“What did he do at AS Monaco?” - Arsenal legend Thierry Henry slammed by Ligue 1 boss after ‘nonsense’ claim

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry has been slammed by Montpellier manager Michel Der Zakarian for the former's criticism of Ligue 1.

Henry recently took a dig at Ligue 1, labeling it 'boring' largely due to a lack of goal-mouth action. He said (h/t Sun):

"It isn’t even necessarily the lack of goals that are making Ligue 1 boring currently. There is no action, no shots on target."

It is fair to say Der Zakarian did not take the former Arsenal and Barcelona forward's comments well. The Montpellier manager, whose team sit 12th in the table with 12 points and 15 goals in 11 matches, told French outlet Midi Libre:

"I don’t agree with Thierry Henry. Where has he managed? What did he do at AS Monaco? The guy works for the FFF and criticizes French football. It’s nonsense.

"It’s easy to criticize the league when you’re the manager of the France U21 team. He won 4-0 twice but against whom? He hasn’t beaten anyone. If he wins 5-0 against Spain or Italy, I’ll say well done.

Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) [25 and 29, respectively] are the only two teams to have scored more than 17 goals this season. Meanwhile, in the Premier League, all top 11 clubs apart from Manchester United [13 goals] have scored more than 17 times after 12 gameweeks.

That number stands at nine teams for La Liga (after 13 matches) and seven for Serie A (after 13 gameweeks). The race for the French top division is nevertheless very much on, with the top three teams separated by just three points, with PSG leading the way with 27 points.

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A look at Arsenal legend Thierry Henry's managerial career

Thierry Henry's managerial career started at Arsenal, where he was a youth team coach for a year and a half until the summer of 2016. He then became Belgium's assistant manager for a shade over two years until he joined Monaco as their head coach in October 2018.

He took charge of the Ligue 1 club for 20 matches, spending just over three months at the helm. He managed just five wins with the club during that time, and just two of those came in the French top division.

Henry then took charge of Montreal Impact from November 2019 to February 2021 before returning to Belgium as their assistant coach. The 46-year-old is currently serving as France U21's manager after being appointed in August this year.

Henry's team have won four of their five matches during that time, including a 9-0 win against Cyprus U21, and a 4-0 win against Slovenia U21.