Ligue 1 Player of the Weekend: Valentin Rongier

ROG(1)

One of the best teams in France’s Ligue 1 in the last month has been Nantes- a club that seem to famously struggle season after season. But after the pressure of not getting sucked into a relegation battle together with knowing that they would not be able to secure enough points for European qualification, the shackles have come off the club and they have been simply superb.

On form Nantes would be in 1st place having won their last 5 games and those victories are not just against any clubs. It’s more a roll call of the best teams in the league which include PSG, Lyon and Marseille. Indeed had Nantes started the season in this fashion people would be taking the club seriously on a league challenge and most certainly a chance of qualifying for the Champions League.

Valentin Rongier has been a big part of Nantes revival. The midfielder who has played 33 times this season has been a rock in the middle of the field and has scored 4 goals and assisted in 5 others.

At the weekend Nantes beat relegation threatened Dijon 3-0 in a very easy win at home and Rongier scored the 3rd and final goal to seal victory with 10 minutes left. This past weekend Rongier by scoring from midfield and with his club keeping a clean sheet earned 8 points in Ligue 1 Fantasy football which is more than any other player at the weekend.

Those 8 points have put Rongier of 37 points which means he is the 54th best player in the league according to the rankings and the 18th best midfielder in the league. His value is 4.5m.

Rongier scored at the weekend after being set up by Samuel Moutoussamy to slide the ball home. Nantes manager Vahid Halihodzic said: “We created some very good chances in the first half, but unfortunately we didn’t take them. At half-time I told them to keep their pace up but to try and stay organised, because they have one or two boys who can hurt you with individual actions. In the second half, it was almost logical that we scored three goals. The team played at a good level, especially going forward. We were still a bit wasteful. We have to make better choices.”

Nantes could yet break into the top 10 and finish there and they look almost certain to do so if they can keep up their terrific form. They have certainly been the best side led by Rongier for the past month.

Prove you have what it takes to challenge the best French Fantasy Football managers here www.fantasyligue1.com

To leave a comment, you must be logged into www.eurofantasyleague.com