- Ludovic Blas, who will start against Marseille on Saturday ( hours), had a full match on Sunday in Angers.
- Is he able to repeat this type of performance? The former Guingampais has a hard time being consistent at the highest level.
A defect that has stuck to its skin for several years.
Since his arrival in Nantes in the summer 2019, the performance of Ludovic Blas (23 years) are always escorted by the same skepticism. Sparkling in a match, the attacking midfielder of the Canaries, who will start against OM on Saturday ( h) at the Beaujoire , may very well sign two insignificant performances the next two meetings. Which makes someone close to the locker room say: “Ludo is the best player in Nantes, but when he feels like it!” »
Sunday, in Angers (1-3), his two assists and his penalty kick gave a little more consistency to the seductive performance of the former Guingampais. “He exploded his figures on the athletic level, in terms of sprints, confirms the trainer Antoine Kombouaré . As luck would have it, he was effective in the game… The hardest part is repeating that now. He is expected around the corner. »Expected, Blas (5 goals, 3 assists this season), has often been. At the rendezvous, very rarely. He never managed to take the right turn in terms of consistency. It’s a bit like the story of his (young) footballer life. “I am a little less irregular than before, coward yet, very serene, the person concerned. Before that was obvious… ”
“It will come with his maturity as a man”, according to Gourvennec Jocelyn Gourvennec , who ” started pro at years in Guingamp in 2015, also sees a encouraging clarification in the evolution of his former protégé: “It’s better, but it’s still far from what his potential should allow him to do. Blas is a bit of a student steeped in qualities, but who does not give himself all the means to do much better. Hervé Guégan , former director of the Guingamp training center (1303 – 2016), clutches: “It’s a boy who has talent but who has not necessarily realized the amount of work it takes to stay at the highest level. He sometimes rests on his achievements. It’s so easy it penalizes him. »
On the school level , same observation. “You also had to push him, push him around, attack him a bit,” Guégan remembers. Many reproach him for his propensity to lower his head at the slightest annoyance or difficulty. “I maintain that it is a boy who always has a little trouble doing violence to himself,” says Gourvennec. When the going gets tough, he’s not always there. But, Ludovic will mature later. It will come with his maturity as a man, but it will take a little longer. “
European Champion in U 19 with… Mbappé
Ludovic Batelli , his coach in the France U team 17 – U 19 – U 20 and during the title of European champion U 19 with Augustin and Mbappé in 2015, nonetheless recalls: “It has been a long time since that he is young. He has 23 years old… He is no longer so young considering the number of Ligue 1 matches he has to his credit . In Bleuet, I also reproached him for this lack of consistency, but often also at times, his lack of grinta and his renunciation of defending in his lane. “
Last week, when he learned of Kombouaré’s arrival on the Nantes bench, Blas grunted (a little)… In Guingamp, some tensions had broken out between him and the Kanak. “When we are young, we want to play straight away, Blas admitted Thursday at noon. I was not happy to alternate benches and tenures. “Sunday, before starting him in Angers, Kombouaré spoke to his midfielder. “He had the right words, confesses the one who seemed to have an immunity totem with
Christian Gourcuff . Now, it’s up to me to play matches like in Angers every weekend, and if I do that, Nantes will no longer be in this place… ”