Has AS Monaco’s 23/24 Season Gone Under the Radar?
Prior to the 2023/24 Ligue 1 season, AS Monaco had finished third in two of the last three campaigns. However, few expected Les Rouge et Blanc to be capable of going one better and becoming Paris Saint-Germain’s (PSG) main title rivals. However, that’s what happened in 2023/24, as Monaco clinched the runners-up spot, six points clear of third-placed Brest.
Although Monaco have won the Ligue 1 title twice in the 21st century, this season’s achievement appears to have flown under the radar of European football fans. It’s true that the microstate’s primary sporting event is the F1 Grand Prix held around its narrow and winding street circuit, so the football team often gets overlooked. It’s an historic race, which means everything to the F1 community. So much so that the likes of Nicholas Latifi, who’s raced around the world in F1 for Williams, agreed to wear a one-off helmet to commemorate the team’s 750th race, coinciding with the Monaco Grand Prix.
This race attracts around 200,000 spectators to Monte-Carlo, which is more than ten times the capacity of AS Monaco’s Stade Louis II. However, fans have been flocking in their droves to Stade Louis II this season, as Les Monegasques have been regenerated under Austrian head coach, Adi Hutter.
Understanding the ‘Hutter effect’
After 34 matches this season, Monaco had won 20 of them, just two less than eventual champions, PSG. They were comfortably the league’s second-highest scorers, notching 68 goals at an average of exactly two goals per game.
The primary objective for Monaco this season was to qualify for the UEFA Champions League once again. After all, Monaco had finished the 2022-23 Ligue 1 season somewhat miserably in sixth place. This led to the sacking of Philippe Clement, with Hutter replacing the Belgian. Thiago Scuro was also appointed as the club’s new director of football, reinforcing the club’s new direction.
Monaco’s season is heavily indebted to the form of forward, Wissam Ben Yedder. After scoring 19 and 25 goals in the 22/23 and 21/22 Ligue 1 seasons respectively, Ben Yedder wasn’t quite able to replicate those heights. Nevertheless, at 16 goals in 32 appearances, he was able to average a goal every other game. It was the perfect way for Ben Yedder to sign-off from Les Rouge et Blanc, with the 33-year-old out of contract and departing the French Riviera this summer.
A deep dive into AS Monaco’s 23/24 output
Looking more closely at Monaco’s season data, it’s clear the Principality club was hyper-clinical this term. They overachieved their Expected Goals (xG) by 11.93 goals, the highest differential in Ligue 1. It’s equally easy to see that their away form was the bedrock of their surge into second place. Hutter’s men won almost three-fifths (59%) of their road trips this season. In fact, Monaco have only had a better win rate away from home in three seasons, with their best (68%) coming in 2016/17.
Another major feather in the cap of Hutter and his squad is that the goal contributions were shared throughout the roster. In fact, 22 players were involved in at least one goal or assist this season. This is more than any other Ligue 1 side, further demonstrating that this year was a real team effort at Stade Louis II.
As for next season, the biggest challenge for Hutter and Scuro will be to retain and build a squad capable of competing on both domestic and continental fronts. Scuro has already indicated on the club’s official website that they will do all they can to hold onto their biggest assets and look to progress through the group stages of the Champions League.
Speaking of assets, they’re unlikely to be more valuable than Ivorian full back, Wilfried Singo, who has proven to be a formidable one-v-one defender. With no AFCON or Asian Cup to consider next winter, Hutter is likely to have a full-strength squad for the bulk of the 24/25 season. Although PSG are in a league of their own financially speaking, if Monaco can assert themselves as the ‘best of the rest’ they’ll be in good shape to reassert themselves at the top table of European football.