Becomes AS Monaco Coach, These Are 4 Challenges for Thierry Henry

DBasia.news – Thierry Henry just officially becomes the new coach of AS Monaco. In his press conference, he admits that “Pep is the reference, for me, I’m not saying for everyone. There’s no right or wrong; that’s the reference for me. We learned how to play the game when I went to Barcelona under him.”

Guardiola becomes his reference due to the similar background: once became a professional football player. His comment also means that Henry wants to follow Guardiola’s football philosophy, identical with offensive and ball possession, or at least a good insight about football performance.

It’s easy for him to say that he emulates Pep, however, reality bites. Henry, with his lack of experience, is facing big challenges to revive Monaco in the degradation zone and to develop Leonardo Jardim’s squad.

It’s not easy to do that. Moreover, there are four big challenge probabilities for the Arsenal legend. If he could pass it, he might follow Zinedine Zidane’s success pat in Real Madrid. Here are the four challenges:

1. Monaco Squad Revival

AS Monaco

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AS Monaco are experiencing the boomerang after selling the best assets to other clubs during the transfer market, and recruiting the new players resulted in the declining collective performance.

Jardim wasn’t the scapegoat for this issue, but it’s the management decision instead, who preferred profit to squad balance.

In fact, Jardim gave the Ligue 1 title in 2016-2017 after 17 years wait.

Kylian Mbappe, Benjamin Mendy, Bernardo Silva, Fabinho, Thomas Lemar, Joao Moutinho, and Tiemoue Bakayoko were the reliable players of Monaco sold to other clubs. Willy-nilly, Henry must face the current situation.

By the squad left by Jardim with different characters, Henry is challenged to maximize the current squad to revive the performance. Remember, Monaco are in the 18th rank of Ligue 1 table with 6 points.

2. Ambitious Target from the Board of Directors

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Different to the tight competition in other European top leagues, the rivalry in the Ligue 1 is rather easier for the historical teams that could perform consistently. It’s possible that Monaco will improve and aim for the Europe zone if they are consistently winning the matches.

The board of directors would only care about the ambitious result like the trophy or at least the European zone (Champions League or Europa League). Henry is no exception. He will get the target to revive Monaco and to fix their position in the table, also to pass the Europe zone at the end of the season.

3. Waiting for Henry’s New Recruit in Winter Transfer Market

Thierry Henry

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Reported by French media, Monaco’s owner Dmitry Rybolovlev will spend his budget for Henry during the winter transfer market on January. Certainly, this would be Henry’s chance to fix the weakness within the squad.

For the first time, the public will see Henry’s first recruit in his career as a professional coach. Will he recruit some players from his former club, Arsenal? It might be.

4. “King” Henry Touch

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Indeed, Henry is lack of experience in coaching. He was just the coach assistant of Roberto Martinez in Belgium national team. However, he also has the charisma like Zidane due to his big success in the past as a player. Henry could be lucky and great just like his compatriot.

If Henry’s touch could revive Monaco’s performance, they could show the good performance from each match, considering the season has just begun. Henry only needs a little touch in integrating the talented players like Radamel Falcao, Aleksandr Golovin, Stevan Jovetic, and Youri Tielemans.