Pascal Dupraz Slowly Heralding a Turn Around for Saint -Etienne

Pascal Dupraz came onboard in December last year as the head coach of stuttering Saint-Etienne following the departure of Claude Pue.

Under the previous manager, the club had picked up just two wins from 18 Ligue 1 outings with a meager tally of 12 points. The club was stuck at the bottom of Ligue 1 when Puel left the job.

Dupraz had more concerns to address by the time he got in. He had to find support for striker Wahbi Khazri as well as replace Mathieu Debuchy, who left the club at the start of the season.

His first game in charge was against Nantes. Despite contesting well for most of the game, Saint-Etienne's fragile backline lost composure in the final minutes to hand the visitors a 1-0 win.

Since then, the club have lost twice as well and managed to win their last two games. This also included a victory over Lyon as well.

So something might have changed for sure!

Pragmatic approach from Dupraz

Dupraz is a master of fighting relegation battles having previously guided SM Caen and Toulouse to safety. Interestingly, it was for this reputation that one of France's most decorated clubs had to go for him.

Following their second defeat under the new regime, the manager switched to 5-4-1 set-up with two fullbacks barely moving to the other side of the pitch.

He showed a lot of guile in deploying Yvann Maçon as a full-back as well as calling up the French U-23 Mahdi Camara as a holding midfielder.

Under Puel, they opted for a 4-3-3 formation and ended up conceding an average of 2 goals per game.

This is definitely a solid alteration made by the current head coach and more importantly, it has allowed them to pick up their first win in ten league games. On Saturday, they managed to earn consecutive victories with a 3-1 win against Montpellier.

Contributions from players other than Khazri

Their over-reliance on Wahbi Khazri was evident from the fact that he had contributed 17 goals in this campaign under Claude Puel. His contributions were the sole reason behind the club managing to pick any point before the turn of the year.

Dupraz has ensured that despite playing Khazri as a target man, he gets the right involvement from their playmakers as well. Romain Hamouma also scored in their win against Montpellier.

Their manager seems to have slowly got hold of Saint-Etienne's campaign. The club now sits just three points off safety with another one-third of the season remaining.