Team Focus: Bastia, Ligue 1’s Low-Key Entertainers, Rebuild in Style

For a Friday night at the Furiani, there was everything that one would expect and hope for; driving rain, noise and goals. There was the obligatory red card too – Bastia received seven last season and have recorded two already in the new campaign – though it was Larry Azouni of visitors Lorient who was dismissed, as his side tumbled to a 4-1 defeat.

Plus ça change, it seems. It may take a ferry trip or a flight to get there but if you want incident, Bastia are your best bet in a league often identified with circumspection. There were more goals in their games than those of any other Ligue 1 team last season, with 50 scored and a hefty 66 conceded in 38 matches. After a season of tumult, which saw the club banned from playing matches on their home island of Corsica for two months due to crowd disturbances, they eventually ended in a fairly comfortable 12th placed finish in their first season back in the top flight since 2004/05.

Bastia went into this campaign with the joint-lowest annual budget in the division (€22m), a title shared with Corsican rivals Ajaccio and newly-promoted Guingamp. All of which makes it even more incredible that Bastia managed to do such successful business during the summer transfer market. Coach Frédéric Hantz and his staff managed to recruit eleven new players on permanent and loan deals, while spending the princely sum of €1m – all on Sochaux winger Ryad Boudebouz.

Some fresh blood was was badly needed. The exits of Anthony Modeste (now at Hoffenheim and 15-goal top scorer) and Florian Thauvin (to Marseille via Lille) alone saw the source of half Bastia’s goals in 2012/13 disappear. When the experienced Jerome Rothen – famed as a winger with Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain but used as a deep-lying midfielder by Bastia last season – jumped ship, they lost their top creator. 35-year-old Rothen registered nine assists in the last campaign.

Against Lorient, the team’s new attacking weapons clicked perfectly. Boudebouz, playing in the number ten role, received a WhoScored of 8.94 for a stellar display beginning with a fine 6th minute goal. The 23-year-old’s long-range curler against the crossbar led to the foul on Wahbi Khazri before the Tunisia midfielder to converted the resulting penalty, and among his four key passes was the corner that Romaric headed in for the fourth goal.

To Boudebouz’s right was another late summer arrival, Milos Krasic, an arrival so incongruously high-profile that president Pierre-Marie Geronimi said it recalled the 1977 signing of Johnny Rep. The Serbian winger started his career in Corsica as slowly as one might expect having played just three times for Fenerbahçe in 2013, but he had lift-off against Lorient, scoring his first goal for the club.

Krasic has a willing foil in another signing, on-loan Lille striker Gianni Bruno. Replacing Modeste, Bruno’s hold-up play was excellent as he laid off to Boudebouz for the first and allowed Krasic the run for his goal with a sublime backheel for the third. 

The new boys have also provided Hantz with some much-needed depth. In the recent game at Saint Etienne, Bastia were comfortably second-best, and heading for a deserved 2-0 defeat going into the game’s final five minutes. Krasic’s introduction with a few minutes left was perhaps not a direct game-changer, but his 100% pass completion rate and direct running created space on the opposite side for left-back Julian Palmieri to set up two late goals – Bastia’s only efforts on target all night – and improbably salvage a point.

Arguably, keeping Khazri has been the key to rebuilding the team. The 22-year-old seemed certain to leave his native Corsica this summer, with Saint Etienne, Lyon and Roma all close to sealing a deal for him at various points during the window.

Instead, he celebrated staying at Bastia by scoring a superb long-distance goal at Guingamp in the first game after the window’s closure. Khazri is vital for the team; a link with last season’s side, and the technical leader. He has also been getting off an average of 3.1 shots per game so far this season. His passing success, 76%, isn’t at the level you would expect for a player of his ability, but that reflects both his keenness to look for the through ball and the fact that he’s still developing.

Most of Khazri’s stats speak for themselves. He scored 7 goals and provided 8 assists in just 22 starts last season. His cheeky Panenka penalty on Friday was one of five shots he had on target on the night – half of his team’s total. Of course, it can’t be about Khazri every time. Fortunately, there’s even a sense that rather than relying on the breakneck adrenaline that characterised last season, there is some defensive organisation.

“We have a more stable, calmer team this season”, captain Yannick Cahuzac told BeIn Sport after the Lorient match. Arsenal fans may find it hard to believe, but Sébastien Squillaci is a big part of that. An ever-present so far, the 33-year-old is using his aerial power well and making sure he stays on his feet, with an average 1.8 interceptions per game so far. He has not been dribbled yet this season.

Squillaci also has the fortune to have good experience around him in the shape of some other newcomers, with 35-year-old François Modesto beside him – averaging 2 tackles and 2.1 interceptions per game – and Romaric good enough at intercepting to stop the ball getting past Bastia’s half of the centre circle too often (2 per game). Their defence is going a long way to making Furiani a stronghold, with just two goals conceded in four home matches in Ligue 1 to date.

The new boys are not immune from the team’s eccentricities from last term. Midway through the second half, a horrified Boudebouz played an awful backpass into the path of Jérémie Aliadière, only to be saved by a sprawling Mickaël Landreau save. So Bastia are still Bastia – just, as Squillaci told BeIn Sport after the Lorient game, “better than last season.” Not too many would have predicted that a few months ago.

Have Bastia improved despite some high-profile summer departures? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below