No Guts, No Story.

AS Saint Etienne vs. Olympique Lyonnais

Coupe de la Ligue 2011-12, Round of 16.

It was this cup victory that sparked the rise of the club in the decade gone by. Coupe de la Ligue is back for another year. Olympique Lyonnais may have moved to bigger, better and eventually more elusive title challenges lately, but a Ligue cup remains an important opportunity not only for clubs from lesser tiers to challenge the top teams, but for established teams to try out the depth of their squads.

This is a topic that has given headaches to both Claude Puel and Remi Garde. When someone is not working well on the first team, who do they turn to? Super subs have their own stints, but they are just that. Stints. Coupe de la Ligue returns this season with more questions on team depth on the back of a run of poor results.

Derby du Rhône # 102.

The first derby in this competition between St. Etienne and Olympique Lyonnais follows a century of savage battles on and off the pitch. Given that history is currently against St. Etienne at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard who haven’t won against Lyon there since 1994, one can go so far as to expect an upset. This is THE time when mental strength, if any, needs to show. The best clubs fight harder when the chips are down. All of PSG, Lille and Real Madrid losses will count for nothing if there is little or no improvement against the fierce city rivals tonight.

St. Etienne may have given up Payet to Lille, but on-fire Pierre Aubameyang has taken the mantle of scoring from him already. He’s scored all of 4 goals and 1 assist in 11 starts so far in Ligue 1 for St. Etienne, which is the entire goal tally of last season for him already.

Where is thy playmaker?

Speaking of rising to the occasion, with the Real Mr. Gourcuff please stand up?

Pep talks can do only so much if the player is too comfortable in his position to try any harder. Benzema said something to that effect too, when he was the lone credible striker up front. That is why Grenier and Ederson, whenever fit, need to be challenging Gourcuff for his place, or taking his place for that matter.

Team needs a breather. After the successful August and September, a burn-out was on the cards any case. Rotating players would help. And hence I shall leave Rémi Garde to surprise you with the team line-up!

Allez Lyonnais!

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Category: French Cups (CdL, CdF, TdC)