Christophe Pélissier’s coaching principles enabling Auxerre to succeed | OneFootball

Playing in their second Ligue 1 campaign over the past three seasons, AJ Auxerre have enjoyed tremendous success in recent times.

The reigning Ligue 2 champions are on a four-match domestic unbeaten run in the top flight this season, with convincing victories over Stade Rennais (4-0) and Olympique de Marseille (3-1) this month.

Their fearless leader is a big reason for their tremendous achievements, with Christophe Pélissier getting the best out of a group of players that few would consider elite.

Pélissier’s track record

Throughout his career as a manager, Pélissier has built up a reputation for doing more with less. The 59-year-old first achieved coaching notoriety at Amiens in 2015-16, taking a side with the third-lowest budget in Ligue 2 into the top flight for the first time in club history.

In 2019, he took charge of FC Lorient, guiding them to a promotion in his first season at the helm. Months after parting ways with Les Merlus in 2022, he came to the Burgundy region of France, replacing Jean-Marc Furlan as manager of Auxerre.

Despite his best efforts, the club suffered relegation in 2022-23. However, they had no problem reclaiming a place in the top tier of French football, winning the Ligue 2 title in 2023-24 and suffering just six defeats along the way.

AJA have made the most of their second chance in Ligue 1 this time around, currently ninth in the table heading into a home fixture with Angers SCO on Sunday.

Pélissier’s coaching philosophy

Without the resources to purchase big-name players, Pélissier has had to employ alternative methods to get the best from his teams.

Punching above their weight is something synonymous with Auxerre, who did that countless times throughout the 90s under legendary manager Guy Roux, who guided them to an improbable Ligue 1 title in 1995-96.

For that reason, Pélissier seemed like an ideal person to take over this team. During his time at Amiens, the man born in Revel said that his number one goal as a manager was to give his team an identity and mindset, allowing everyone to move forward with one common goal. Those principles have resonated at Auxerre as this team have proven to be solid across the board throughout the campaign.

Balanced attack

Despite the struggles of Paul Joly and an injury to Theo Bair earlier in the season, someone always seems to step up at AJA.

Bournemouth loanee Hamed Traoré has been a big part of their early success with five goals and six goal involvements in the league, but collectively this team have been very consistent all season.

Five players have found the back of the net at least once for them in 2024-25. For a team without the budget or resources of Paris Saint-Germain, Marseille and Olympique Lyonnais, to name a few, they have still scored the fourth-most goals in the league.

Balance has enabled this group to achieve so much early into this season, an approach one of the greatest strikers in the history of this club knows well.

Now the forwards coach at Auxerre, Djibril Cissé, finished as top goalscorer in Ligue 1 during the 2001-02 campaign.

After their big win over Marseille, Cissé said “We came with the ambition of scoring. We couldn’t play by just defending. We had to cause them problems. You simply have to give confidence to the players with a game plan and a strategy.”  That approach has enabled Auxerre to be among the biggest surprise stories at this stage of the season.

GFFN | Joel Lefevre