Having finished on the 3rd spot in 2 out of the last 3 campaigns, Ajaccio were expected to fight for promotion also in the new season but things went quite differently as the Corsicans were initially involved in the fight for survival.
In fact, their start to the season was pretty dramatic as they lost 5 out of the initial 7 games, winning only once and failing to score in 4. The truth is that Ajaccio had lost some of their firepower over the summer and, at the same time, had not really had the time to prepare the new campaign and so they were just not competitive yet.
Having thus fallen down to the 19th spot, they started improving, also thanks to Nouri’s and Courtet’s returns to the club, and, between weeks 8 and 24, they became a team hard to defeat. They lost only 3 times and even managed to reach the peak of their season (9th place). For a moment, coach Pantaloni and his boys even dreamt of a promotion play-off finish.
Unfortunately for them, though, it was not meant to be. Between weeks 25 and 30, they won once but lost 5 and that was a major blow to their ambitions.
Moreover, Ajaccio would close the season with just 1 defeat from the last 8 but they failed to win any of the last 5, and so they had to content themselves with a final 13th place.
While they had a solid defence, with 14 clean sheets, Ajaccio had one of the poorest attacks in Ligue 2, as they scored 34 goals with only bottom-placed Chateauroux producing less (32).
This is not too surprising, if we consider that Moussiti-Oko and Courtet, their top scorers, netted only 8 each. Barreto also did well in terms of goals (5) and assists (6) but, few others contributed.
If coach Pantaloni will still be at the helm of the team in the new campaign and Ajaccio intend to fight for promotion, they absolutely have to acquire a prolific striker over the summer.
