Toulouse vs Lens preview - Kombouare drafts in youth players

Posted Thursday, October 23, 2014 by PA

Lens coach Antoine Kombouare has been forced to call in youth-team players to patch up a team sitting bottom of Ligue 1 - but his message is defiant.

After a run that has seen Lens garner just one point from their last five Ligue 1 games, losing 3-1 to Paris St Germain in their most recent outing last Friday, Kombouare takes his team on the long journey to Toulouse on Friday.

The 1,000-mile round trip would be tolerable should Lens claim all three points, but another defeat could be agony for the team that earned promotion as runners-up in Ligue 2 last season.

"This week I've seen the players happy to get back to work. There is the enthusiasm and desire to work well in the sessions. That's what I rely on," Kombouare said.

"The greatest worry for us are the suspensions. We've lost three players for Friday: Ahmed Kantari, Jean-Philippe Gbamin and Jerome Le Moigne. It's going to be complicated but we have the hunger to go to Toulouse to give a good show with a winning team.

"I'm going to have to call in youth-team players. We have no choice. We'll make do. I'm relying on the work of the enthusiastic kids, who have the desire to learn. They bring their carefreeness. It's motivating. That gives us the desire to believe in ourselves and to support them as far and as high as possible."

Kombouare added on the official Lens website: "A lot of players are there today by default, by the force of circumstance. But they'll do what they can to progress. It's interesting to see them in training. We'll see what the matches will bring.

"That's incidental and anecdotal. What interests me is what happens in our matches and the work put in during the week. And then what is important is the league position after the 38th game."

While Kombouare ponders a selection crisis, his Toulouse counterpart Alain Casanova is aiming to set his team on a new unbeaten run, after their last was halted at four matches by leaders Marseille last weekend.

"Our team need to win this match, to take the points to confirm the good things we've seen," Casanova said.

"Lens have known a lot of problems but they remain a solid team with qualities.

"We'll go out to win of course and we won't go out on the pitch with the league position of Lens in our head.

"The team can do better than it showed in the Stade Velodrome on Sunday."