INEOS have spent €70m in transfer fees in just over 12 months at OGC Nice & yet Patrick Vieira is still completely unable to foster any form of cohesive identity, a manager who hurts the confidence of youngsters more than helping them with constant tactical indecision.

The club made an error in not signing another central defender after selling Christophe Hérelle, seeing Malang Sarr depart & knowing that Dante was 37 & vulnerable. But Stanley N'Soki's poor performance today is as much down to his own shortcomings as how mismanaged he's been.

For too long, Nice have gotten away with conceding a high number of chances & creating very little thanks to moments of magic from goalkeeper Walter Benitez, who has the best post-shot expected goals plus/minus in Ligue 1 and, this season, individual brilliance from Amine Gouiri.

Patrick Vieira's only consistent strategy since arriving in 2018 = build chance creation around Pierre Lees-Melou, a model professional, but he doesn't possess the required quickness of thought or passing consistency to marshal an attack that wants to be 1 of the best in Ligue 1.