Best Ligue 1 managers of 2021

The French Top Flight, Ligue 1 is an interesting league with all the goal scoring and high flying actions. It is the top French professional league in the French football league system, since its establishment in 1932. It was a blast to watch during the 2020/21 season that ended with a new champion in 3 years.

France's top-flight has regularly been throwing up an increasing number of surprise results over recent seasons, whilst the number of goals scored has risen sharply.

In France, more than anywhere else in Europe right now, anybody can beat anybody. Even a giant like

in the league has made every team in Ligue 1 raise their game, even the minnows.

Add to that vibrant, exciting teams challenging the previously established hierarchy and a mix of styles from all over the world, and you have a potent mix. Last year, more than any other year, has shown us that.

To those familiar with Ligue 1, the intensity on offer each week and the high quality exhibited in French domestic football is nothing new.

To those unfamiliar with it though, sitting down and watching a game from France will likely come as quite a shock. Despite being largely unheralded and oft-maligned when talking about top European leagues, people quickly forget that France is the largest producer of domestic talent in Europe.

Many believe that French football is in a state of flux. Eight of the top nine clubs in the league last season changed their managers in 2021, and every club that was in Ligue 1 at the point of the Covid shutdown in 2020 subsequently changed their head coach.

With the arrival of new managers, there has been a dramatic tactical revolution in the last two seasons. More robust teams have disappeared, replaced by fluid and versatile sides.

Best Ligue 1 managers of 2021:

With talent spread so evenly among clubs, the tactical choices taken by managers become especially important. So, needless to say, the managers heading the clubs have a critical role to play in this whole process.

Their approach towards the game is captivating, engaging for the audience, and they put forth a dynamic football. Here are the best Ligue 1 managers whose performance was excellent in 2021.

Christophe Galtier

• Full name: Christophe Galtier

• Date of birth: 26 August 1966 (age 55)

• Place of birth: Marseille, France

• Height: 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)

• Position(s) as a player: Defender

• Current team: Nice (head coach)

The first on the list of the

best Ligue 1 managers of 2021

is

. His OSC Lille's love story began on 22 December 2017 and finished with the happiest way possible: Ligue 1 champions in 2021.

The Frenchman guided Lille to their first Ligue 1 title in 10 years and the fourth in club history with his scaring counter-attack style of play. Earning him the title of “Manager of the Season” by FFF (Fédération Française de Football).

His side of Lille finished the season with 24 wins, 11 draws, and only 3 losses. Collecting them 83 points and crowning themselves champions of France above teams such as

, Marseille, Lyon, and of course, the lucrative Paris Saint-Germain.

Out of 38 weeks, Lille was able to hug the top of the league for 20 weeks, including 15 weeks out of the last 16. They were mainly behind PSG for the first part of the season but from starting 2021, Lille managed to prove they were the better side.

His defensive strategies were specifically crucial to their championship. Having conceded only 23 goals in 38 matches, the best in the league in this category.

Mike Maignan, Lille’s goalkeeper, was able to keep a clean sheet for an amazing number of 21 matches due to his performance and Galtier’s robust defensive tactics.

Also, Galtier’s courageous decisions for playing youngsters like Jonathan David, Renato Sanches, and Timothy Weah, and helping develop their skills have been praised by so many experts in France football.

Galtier started almost all of his matches with his favorite 4-4-2 formation, giving his team a firm defensive structure as well as enough venom in attacking situations.

Burak Yilmaz, Lille’s number 9, was able to find the net 16 times and finished the league as his team’s top goal scorer. Galtier's attacking idea was to get the ball in the opponent's half as soon as possible through wings and then add in numbers behind the penalty area to shape a round formation in front of the goal.

Furthermore, Galtier decided to say farewell to

after his most decorative achievement. On 25 May 2021, two days after winning the league title, he resigned as manager. He stated, “I simply have a deep belief that my time is up here.

“I don't want to leave just because of having had success,” added Galtier to explain his decision to swap Lille for

in summer 2021. “I leave Lille on an incredible result, but I need something else. I don't want to get into a routine.”

The challenge at the Allianz Riviera - with owners INEOS as ambitious as their new coach - is an enticing one for a man who has always felt destined to lead a squad of footballers.”

On 28 June 2021, he was appointed as the new head coach of fellow Ligue 1 club Nice. Appointed by Nice in the offseason, Galtier has improved the team within a few months. Nice is in second place with the tightest defense and the fifth most prolific attack in the league.

The similarities with the Lille of last season are striking. Under Galtier, Lille clinched the title by having the best defense and the fourth-best attack.

His new team is currently 2nd in the league behind PSG, while Lille has been struggling to be in the top 10, showing just how important Galtier was and how huge of a gap he left behind in Lille, and how amazing he has been able to improve his new team.

Mauricio Pochettino

• Full name: Mauricio Roberto Pochettino Trossero

• Date of birth: 2 March 1972 (age 49)

• Place of birth: Murphy, Argentina

• Height: 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)

• Position(s) as a player: Defender

• Current team: Paris Saint-Germain (head coach)

is rightfully among the

best Ligue 1 managers of 2021

. He received his Christmas present on 2 January 2021, as he was appointed as the head coach of Paris Saint-Germain on an 18-month contract, replacing Thomas Tuchel.

PSG is also where Mauricio had spent two years during his playing career, thus making it even more special. He started his managerial period quite well as he won the first honor of his managerial career as Paris Saint-Germain defeated rivals Marseille with a 2–1 victory in the Trophée des Champions.

Although his side fell short in Ligue 1 and finished the league as 2nd while only needing a single point to reach the champions, Lille. But, it is worth mentioning that Pochettino finished the season with a win in the Coupe de France Final against Monaco. Earning them their second domestic trophy of 2021.

Parisians under the management of Pochettino were able to finish the league in 2021 as the most goal-scoring team, scoring 86 times in 38 matches.

An achievement that

had a huge influence on as he scored 27 of them. Pochettino has continued his attacking style of play in the 2021/22 season and with having one of the scariest front three; Neymar, Mbappe, and Lionel Messi.

They are currently sitting on top of the Ligue 1 for every single week this season so far and they finished 2021 with a 13-point margin from the second team.

Poch’s favorite formation is 4-2-3-1, although he has been switching it to a modern 4-3-3 in PSG as he has been blessed with a dream front trio mentioned above. He instructs his team to build from the back, intimidate and unsettle opponents with a quick-press system and work the ball into the box.

Players coached by Pochettino have always praised his man-management approach and guidance with his willingness to give advice, encouraging the players to take charge of their development as well as helping them to improve physically, technically, and mentally.

To prevent the opposition from creating havoc on the counter-attack, Pochettino’s men crowd players by closing down, which helps pack the spaces and give less time to players on the ball. This helps in recovering the ball immediately.

Pochettino and his team will most likely be crowned as the Ligue 1 champions once again this year, considering the quality of their squad and the deficit they have with the second team, but their ultimate goal, as for the last decade, will be to win the lucrative Champions League trophy.

So far Pochettino has been able to have a 66.67% win rate in 66 matches with the Parisians which is an amazing statistic by any standard. Although, there is little margin for error in the run-in as far as Pochettino is concerned because halfway through the season, failure to retain Ligue 1 would lead to serious questions being asked of the head coach.

Jorge Sampaoli

• Full name: Jorge Luis Sampaoli Moya

• Date of birth: 13 March 1960 (age 61)

• Place of birth: Casilda, Santa Fe, Argentina

• Height: 1.67 m (5 ft 6 in)

• Position(s) as a player: Defensive midfielder

• Current team: Marseille (head coach)

On 26 February 2021, Ligue 1 club Olympique de Marseille announced

as their coach until June 2023. He succeeded Andre Villas-Boas who despite having a decent squad, wasn’t able to compete for any top position in Ligue 1.

As one of the

best Ligue 1 managers of 2021

, Sampaoli had only 13 matches till the end of the season and his team was sitting in the 9th position. The Argentinian, however, changed the team immensely, Marseille started to play a lot more aggressively one game after another with four wins and two draws from Marseille’s first six games.

After a long and hard fight with Rennes, with only two points above them, Marseille was able to finish in 5th position which reserved them a spot in the Europa League group stage; a huge accomplishment gave the situation.

Sampaoli not only didn’t stop amazing us but also continued his fantastic job in

in the 2021/22 season. His team is currently sitting in 2nd position behind PSG in Ligue 1. This consistency is one of the main reasons Sampaoli made it to this list.

The veteran coach has 21 wins in 43 matches as the Marseille manager while losing only 7 of them. Following Sampaoli’s arrival in March, Marseille lacked the ferocity and intensity of their coach.

Now, however, they are playing with intensity and dynamism, embodying their manager’s snarling, prowling touchline presence. Club and coach are a perfect match and, after years of underachieving, Marseille may have finally found the right formula.

Sampaoli has based his success this season on a gung-ho outlook. It is working, with four wins and two draws from Marseille’s first six games.

Their asymmetrical setup falls somewhere between Bielsa’s preferred 3-3-1-3 and Hungary’s 2-3-3-2 formation from the 1950s, with Dimitri Payet playing Nándor Hidegktui’s withdrawn striker role, albeit with a holding midfielder dropping in at right-back when needed, and Milik as the lethal finisher in the box.

This seemingly unwieldy team has worked perfectly so far this season. All three center-backs are technical ball-players and the midfield is a fluid diamond full of creativity, while wing-backs maraud down the flanks.

They very much attack as a team and defend as one. It goes some way to explaining why three of the four goals scored by OM since the appointment of the 61-year-old have been scored by midfielders popping up in the penalty area.

This fluidity will be instrumental in their success under Sampaoli. Watching how they develop as a team will be one of the most intriguing aspects of Ligue 1.

Julien Stéphan

• Full name: Julien Stéphan

• Date of birth: 18 September 1980 (age 41)

• Place of birth: Rennes, France

• Height: 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)

• Position(s) as a player: Midfielder

• Current team: Strasbourg (head coach)

2020/21 season was a season to forget for Julien Stephan as he failed to give

a chance to compete in the top 5 and eventually resigned on March 1st. But the reason we are mentioning him as one of the best Ligue 1 managers is the marvelous job he has been doing since the beginning of the 2021/22 season with Strasbourg.

On 19 May 2017, Strasbourg sealed its return to Ligue 1 after a nine-year absence from the French top tier and since then, their best position was 10th. But this season, under the management of Stephan, they’ve had 11 wins, 5 draws, and 7 losses in 23 games and are currently sitting in 4th place in Ligue 1, the highest they have ever been in their history.

Stéphan, one of the

Ligue 1 winning managers

, ideally prefers to play a possession-based game. He has spoken openly in the past about his admiration for coaches in the ilk of Manchester City boss

and new boss of Serie A side Lazio, Mauricio Sarri, describing these two managers as “sources of inspiration” both in terms of their implementation of the principles of positional play in possession, as well as their aggressive pressing in transition to defense.

Stéphan wants his team to play accurate short passes first and foremost. His teams are very patient and cautious, so Strasbourg fans can expect a high pass completion to be prioritized with Stéphan, but where this manager excels is in his ability to get his team forging good progressive and creative passing options that aren’t very risky, though the shape and movement that his tactics create.

Franck Haise

• Full name: Franck Haise

• Date of birth: 15 April 1971 (age 50)

• Place of birth: Mont-Saint-Aignan, France

• Height: 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)

• Position(s) as a player: Midfielder

• Current team: Lens (manager)

Another

Ligue 1 managers 2021/22

is Frank Haise, whose achievements with Lens have been nothing but wonderful over the last two years. With the outbreak of COVID-19 and the stoppage of all French football, his side was able to promote to Ligue 1 for the 2020/21 season without finishing the full fixture of Ligue 2.

Despite the difficulties, Lens have put in a solid showing in their first season back in Ligue 1 since 2015. Early results such as the win over champions Paris Saint-Germain were very impressive, losing just two of their opening ten matches, although they have since settled comfortably into mid-table.

Given Lens set their main objective as simply avoiding relegation – Haise saying “We must admit, the first objective is to stay there and sustain the club at this level” in May – a top-half finish would have been overachieving. A task that was successfully done as Lens finished the league in 7th place.

Haise’s favorite formation is 3-5-2 or 3-4-1-2, which makes Lens play with eight deep players, but the club does not have much control of the ball, as Lens possession rate per match reached only 47.62%.

Moreover, Lens does not attack from the center, most of the Lens attacks have been from both sides, even though he has only one player on each side. Haise has kept the same game philosophy this season, with a side that matured into a disciplined unit without losing its attacking flair.

This season, Lens under Haise management have continued to improve and prove that they belong to the top half of the table. They are currently sitting in 9th place while they have only a three-point deficit to 6th place Monaco side.

If Haise continues to work on his team’s mentality, we will not be surprised to see his team in the European competitions.

Bruno Génésio

• Full name: Bruno Génésio

• Date of birth: 1 September 1966 (age 55)

• Place of birth: Lyon, France

• Height: 1.72 m (5 ft 7.5 in)

• Position(s) as a player: Midfielder

• Current team: Rennes (manager)

Génésio was the one who succeeded Julien Stéphan at Rennes on 4 March 2021. He arrived when the club was at 9th place but by the end of the season, he was able to increase Rennes' situation to 6th and qualify for the Europa Conference League play-off round.

He, then, proceeded to continue his work in Rennes and despite not having enough resources compared to other Ligue 1 giants, he has been able to keep Rennes in the top 5 race.

From a tactical point of view, Génésio lined up his team this season in a 4-2-3-1 formation although he recently used a 4-3-3 system and also a 4-4-2 diamond one. His team retained a four-man backline as a common trait of every set-up he opted for.

Another key part of Rennes’s tactics is their work on transitions. Génésio put a lot of emphasis on the transition game and his team has been able to produce an effective transition game, both offensively and defensively.

In the end, Génésio built a balanced side: strong at the back and dangerous when attacking. Should the board be able to retain his team’s offensive talents and also to add more depth on the bench, Rennes could really challenge PSG or any of the top 4 this season or, at least, reach a Champions League spot.

Antoine Kombouaré

• Full name: Antoine Krilone Kombouaré

• Date of birth: 16 November 1963 (age 58)

• Place of birth: Nouméa, New Caledonia

• Height: 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)

• Position(s) as a player: Defender

• Current team: Nantes (manager)

The veteran coach had a roller coaster of a year in 2021. He was appointed as the new manager of Nantes in February 2021, replacing Raymond Domenech, while the team was sitting in 18th place. The objective was crystal clear; stay in Ligue 1 and avoid relegation.

Kombouaré did his best in the last games as they had to fight Brest and Lorient to avoid 18th place, while Nimes and Dijon were 19th and 20th. In the end, though, it was Nantes who finished 18 and had the disgrace of being relegated.

But, they were to be given a second chance, as the 18th place in Ligue 1 will play two games with the Ligue 2 third-promoting team in order to be in Ligue 1.

As faith wield it so, Kombouaré’s new team, were to play with his old team; Toulouse. In two games that were nothing short of a dramatic saga,

was able to win on aggregate against Toulouse and reserve their spot in the French top-tier division for one more year.

The new season, however, is going rather joyful for Nantes fans as they are 12 points far from the relegation zone, sitting in 10th place and playing good football all thanks to their veteran manager. They even clinched the 7th position for a short time during the last weeks of 2021.

Antoine Kombouaré was handed the short-term mission of keeping Nantes up, but now the coach is looking to build. The ex-Nantes defender knows all about Nantes' historical passing style and is keen to get the team playing good, fluid football once again.

The Nantes squad hasn't changed much, but the mental fragility that hampered them last season has vanished.

Honorable mentions:

Despite being sacked, the following managers are worth mentioning as they achieved numerous successes during previous seasons. So, the followings are not among the

Ligue 1 current managers

.

Niko Kovač

• Full name: Niko Kovač

• Date of birth: 15 October 1971 (age 50)

• Place of birth: Berlin-Wedding, West Germany

• Height: 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)

• Position(s) as a player: Central midfielder

• Current team: Unemployed

On 19 July 2020,

was appointed as head coach at Ligue 1 club Monaco. In his first game as Monaco coach on 23 August, Kovač secured a 2–2 draw after being two goals down against Reims.

On 20 November, Monaco beat French champions and Champions League finalists Paris Saint-Germain 3–2 after falling behind 0–2. On 21 February 2021, he defeated Paris Saint-Germain once again, this time 2–0.

It was the first time since March 2016 that Monaco won at Parc des Princes. Kovač was subsequently widely praised by French sports media.

Former Bayern Munich manager, Niko Kovač, finished the following season in the third position with 78 points and won 24 matches from 38 (63% win rate).

The Croatian transformed Monaco from relegation contenders to title challengers in his 18 months in charge.

When Kovac was appointed, Monaco was sitting in the 8th in the table, but with the span of just 3 weeks, they found themselves in the top 4.

Their battle with Lyon for the third position was dragged to the very last match-day and finally, Kovac managed to secure third place for his team, earning them qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round.

Niko Kovac was able to bring back the memory of a glorious Monaco as we knew it with guarantying a Champions League spot for the Monégasques.

Kovac’s innovating tactics will be remembered by his players for sure. He believes in analyzing the opponent more than anything and usually doesn’t like to stick with a single formation.

He tries to make some changes to adapt his team’s strengths with the opponent’s weaknesses, as we have seen him do in his previous managerial spells in

and Croatia national teams.

The Monégasques not only have one of the most talented young squads but also play an attractive blend of attacking football, which involves the modern positional play principles. Kovač puts a lot of emphasis on the positional play during all the phases of the game.

Naturally, he likes his teams to play out from the back in the first phase. The buildup shape has adequate width and depth as the players look to occupy all the vertical and horizontal lanes. Besides, they ensure numerical superiority in their half which aids a swift buildup and vertical progression.

Nevertheless, His huge accomplishment was not rewarded with patience because on 1 January 2022, Monaco announced the departure of Kovač. Monaco’s shock removal of Niko Kovac over Christmas fell somewhere between eye-watering ruthless and bafflingly naïve. He was replaced by Philippe Clement at Monaco.

Although, as the new season began, Monaco did struggle to be in the title race, seeing themselves in positions not higher than 10th. In explaining Kovac’s removal, Monaco sporting director Paul Mitchell said, “The performances from this summer until Christmas have shown us that we weren’t fulfilling our full potential.

“After the second half of last season, we thought we had a head start on our rivals. Our owners allowed us to keep all our players and strengthen the group to compete on all fronts but we’ve never been in the top five this season.”

Rudi Garcia

• Full name: Rudi José Garcia

• Date of birth: 20 February 1964 (age 57)

• Place of birth: Nemours, France

• Height: 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)

• Position(s) as a player: Midfielder

• Current team: Unemployed

was appointed as Lyon's manager in 2019 and had a consistent run since 2021. Although he was released from his duty as a manager at the of the 2020/21 season after finishing fourth in the league table and missed out on the UEFA Champions League places, he did a great job in Ligue 1 in 2021, however short it might have been.

Garcia even held the first position in the league at the beginning of 2021, but his problems with the board and owner affected his team and they weren’t able to keep up with the other giants like PSG, Lille, and Monaco in the title race. Nevertheless, Garcia’s professionalism has always been praised by French media and football experts.

Rudi Garcia has been carefully building his managerial career for nearly three decades. His football playing days turned him into something of a cult hero in France.

Similarly, his time as a football manager has been spent, except for one Serie A appointment, in the heart of French football. Generally, the manager looks to have his teams set the pace of the game. For that, his players are required to maintain possession and fight to win the ball back quickly.

Garcia tends to opt for aggressive players with an exceptional work ethic. Tactically, Rudi Garcia aims for flexibility and cohesion. Lyon would have often defended with a back five line. Despite the small width between players, this is not a rigid approach.

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