Malcom was on the scoresheet for the third time in four matches on Friday evening as Bordeaux continued their rise up the table with a 1-0 win at Toulouse. The 20-year-old winger has been a revelation this season. Bordeaux endured a frustrating start to the campaign – they were knocked out of the Europa League by Hungarian side Videoton before they had kicked a ball in Ligue 1 – but Jocelyn Gourvennec’s side have played some inspired football in recent months and remain one of just two unbeaten sides remaining in the league (along with Paris Saint-Germain, who have won all six of their matches so far). Bordeaux now sit in fourth, just one point below third-placed Saint-Étienne.
They owe a lot to Malcom, whose driven goal on Friday broke open a match that looked as if it would finish goalless. Impressive though it was, his winner against Toulouse hardly ranks among the best of Malcom’s career. It wasn’t even his best this season – see his jaw-dropping equaliser against Lyon – but it showed all of the abilities that have made him a bona fide matchwinner: pace, vision, intelligence of movement and finishing.
He exhibited these talents at Corinthians but was never a prolific goalscorer in a side that also contained Jadson and Vágner Love. When he moved to France from São Paulo (now seeming a snip at a rumoured €5m) 18 months ago, he was billed as a player given to moments of brilliance, but not necessarily one who would take charge of matches consistently. Of course, part of that was down to his age – he was just 18 – but few expected much of the young winger besides the odd brilliant goal. This season, though, he seems to be happy, driven and benefitting from a somewhat surprising decision by his manager.
A slight tactical tweak from Gourvennec has given Malcom more goalscoring chances and an opportunity to be the team’s creative fulcrum. Bordeaux still use the 4-3-3 formation that helped them rise up the table in the second half of last season, but Gourvennec’s integration of new players has helped Malcom become more effective as an inverted winger. Last year, in that same 4-3-3, much of the creative duties currently given to Malcom were the province of the young Argentinian midfielder Valentín Vada, who was nominally a box-to-box midfielder but generally played in the areas you would associate with a more orthodox No10.
Despite a decent campaign last year, Vada has been benched this season, often for Lukas Lerager. The Dane is undoubtedly a more prosaic presence but his inclusion gives Malcom a freer role in attack and more space. He has already responded with three assists (he recorded just four last season), showing that he is ready to be the team’s focal point in attack both as a creative presence and a goalscorer.
In addition to his electric presence on the pitch, Malcom has also been a boon to his team off it as well. Bordeaux’s record with Brazilian players in the recent past has been mixed, but the club nevertheless added both Jonathan Cafu, from Ludogorets, and Otávio, from Atlético Paranaense, this summer. Neither player is lacking in experience – with Cafu having delivered a strong performance in last year’s Champions League – but Malcom has helped them.
“You just need to see him every day,” says Gourvennec. “He is still just as joyous and galvanising for the squad as ever. He has even been acting as a translator for his new Brazilian team-mates. He is not at all affected by everything that is being said. Even if he is still young, he is also very mature.” That maturity, combined with his talent and a system tailored to his playing style, have made him one of the league’s most impressive prospects. He was linked with Manchester United and Liverpool in January but more concrete interest arose this summer from Germany. Both Borussia Dortmund and Wolfsburg were in hot pursuit of the player’s signature, but Bordeaux rebuffed all suitors.
Bordeaux’s poor start to the season may yet have a huge silver lining. Without extra European matches, the team will be able to focus on the league and could become this year’s Nice as a surprise package. A massive match against Paris Saint-Germain later this month will show us how good this team really is. If the season’s opening stages are anything to go by, Bordeaux, with Malcom at the fore, will be well worth watching.
Ligue 1 talking points
• Metz should have been relegated last season. They finished the campaign with the most goals conceded (72) and the worst goal difference (-33) but a breakout campaign from Ismaila Sarr and the goals of winter signing Cheick Diabaté kept them up. Having lost both players over the summer, the club started the season with five straight defeats. However, a surprise 1-0 win at previously undefeated Angers on Sunday afternoon deservedly gave them their first points of the campaign. Togolese winger Mathieu Dossevi, who was brought in from Standard Liège, towards the end of the summer transfer window, made the difference. He was a nuisance all game and his cross set up Nolan Roux’s winning header. Whether Philippe Hinschberger’s men will have enough to survive the season is still very much uncertain but Dossevi is giving them cause for optimism.
• When Marcelo Bielsa arrived in Lille this summer, the feeling was his tenure would be either glorious or disastrous. Their 1-0 loss to Guingamp was their third defeat in five matches and they have scored just once in that time, so they are currently veering closer to disaster than glory. Unsurprisingly, Bielsa’s reign has already been littered with the bizarre. His ruthlessness has left one of Ligue 1’s best goalkeepers, Vincent Enyeama, exiled; he has sanctioned the sale of forward Nicolas de Préville to a direct top-six rival in Bordeaux; and battling midfielder Xeka has been shipped off to Dijon despite giving some influential displays after signing from Braga at Christmas. The most confusing aspect of Bielsa’s short spell so far is that Lille have been infuriatingly dull. The high-octane, gung-ho football of his season at Marseille has been replaced by a blunt, disjointed outfit lacking in flare. Lille are just six games into what the club hope will be a long-term appointment and a disparate group of players need time to coalesce but, given his track record, it may not take much more for the eccentric Bielsa to have other ideas.
• Until last week’s defeats at Nice, it seemed as if Monaco – although weakened by the departures of Kylian Mbappé, Bernardo Silva and Tiemoué Bakayoko – were coping just fine. However, the 4-0 mauling at the Allianz Riviera showed that they won’t be able to counterpunch as powerfully or as often in their current guise, which has encouraged Leonardo Jardim to adjust Monaco’s style this week. The creditable 1-1 draw at RB Leipzig this week saw marauding yet flaky full-back Djibril Sidibé move forward into a five-man midfield, joined by Youri Tielemans, leaving Radamel Falcao on his own in attack. This is a setup Monaco will look to employ this year for sterner tests against better sides and, although it is a little disappointing to see them reining things in, this is a prudent switch that suits their squad. Tielemans and Moutinho suit a three-man central midfield; Falcao remains adept at leading the line on his own; and moving Sidibé forward plays to his strengths and affords Jardim a little more solidarity on the flanks. They may not overwhelm Champions League teams this season, but Jardim and Monaco remain a threat.
Ligue 1 results
Paris Saint-Germain 2-0 Lyon, Monaco 3-0 Strasbourg, Dijon 0-1 St Étienne, Toulouse 0-1 Bordeaux, Amiens 0-2 Marseille, Nantes 1-0 Caen, Rennes 0-1 Nice, Guingamp 0-1 Lille, Angers 0-1 Metz, Troyes 0-1 Montpellier.
Ligue 1 table
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PSG | 6 | 18 | 18 |
| 2 | Monaco | 6 | 9 | 15 |
| 3 | St Etienne | 6 | 3 | 13 |
| 4 | Bordeaux | 6 | 4 | 12 |
| 5 | Lyon | 6 | 4 | 11 |
| 6 | Marseille | 6 | -1 | 10 |
| 7 | Nantes | 6 | -1 | 10 |
| 8 | Nice | 6 | 2 | 9 |
| 9 | Caen | 6 | 1 | 9 |
| 10 | Guingamp | 6 | -1 | 9 |
| 11 | Angers | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| 12 | Montpellier | 6 | -1 | 7 |
| 13 | Toulouse | 6 | -4 | 7 |
| 14 | Amiens | 6 | -5 | 6 |
| 15 | Rennes | 6 | -1 | 5 |
| 16 | Troyes | 6 | -2 | 5 |
| 17 | Lille | 6 | -3 | 5 |
| 18 | Dijon | 6 | -7 | 4 |
| 19 | Strasbourg | 6 | -7 | 4 |
| 20 | Metz | 6 | -9 | 3 |
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