Stade Rennais FC in the 2013-14 Season
Ligue 1 Finish: 12th
Match Results: W11-D13-L14
(Featured image: Rennes | Source: ouest-france.fr)
Stade Rennais were early online bookie frontrunners at the start of the season, ranking mainly within the top eight in Ligue 1’s first eight match weeks. However, they have since struggled to maintain their momentum and have gradually lost strong traction in the elite side of the competition which led them to plummet below the table’s upper half by the season’s closing. They finished all their 38 fixtures with 46 points bagged, a score substantial enough to place them just within the top dozen.
Rennes signed three new players (Sylvain Armand, Yassine Jebbour, and Valerica Gaman) to play for the club during the season and gained back the service of four more (Yacine Brahimi, Jean Il Makoun, John Verhoek, and Johann Carrasso) who returned after their successful loan stints in other clubs. Nelson Oliveira was also loaned from Benfica. Eight side members, meanwhile, left the club to play for other teams. The list included Alou Diarra who returned to West Ham, Chris Mavinga who transferred to Rubin Kazan, and Hérita Ilunga wo was signed by Carquefou.
Les Rouges et Noirs picked up six points from their first three matches in the season, winning over Reims and Evian but losing to Nice. In the next five weeks, the side battled out in three goalless draws (against Lille, Lyon, and Montpellier) and one clean sheet victory (against Ajaccio). Two defeats in a row were soon incurred by Philippe Montanier’s men as they succumbed to nantes and Guingamp. They won their best result against Toulouse on October 2013, scoring five goals and conceding none. They were also rendered goalless several times, losing all the spoils to the likes of Monaco, Lorient, and Bastia.
Benfica on-loan player Nelson Oliveira produced the most goals for Rennes (eight) but his achievement compared pale to the score sheets of other players as he was not named among the 10 most prolific scorers during the entire Ligue 1 season.
