Gaëtan Laborde on interim manager Didier Digard: “When we are given the tools to do well, it increases our chances of winning.” | OneFootball

Nice recently appointed Didier Digard, a former player and reserve team coach, as the head coach for the remainder of the season after the departure of Lucien Favre. In an interview with L’Équipe, Nice striker Gaëtan Laborde spoke about Digard’s coaching style, highlighting the intensity and high work rate that he brings to the team.

Laborde spoke about the difference in coaching styles stating, “He asks us to be higher, to recover the ball faster, to do counter-pressing – we insist on this. It’s OK for me. It allows us to create more situations. It’s easier to make stats with three, four chances per game rather than with a half.”

Digard as a player was known for his intensity. It seems that mentality has leaked over to his methodology as a coach. The 28-year-old striker explained, “Mentally yes, but there is also tactically, with what he offers to all the players. There is no magic in football, so he has a big, big responsibility. We, players, have one too. But inevitably, when we are given the tools to do well, it increases our chances of winning.”

Digard’s training methods involve reducing the time spent in training sessions, but not reducing the workload. The goal is to replicate game conditions and keep the players moving at maximum speed and intensity. The former French youth international was asked if these sessions are more intense than Lucien Favre’s training, “Largely, yes. It’s timed to the nearest second. There is a little rest, but it is timed. Between two exercises, it can be a thirty-second, forty-five-second, or one-minute break – but a minute is rare. As the staff explains to us, they really want us to train like we play. It is rare in a match to have more than twenty or thirty seconds of rest, except to have a stoppage of play. So you have to put intensity in training so that you can put it back in the match.”

The young coach’s approach to high-intensity football and focus on working with the ball has been well-received by the players. Though still a small sample size, In his five games as head coach, Digard has achieved four wins and one draw, with an impressive win rate of 80%. This has energized the young and talented team and with much more football to play this opportunity with his former club may be the springboard for his coaching career.

GFFN | Tony DesRois