Marked for Aïssa Boudechicha
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Mohamed Boukerma ran the middle of the pitch — 6.70
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.70, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Chemseddine Lakehal, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Salah Mohsen
6 goals and a season average of 7.21 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match19 Dec 2026
It needed Riad Benayad to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against CS Constantine, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Abdoulaye Niakaté falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Chances created: 10. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
Looking ahead21 Dec 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Aïssa Boudechicha’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and ES Setif needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Nov 2026
3‑0, and Salah Mohsen took the headlines on an afternoon when everything ES Setif tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Yanis Hamache was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 8.75 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad30 Nov 2026
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Mohamed Boukerma ran the middle of the pitch — 6.91
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.91, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aïssa Boudechicha, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Abdelhak Bounedjah kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Nov 2026
Nowhere to hide for ES Setif
1‑4 against Paradou, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match21 Nov 2026
The run is over for ES Setif
8 matches without defeat, and then Paradou. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad23 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom23 Nov 2026
Nobody left the ES Setif dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Abdelhak Bounedjah after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohamed Hamek, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 5 saves does not settle it either way.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aïssa Boudechicha trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Nov 2026
ES Setif cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at ES Setif
Daniel Gnahoua and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Nov 2026
A 1‑0 win over USM Khenchela, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.38 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Abdelhak Bounedjah could afford to be generous.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Issam Abdelhamid Naim, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Niakaté is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Mudasiru Salifu
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Kamel Chergui yet — 8.20
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match24 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, ES Setif do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match24 Oct 2026
Olympique Akbou made ES Setif work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aïssa Boudechicha, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Abdelhak Bounedjah kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Abdoulaye Niakaté falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad26 Oct 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. ES Setif have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Tarek Bousseder’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and ES Setif needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Yacine Goudjil at 21 — 7.67
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yacine Goudjil did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Kamel Chergui did the work nobody counts — 6.84
13 combined actions and 6.84. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Riad Benayad’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to ES Setif.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.38, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at ES Setif
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Niakaté was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Merouane Zerrouki’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and ES Setif needing him to play as if none of it matters.