The Montpellier football club is once again cleaning up its bench. In difficulty in the championship, the MHSC announced on Tuesday evening the “precautionary layoff” of its coach Romain Pitau, who had led the team since the end of October in replacement of Olivier Dall’Oglio, dismissed from its functions.
“Romain Pitau, Pascal Baills and Frédéric Mendy (his deputies) were informed today of their layoff as a precautionary measure” and dismissed “from their functions within the men’s professional team”, indicated the Hérault club in a short press release published at the end of the day.
The defeat too many against Strasbourg
Montpellier President Laurent Nicollin is expected to present the new coach this Wednesday at a press conference scheduled for 3 p.m. According to daily information The Teamrelayed by RMC, this new coach should be Michel Der Zakarian, sacked from Brest on October 11, who has already coached Montpellier for four years, from 2017 to 2021.
The defeat on Sunday in Strasbourg (2-0), a candidate for maintenance who had not yet won at home this season, was therefore one defeat too many for Pitau. The 45-year-old former club midfielder replaced Olivier Dall’Oglio on October 17, the day after a 1-0 defeat at Lens (1-0). But he never found the solutions to revive a Montpellier team in need of confidence and especially defensive reliability.
Elimination in the Coupe de France in the first round
Worse, with eight points taken in eleven games, the former assistant of Dall’Oglio, who made his baptism on a Ligue 1 bench, did less well than his predecessor (12 points in 11 games). During the truce of the World, Pitau had carried out a new physical preparation, with in particular an internship in Spain, which had seemed to be able to initiate a new dynamic. But this was quickly thwarted by elimination from the Coupe de France in the first round in Pau (L2).
Pitau, who ended his playing career in 2013 in Montpellier, a year after winning the title, above all failed to stabilize the defense despite the contribution of three recruits during the transfer window, goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte, defender center Boubacar Kouyaté and side Issiaga Sylla. Since mid-October, his team has conceded 23 goals, victim in particular of the Nice awakening (6-1) in January, and displayed the same excitement as during the first quarter of the season under Dall’Oglio. The MHSC is currently 15th in the championship, only two points ahead of Strasbourg, the first to relegate.