Campbell sheds some light on Jeunesse Esch

St. Patrick's Athletic's opposition analyst Dave Campbell has shed some light on Tuesday night's Europa League opponents, Jeunesse Esch.

The Luxembourg outfit aren't entirely unknown to League of Ireland fans after they were beaten 5-1 on aggregate by Dundalk in the same competition in 2014. However, as is perhaps the nature of most sides from the smaller footballing countries, their squad is drastically different now than it was back then. Only seven of the current squad were at the club for the tie against the Lilywhites.

Even the Esch the Saints will face in Richmond Park on Tuesday could be considered radically different from the one which finished fourth in Luxembourg's National Division last season – they have signed eight new players with nine departing the Stade de la Frontière.

When asked by Extratime.ie if this turnover made it harder for him to scout the opposition, Campbell replied, “Absolutely.” However, the 46 year old added that they may not be a stronger outfit for the changes, with one of the Esch departures being Momar N'Diaye, the striker who netted 24 goals in Luxembourg last season.

“They've possibly lost their two best players from last year to Dudelange who won the league, so all things being equal that won't make them stronger,” said Campbell. “It makes them a bit more of an unknown quantity, but with the same manager we'd expect them to play the same style of play.

“So, rather than overload the players with individual stuff, it's real, 'This is the overall shape'. I don't see the manager changing, managers don't usually change. They'll have their own problems bedding in the new players as well, so hopefully that will be a chance for us to capitalize on that as well.”

Campbell was able to clarify how current Esch manager Carlo Weis, the former Luxembourg international, likes to set up his teams – and it's a style of play which sounds like it could be turned to the advantage of a ball playing side like Pat's.

“They play a very defensive game, even in home games in the league,” explained Campbell. “They play a kind-of 5-4-1 without the ball which flicks around to a kind-of a 3-4-3 when they get the ball. So in league games, even at home, they tend to sit in and try to hit teams on the counter-attack and I wouldn't expect them to do any different tomorrow.

“The one thing about our squad, they're all good footballers and the European game is more about getting the ball down and it suits us down to the ground,” added Campbell. “We expect to have huge amounts of possession tomorrow, so hopefully we look after the ball and we'll do okay.”

Esch played two behind-closed-doors friendlies last week, losing 2-0 on the Tuesday and 1-0 on the Friday. Campbell was unable to acquire teamsheets for those games which would have been useful as a guide to the set-up of this new look Esch outfit. With the Saints currently midseason, it could be said Esch have an advantage in the analysis stakes.

“Well, they could do, but having said that you could have all the information in the world, once the whistle blows it's all different,” Campbell replied in response to that question. “It's about the players taking on the instructions and carrying out the instructions as well. You can always have individual mistakes.

“They could be bogged down with information and videos and the whole lot. We've had a lot of changes from last year, player-wise. We've a big squad now, the players don't know the team for tomorrow, so they [Esch] won't know it either. So if they try to concentrate on stopping one player that may or may not be playing, it could be to our advantage as well.”

The flip side is that Esch are currently out of season, but Campbell doesn't view this as being an advantage for Pat's given that the National Division in Luxembourg only concluded at the end of May.

“They've only finished a month ago,” said Campbell. “They possibly took two weeks off, so they wouldn't have lost their fitness in that time. They've a big turnover players-wise so they have to bed them in as well, so we'll wait and see. All games in Europe are tough, but we'd be hopeful that if we perform well we'll get through.”