco must now use that agency to good effect in order to reach the knockout stages, as they did last year.
AS Monaco came out comfortable victors against Turkish champions Trabzonspor (3-1) at the Stade Louis II on Thursday to get their Europa League campaign back on-track.
The match, as a spectacle was quickly concluded for the second consecutive match at the Louis II. An early double ended Nantes’ hopes of taking any points from the Principality. This time it was a rush of blood to the head that cost Monaco’s opponents on the night.
Just 11 minutes into the match, Maxi Gómez, whilst falling to the ground, extended his boot into the face of Mohamed Camara and was rightly shown red, much to the surprise of the Uruguayan, who claimed his innocence but to no avail.
Only minutes later, Wissam Ben Yedder punished a Trabzonspor, who had to play the game with a numerical disadvantage for over 80 minutes. Philippe Clement’s side could have easily been out of sight by the half-hour mark, but the away side kept in the game due to some profligate Monégasque finishing.
Breel Embolo (24′) struck the bar from just six yards out when he had the entire goal to aim at, Krépin Diatta’s close range effort (25′) was well smothered by the keeper and a second close-range Embolo effort was also gathered by the grateful Ugurcan Çakir.
Monaco did get their second just before half-time when Vanderson was clumsily felled in the box. When Ben Yedder stepped up, there was little doubt about the outcome. The Frenchman sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to double the lead and give Clement’s men some breathing room.
Monaco continued to push early in the second half and were rewarded with a third when Axel Disasi was on the end of a Benoît Badiashile flick-on from a corner.
From thereon, Monaco took their foot off the gas. The team lost momentum as a number of key players, including Ben Yedder and Embolo, were brought off with Sunday’s game against Montpellier almost certainly looming in the back of Clement’s mind.
As the game drifted, Trabzonspor gave themselves a glimmer of hope as an unmarked Anastasios Bakasetas curled past Alexander Nübel from outside the box. However, having been given a minor scare, Monaco held firm to prevent Trabzonspor from further reducing the deficit.
Monaco ran out deserved 3-1 winners, and for consecutive fixtures, the result was ensured from the very early stages. The three points lift the club to second in their Europa League group ahead of their return trip to Northern Turkey next Thursday, where a hostile atmosphere likely awaits them.
Clement’s comments
“We started the match with a good tempo, with a lot of energy and the desire to score early as we did against Nantes. Of course, it’s an advantage to play against 10 men, but it is difficult to manage games like that. There are lots of teams that lose points in those situations. My players were serious and mature to manage that situation well,” he said.
On the return leg in Turkey and the remaining Europa League group stage matches, he said, “There isn’t a big difference between the four teams. That has been proven in these first three gameweeks. Every team has dropped points. Our challenge is to qualify from this group. There are three finals remaining and every match is very, very important.”
Man of the match – Wissam Ben Yedder
Another decisive performance for the French international. Since he was overlooked by Didier Deschamps, he has shown the France manager what he is missing. He now has six goals in his last three games. Just as they were against Nantes at the weekend, his chances were taken in clinical fashion. The first was finished smartly at the front post, and the second converted emphatically from the spot. His turnaround in form has been dramatic and is bearing fruit for the entire team.
Photo by Monaco Life
Maripán “delighted to continue his adventure with AS Monaco”
AS Monaco defender Guillermo Maripán last week extended his contract with the Principality club until 2025, telling Monaco Life he is “delighted to continue his adventure” with the club.
In a youthful back line, Maripán brings a level of experience. At 28 years-old, he has now passed the 100-game mark for Monaco, whilst he also has 37 caps for the Chilean national team. This season, he is a frequent starter when manager Philippe Clement deploys a 3-4-3, starting in the middle of the less experienced Benoît Badiashile and Axel Disasi.
“I am delighted to have extended and to continue my adventure with AS Monaco,” Maripán told Monaco Life during last week’s pre-match press conference. “I have progressed a lot since arriving in the Principality, and I have to say that I was very emotional when they offered me an extension. I am very happy to continue my path with the club,” he continued.
Having arrived for a reported €18m from Alavés in 2019, he endured a slightly difficult start in red and white, before finding his form and his consistency. He has now become one of the more experienced players in what is a young group. As a result, he told Monaco Life that he assumes an extra level of responsibility.
“It’s true that I have more responsibility in this young group now. I still feel young myself, even if I do have more experience. I try to share that experience. I have to say that the young players listen to my advice and I don’t hesitate to speak to them and push them so that they give the maximum,” said Maripán.
The Chilean centre-back’s initial deal ran until 2024, and sporting director Paul Mitchell is delighted to have extended his contract for a further year. Speaking in a press release, he said, “Guillermo is a player who, since joining the Club, has gone from strength to strength. He is a fighter, a player with character who has an important role in our defence. Seeing him re-sign for the long term with us is a sign of his ambition and will to continue on this path. We are happy to be able to count on him for the long term.”
Photo of Guillermo Maripán by Monaco Life
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