AS Monaco's Challenging Start Under Filipe Luís

AS Monaco’s new era under Filipe Luís hits Ligue 1 this weekend, and it starts far from the Riviera glamour. The Principality side open their league campaign away at Le Havre AC, with a squad already stretched and a manager juggling early-season demands on two fronts.

Luís walks into a storm of absences

This will be only Luís’s second competitive match in charge, but the calendar has offered him no easing-in period. Monaco were already in action on Thursday night, edging Górnik Zabrze 3-2 in the first leg of their UEFA Europa Conference League playoff. The win brings momentum. It also brings fatigue.

And the team sheet is already bruised.

• Christian Mawissa is suspended.
• Jordan Teze, Ansu Fati and new signing Mattias Abline are all sidelined through injury.
• Takumi Minamino and Folarin Balogun have been left out of the matchday squad, with the pair set to be rested after Thursday’s European exertions.

So Luís goes to Le Havre light on options, especially in attack. He also goes there with some new faces asked to grow up fast.

New blood, big responsibility

Manchester City loanee Mathys Detourbet is expected to make his second start for Monaco after featuring in midweek. The same goes for centre-back Sadibou Sané, a summer arrival from Metz who has been pushed straight into the action.

On the left, Flávio Nazinho is in line for his first competitive start in Monaco colours after joining from Cercle Brugge. A new manager, a new full-back, a reshaped spine — this is not a gentle tweak of last season’s side; it’s a reboot on the fly.

The pressure from Europe, the absentees, the need to set a tone in Ligue 1: it all funnels into this opening trip.

How Monaco are likely to line up

According to projections, Monaco are expected to set up at Le Havre with:

Lukas Hradecky; Flávio Nazinho, Eric Dier, Sadibou Sané, Vanderson; Mathys Detourbet, Lamine Camara, Denis Zakaria, Mamadou Coulibaly; Mika Biereth, Aleksandr Golovin. (L’Éq)

Experience in Dier, Zakaria and Golovin. Youth and uncertainty around them. It’s a blend that could either creak under pressure or explode into something exciting.

The first clues about which way this project is heading will come on the Normandy coast.