Former Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf has warned that Arsenal legend Thierry Henry and the experienced players at Monaco will face a stiff challenge to avoid relegation from Ligue 1 this season as they are not familiar with the situation.
Henry, who took over at his former club Monaco following the sacking of Leonardo Jardim in October, has yet to win a single game as coach of the club.
Monaco are currently languishing in 19th in the table with just seven points, and have shipped eight goals without scoring one in their last two outings across all competitions.
Henry has often been mooted as a future Arsenal manager, but now he is now staring at the daunting prospect of trying to pull off a miraculous escape from relegation this season in his first managerial post.
Leboeuf, who won the World Cup alongside Henry in 1998, believes his former team-mate and the experienced players at Monaco are not prepared to fight a relegation scrap.
The former Chelsea defender added that the challenge is getting harder for Monaco and they have not been handed any favours with injuries.
“The challenge is getting harder and harder”, Leboeuf said on ESPN FC.
“I think he has like 15 injured players and I do realise that Thierry, even as a player, never had to fight for the relegation.
“So he does not know the spirit, he does not know psychologically how to enter that with the players.
“And those players, I’m talking for the experienced players of Monaco, when they are not injured, they don’t know how to fight with the relegation either.
“I’m talking about [Radamel] Falcao, [Kamil] Glik, Jemerson, they don’t know how to fight against relegation.”
Monaco will next face Caen in a crucial relegation six-pointer on Saturday at the Stade Michel d’Ornano when Ligue 1 returns to action after the international break.
