by Sam Crocker
Edoaurd Butin’s hopping back out to the bench Saturday night in his game suit was not a sight that fans of Sochaux-Montbéliard wanted to see. His 14th minute injury against Lyon last night meant that he had to be led off the field for treatment, only for the cameras to catch him later on in the match on crutches limping to his seat on the sideline – a man who had very much been the crutches for Sochaux’s attempts to limp out of the Ligue 1 relegation zone.
Ever since the sacking of Mehmet Bazdaravic that sparked the boost in form for FCSM, Butin has exemplified the spark that new manager Erik Hely has injected into the team since his promotion from the backroom in early March, which has seen them win two of their last four games – not bad for a team languishing at the wrong end of the table. Three goals in two games showed that Butin was perhaps about to kick it into top gear for the Ligun 1 run-in, but having been chopped down at the Stade Gerland last night, the fingernails of the players, staff and supporters of Les Lionceaux may be a fair bit shorter this morning.
Butin has been making his way through the Sochaux ranks over the past couple of seasons now, with this campaign the one where he has really broken through and made his mark. Used largely as a substitute in 2010-11 season, his contribution was fairly limited, and with Modibo Maiga banging in the goals, it’s not really much of a surprise that Butin started most of his games on the bench. However, with Maiga this season being considerably less prolific (with his poor form being the aim of much of the criticism of FCSM), as well having his eyes set on move away from Stade Auguste Bonal after reportedly failing a medical at Newcastle in November, Butin has been more than an adequate replacement since Hely finally dropped the out-of-form striker upon his arrival.
Now with Butin out injured, responsibility will once again fall on the shoulders of Modibo Maiga, who Sochaux will be desperately hoping can jump on the new, motivated, Erik Hely bandwagon with the rest of the team and move FCSM out of the drop zone. And, to be fair to Maiga, he had an impact last night when he did replace Butin early on, taking his goal very nicely after rounding Hugo Lloris to score a consolation goal against Lyon.
With a home game against Brest next week, who haven’t won away all season, this is the time for Sochaux to forget about Butin and plough on up the table. The team as a whole has looked a completely different set of players, with Ryad Boudebouz looking excellent and Marvin Martin starting to get back into the swing of things, so hopefully the loss of their in-form striker won’t hit them too hard. Next week’s game is the perfect game to send a message to the congested mid-table above them that FC Sochaux-Montbéliard are looking to climb up the table.