Thierry Henry Monaco Debut Marred by Careless Errors
Thierry Henry's managerial career at Monaco got off to the worst possible start as his side suffered defeat at the hands of Strasbourg, in a match which will be remembered for all the wrong reasons for Henry's men.
Monaco fell into the Ligue 1 relegation zone following the 2-1 defeat and is only ahead of bottom-side Guingamp on goal difference. The current season has been disastrous for Monaco, who has won just one match all season.
Strasbourg took the lead after 17 minutes when 22-year-old Monaco goalkeeper Seydou Sy failed to deal with a routine effort and allowed Adrien Thomasson to open the scoring. Monaco looked for an equalizer, but failed to test Strasbourg goalkeeper Matz Sels.
With 64 minutes gone, Henry introduced 22-year-old Sameul Grandsir to match, but the winger's appearance would only last two minutes after he was shown a red card for catching an opponent in the face with his boot.
Lebo Mothiba netted a second for Strasbourg, before Youri Tielemans pulled a goal back with a late penalty. However, they could not avoid defeat and Henry, who won two Premier League titles during his time with Arsenal, admitted that it was a challenging start to life as a manager.
He was quoted by Sky Sports after the match, saying: "It wasn't easy, we tried to put something in place which worked at the beginning, and then we conceded that goal that I don't need to describe... human error, I don't want to wipe the floor with anyone.
"Then we tried to change the game, and unfortunately Sam (Grandsir) is sent off. After that it was even harder, but we still tried to keep playing.
"But I want to keep positive despite the negatives... The game could have turned in our favor, but it didn't. In addition, we lost (Radamel) Falcao at the beginning. It wasn't the dream scenario."
Monaco, who won the Ligue 1 title in 2017, now finds itself 24 points behind league leaders Paris Saint-Germain. Henry, who was heavily linked with the managerial job at Aston Villa before joining Monaco, certainly needs to find a solution to its inexplicably poor start to the season.
