BORDEAUX VS. LYON
By: John | April 18th, 2009
The sh$t has finally hit the fan and OL are trying not to get left in the dust by Bordeaux and Marseilles.
Sun, 19 April, 2009
Stade Chaban Delmas, Bordeaux
3 PM ET (21:00 CET, 20:00 GMT)
Sunday, Lyon travel to Bordeaux to try to take three from Les Girondins who are currently breathing down OL’s neck, being just one place and one point behind Lyon. It will be a battle between the number two offense-Bordeaux- and the number three defense-Lyon. OL have put their own feet to the fire now, after drawing with Monaco last week and falling into second, losing the top spot in the league which they’ve been in control of since week four. Lyon’s complacency have put them in precarious position: with the top six teams so close together, OL could possibly end up out of the CL all together at season’s end. Lyon are just one point behind first placed Marseilles(NOTE: I’ve posted this early Sat morning so many of the facts here will be altered since Lyon play late Sun night), and only one ahead of Bordeaux. Yet the disturbing part is that they are behind in goal differential to both teams: six goals behind OM and two points behind Les Girondins; only four points seperate Lille, Toulouse, and PSG who all have (56). But if Lyon can sneak a win, they will put five points between themselves and Bordeaux; with only five matches left, this could knock Les Girondins out of the race.
OL have seemed to become mired in mediocrity ever since late November- after the week 15 loss PSG- when they hit a bad patch, picking-up only one point in nine matches. Since then, there have only been occasional signs of life e.g., the first leg of the CL vs. Barca, against Sochaux, and vs. Le Mans. Indeed this squad has devolved into a disparate group of complacent incumbents: coach, veterans and newcomers alike. Not very much emotion has surfaced on the part of the players during this sorry stretch, but after last weekend, our two Brazilian veterans, captain and co-captain Juninho and Cris, finally showed some signs of blood flowing throught their veins, with Juni giving the team a harsh rebuke in the press- although his comments are sort of ambigous to me; Cris preferring to voice his outrage on the pitch- from what I’ve heard.
HISTORY: Lyon have a losing record against Bordeaux: 11-14-19, although Bordeaux haven’t won in the last ten meetings- back in May of ‘99. OL took the first meeting of the season a Gerlande, 2-1 in week fourteen, but going in to Stade Chaban Delmas
this season, with Bordeaux’s season on the line and expecting to come out with a win is a very tall order.
Bordeaux’s Current Form:
Bordeaux are in third with fifty-nine points and a 17-8-6 record, but they lead OL in point differential- 21 to 19. They are second in attack with (50)goals- Lyon follow in third with (43)- and are fifth in defense with (29) allowed- OL is third with (24).
Les Girondins are undefeated and second in wins at home, behind Lille, with a 10-5-0 record in league play; they are tied with Rennes for the fewest home losses (0). Bordeaux have a four-game winning streak going, with only one loss in their last eight matches; they’ve been on fire since late November since they exited the CL, losing only twice since their week fourteen loss to Lyon; away to Marsielles and Toulouse.
Le groupe: Lloris, Vercoutre – Réveillère, Clerc, Mensah, Bodmer, Cris, Boumsong, Grosso, Juninho, Makoun, Toulalan, Källström, Pjanic, Mounier, Piquionne, Ederson, Keita, Benzema, Fabio Santos.
Injuires: just Delgado and Govou. Toulalan was 50/50 before today- recovering from a metatarsal fracture in his foot- but it looks like his presence is really needed so he’s been included in the group. Juninho missed a bunch of practices this week, he has an inflamation of the patellar tendon in the right knee(tendon rotulien), but hopefully he is now fully rested-up for Le Choc.
Line-up: Hopefully, Puel ends his Ederson-as-striker experiment, and either puts Benzema back in his spot; Ederson’s needed elswhere on the pitch. Who knows what the hell Puel will throw-out there. I think it may be a 4-2-3-1 with Juni and Makoun as the DMs to slow down Gourcuff. And unfortunately Keita gets the start over Pjanic since I doubt Puel will start a youngling in such and important match.
Lloris
Clerc-Cris-Boumsong-Grosso
Juninho-Makoun
Keita-Ederson-Kallstrom
Benzema
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Lyon are reportedly tracking-Yohann Gourcuff,Alessandro Rosina,Yohan Cabaye,Hernan(Sao Paulo),Michel Bastos,Tranquilo Barnetta,Richarlyson,Niko Kranjcar,Amantino Mancini,Mario Gomez,Erding,Bafe Gomis,Gignac,Keirrison,Dentinho and Kleber(Cruzeiro). By the way just to make it clear these players arent my ideas they are on Lyons Mercato365 list,these players are reportedly being “tracked” by OL,fantastically there are no defenders names linked with us-sensible.
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Juan Daniel Forlin he is a CB for Boca who Lyon are also wanting(last post I swear)I would have done on big post but it never lets me,it only lets me do the size of the paragraphs you can see I have done
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Ronan: the holes you point-out in the squad are right-on-the-money. I don’t know how anyone thinks we can get far with this current squad. We have one striker, the CBs can’t stand-up to CL attackers, we have no left-wing(Ben Arfa was never replaced), our right wing is a gapping hole without Govou, and we are thin at left back. All we have going for us are the keeper, right back- if Clerc regains his form- and the center field axis of Eder-Toul-Mak. The rest of team- aside from Benzema, Grosso, Govou and Pjanic maybe- is disposable. I still love Juni, but I think he has alot less left in the tank than we all thought: I think next season will be his last, and he’ll probably play from the bench alot; one of the many reasons why I think Bastos is an absolutely crucial signing. I’ve only been watching OL for two or three seasons, but it seems to me that recruiting of young, talented and INEXPENSIVE players has gone down in that the quality of lesser known L1 and other players isn’t the same i.e., we aren’t recruiting the Essiens/ Diarras/ Brazilians anymore. With the exception of Toulalan, I don’t see us picking up great, young players cheaply anymore. It seemed like we used to replace quality with younger quality before, but it seems to be less and less the case. Aulas is paying through the nose for most of these mediocre players he’s bringing in. Maybe it’s that he has to pay more to win-out over the bigger clubs.
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Whoever criticizes Aulas must really be blind… We wouldn’t be in L1 if Aulas wasn’t there. We would never have won any championnat.
You say Aulas is a dumb ass for not buying good players… he brought in the best L1 players in the last seasons. On paper, we have a way stronger squad than Marseille, Bordeaux or PSG.I just don’t get how you could all criticize Perrin so easily and say that Puel did everything he could and that it is not his fault. We lost Coupet, Squillaci and replaced them with Lloris (very good this season) and Boumsong (who was one of our best player this season too!). Of course Coupet had an big influence in the changing room, but still, he is not a reason for Lyon not scoring any goals!
Puel is in my opinion the main reason for Lyon’s recent poor performances. He is defence-minded, he is anti-football, he is actually all I hate about football…
I was always a defenser of Perrin, and this year conforts me in my choice.I will say this as a Lyon fan: whoever criticizes Aulas knows nothing about Lyon.
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I forgot to include Boumsong in my list for “keepers.” He’s been one of my favorite players this year.
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No I wouldnt keep Boumsong,I dont think hell ever be a centre back who you can rely on for 30-35 games a season without making errors,I really dont rate him at all hes had a torrid time in England and Italy,and if hes not good enough for Juve or Newcastle why should he be good enough for us ? He lacks leadership,pace,concentration and often his positional scense can be called in to question. No doubt hes had some good games for OL this season but on the other hand he has had unsavoury ones more than once as well-you wouldnt see anyother team bigger than Lyon fielding him in the first elevan would you(You cant include France because everyone is gobsmacked when Boumsong is picked in the squad anyway.)Anyway of course hes imprssed at times this season seeing as a lot of the time hes had midfielders and teenagers playing with him. I can just imagine it-Lyon are in the CL final(Highly unlikely I know)and its 1-0 Lyon with five minutes left and Boumsong makes a collosal mistake which leads to are defeat it would be awful-hes not a good centre back,trust me.
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Pride of Lyon-My words were”Aulas has taken us up the hill and hell take us down it”which means yes im not denying he did a great job at bring lyon to this stage-really great BUT he has taken us that far and I really dont see how(judging by the last 3/4 seasons of similar results)hes going to take us further especiaaly when you look at my previous points from my last paragraphs-if he stays in charge for the next five years I can see lyon being a uefa cup team by then-you must see it makes sense.By the way I rate Marseilles squad as stronger than ours especially offensively and defensively. I think we are the same as Bordeaux squad and better than PSG.I didnt criticize perrin, my arguement was the same as for Puel-that it was Aulas who was the main problem-plus how can you expect a manager to run a succesful team if all policies including recruitment are not his choice-it just doesnt work because he has diffent ideas about signings and sales than to the boared,not to mention youth and etc
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Finally you say Puel is “defence minded”-well genrally when your offence is crap and with no depth you dont play free flowing attacking football like if you had Arshavin-Ronaldo-Messi playing behind Torres,with Xavi and Toulalan as defencive mids-I mean its quite obvious really.Lyon dont have the attacking quality to do attacking football and even more importantly if we play attacking football instead of defencive football whats going to happen to are defnce ???Its not like we have a Ferdinand-Vidic partnership at the back,in that area we are poor-fairweather at the very best,so you play open attacking football and then the defence gets blitzed on a gamely basis-not very clever. For that kind of football we just dont have the players for it-I mean Keita for god sake-pass and move,pass and move,through ball ? I dont think so. By the way Squillaci is better than Boumsong-way better,hence Lyon chose Mensah to replace Toto not Boumsong.
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Ronan, actually Boumsong shut down Messi completely in the first game at home versus Barca. I also think that he was one of Lyon’s best players this season.
I think the biggest problems this season stemmed from lack of motivation and I think that can be linked to the style of play that Lyon were forced to play. Lyon have always been known for attractive, attacking football, but this season OL were told to play ugly. I think the veterans like Juninho and maybe even Benzema were really effected buy the change in tactics. Look at Benzema this season compared to last season. Its like two entirely different players. Last season he was having the time of hsi life, enjoying football to the max. This season its like he’d rather be somewhere else.
I used to support continuity in the coach but that was before I realized that the coach was probably the main reason why the players weren’t motivated to play.
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dont have time to translate this quote from Aulas but its crazy
“Claude Puel était l’homme idoine à l’époque, et aujourd’hui je bénis le ciel de l’avoir choisi sur proposition de Bernard Lacombe. Si Lille réussit bien aujourd’hui, ce n’est pas dû essentiellement au nouvel entraîneur tout de même! Si on ne gagne rien cette saison, ce ne sera pas de la responsabilité de Claude Puel. C’est l’an prochain qu’on saura ce qu’il peut apporter. J’ajouterai que si on avait effectué une seconde année avec Alain Perrin, le groupe aurait explosé. Parfois, il n’y a pas que le résultat qui compte.”He basically says that puel is the best coach possible at Lyon and that he thanks heaven for him and that Perrin would have been a complete failure in his second season in charge at Lyon!
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Wooaaaw… I’m really shocked at this Aulas quote. I can agree on the “It is next year that we will find out what Puel can bring to the club”. But at the same time, I don’t want to see my beloved team play ugly soccer…
Also, I don’t think Lyon made big mistakes in their previous signings. We all wanted Keita and Bodmer after their season in Lille. We all wanted Makoun, Ederson, Lloris and even Mensah after their respective seasons.
The thing is that building a soccer team is a bit like cooking. If you put too many different ingredients and spices, you will kill the dish and lose all the flavours. After the crucial 6 games (to qualify for champions league), we will need to balance our spices…Posted from
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I don’t often (it’s even something of a rare event) agree with Ronan, and his reaction here is still something I don’t agree with. I’d point out all the point where we don’t agree, but I think it’s easier and simpler to take one quick point : “By the way I rate Marseilles squad as stronger than ours especially offensively and defensively.”
Marseille’s offense is arguably better than Lyon’s in depth (Benzema is better than anyone Marseille have, but Brandao/Koné are better second string players than Piquionne), but that is only since Fred left. In midfield, Marseille are far from as good as Lyon. Toulalan-Makoun or Cheyrou-Mbami? Govou on the right wing or Valbuena? Ben Arfa/Niang on the left wing are perhaps the only players who are better than OL’s choice there. And it’s not just the starters. Defensive midfield? Toulalan, Makoun, Fabio Santos (eventually Bodmer or Källström, even if it’s not their position) are better than Cana, Mbia and Kaboré (although Cheyrou often plays in a defensive role, he is a more offensive-minded player). Offensive central midfield? Juninho, Ederson, Källström, Bodmer and Pjanic are more than a match for Cheyrou, Ben Arfa, Valbuena and Ziani. Wingers? Ben Arfa is better on the left wing, but Govou is better on the right. Afterwards, Delgado, Keita, Pjanic, Ederson and Källström are pretty much on par with Valbuena, Zenden, Ziani and Wiltord… Defence is pretty much the same problem. Taiwo is perhaps better than Grosso (although I am not convinced, having seen Taiwo be so many times completely out of his depth in the Champions’ League, matches where Grosso always turns up and puts in a good game), and Bonnart is useful since he can play on both sides of the defence. But Zubar? Civelli? Hilton? Rodriguez? Tyrone Mears? Cris-Boumsong-Mensah hasn’t been a fantastic defensive solution this season, but compared to Marseille’s center-back pairings, they’re the holy grail.
If I was asked to pick two teams from the two squads (mixed); these are what they would be :
First XI : 4-3-3 :
Mandanda – Bonnart, Cris, Mensah, Grosso – Toulalan, Juninho, Cana – Govou, Benzema, Niang
Second XI : 4-5-1 :
Lloris – Clerc, Boumsong, Hilton, Taiwo – Valbuena, Cheyrou, Ederson, Makoun, Ben Arfa – KonéLyon this season had various injury problems (Clerc, Reveillère, Mensah, Grosso, Bodmer, Govou and probably others I have forgotten), something Marseille haven’t really had. It didn’t stop Lyon qualifying from their group in the CL nor allow Marseille to be anything better than distinctly average in the CL. Even in the UEFA Cup, Marseille have shown their limits. Twente only lost on penalties, Ajax took the game to extra time (despite being nothing like the brilliant team they were in the 1990s), and Shaktar pretty roundly dismissed any claim Marseille could have to the UEFA Cup by dominating them in Ukraine, and then Marseille compounded it by being inept at attacking and defending at home. The argument that Marseille are offensively superior to Lyon is a pretty hard claim to make when they had 30+ shots… And only got 2 on target. (Samassa’s miss was pretty epic though.) Defensively, they had nothing to do and still conceded two goals. Shaktar were prepared to let Marseille do the running and play catch-up, so conceding two goals isn’t brilliant. Lyon had bad games too, but they also put in games where they outmatched far superior opponents (Barça at Gerland?)… I’m pretty sure Marseille wouldn’t have succumbed to a 6-3 defeat against Barça, but a much heavier one.
Anyway, we all have our opinion on where the problem stems. The ones I support have been put forth very well by Pride of Lyon and lefutur, so there’s little point in me just re-writing them yet again.
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Well you lot will see when lyon keep the exact same team for next season and they get completely fucked up. The aim for Aulas is to win the CL,and if you ask yourself is the squad strong enough to win the Cl the answer is-NO(if the answer is yes you are a crack head)then obviously Lyons squad isnt good enough. Shazback, interesting how you only found one line to disagree with me out of about six paragraphs. By the way My team would be Mandanda,Clerc,Hilton,Mensah,Taiwo,Toulalan,Cana,Ederson,BenArfa,Valbuena,Benzema. You are all actually stupid if you cant see Lyon have a weak team on a CL level and that its not Aulas fault.
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and you are “actually stupid” if you think real life football is like a video game where you can buy all the best players (tough your lists are filled with some VERY poor players) and win everything – teams who tried that all failed hard.
this years squad + Bastos and Remy could go pretty far, but sure, if we buy the europe all-star team it could go farther -_-Posted from
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Dror-Only Remy and Bastos and no defenders-shows how much you know about Lyon I mean Im actually really pissed off with some people here who believe Lyons backline is as good as Motta-Ferdinand-Vidic-Clichy. I mean Im serious do you guys have a clue about football-anyone who thinks that a backline of Clerc-Cris(on current form)-Boumsong-Grosso as the whole defence meaning without any backup is good-well those just baffle me-and Im not the only one clearly as Aulas had to defend his running of the club yesterday through much criticizm. Oh and by the way You pleb, I dont remember mentioning the likes of Messi and Ronaldo to sign-Cetto,Ignashevich,Sakho,Mancini,Remy,Guerrero,De La Red,Erding and Fabio are hardly box office names are they, I mean geez if you consider them “unlikely” and “dream signings” then fuck me who do you suggest to sign Jeremy Laslands ? Another thing I dont get the two players you mention are in my list of players to sign-and yet you criticize-how does that work ?
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I meen forgodsake surely Lyon are capable of signing an out of contract Erding or any other french ligue player, I mean Dror do you consider Cetto for example an out of reach dream signing because we should all be worried if you do,because that makes me wonder If I have confused Lyon with Le Havre maybe ?I dont think so big boy !”This years squad plus Bastos and Remy” well that will be interesting to see if you get much further than this season really seeing as you consider shit centre backs,1 left back and 1 descent striker as acceptable for a big club(any club for that matter).As for the football game thing-interesting-do you have a football game or ever played one-no I havent either-the difference is you have copied other bloggers from there ideas about it ie Shazback and Lefutur-nice to see you reading everyones views and then using there ideas against me.Pathetic,that you cant accept my opinion-especially seeing as Im write.
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Most of the people on heres Lyon team
Llors
Reveillere-Cris-Boumsong-Grosso
Ederson-Makoun-Toulalan
Govou-Benzema-BastosMy Lyon team-
Llors
Clerc-Ignashevich-Sakho-Grosso
Toulalan-Makoun
Mancini-Ederson-Bastos
BenzemaPosted from
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How on earth does that first line up match up to
Valdes,Alves,Puyol,Marquez,Abidal,Messi,Toure,Xavi,Iniesta,Henry,Eto o(add to that lineup who ever else barca sign come summer)
Or maybe you guys think lyons current first 11 could comfortably beat-
Van Der Sar,Rafael,Ferdinand,Vidic,Evra,Carrick,Scholes,Ronaldo,Rooney,Tevez,Berbatov(add to that lineup who ever else man u sign come summer)hhhmmmmm my gut feeling is that Barca or Man U would rape lyon offence,wing, and especially defence-fuck me it would be about 4-0
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I am… Such a biter. Such a horrible biter. But I can’t resist it! SOMEONE IS DISAGREEING WITH ME OVER THE INTERNET!
Oh well, I’ll just point out the bits I disagree with and try to keep my remarks concise (wishful thinking 101).
“[T]he title is Marseille[']s to lose[.]” – And Bordeaux’s to lose. And Lyon’s to lose. Any team that wins all their remaining games will probably win the league. Thank you Dr Obvious.
“[S]eeing as winning two in a row has been a major acheivement this season[.]” – In the league, Lyon have one 5-win streak : 23-Aug-08 vs Grenoble 2-0, 31-Aug-08 @ St Etienne 1-0, 13-Sep-08 vs Nice 3-2, 20-Sep-08 @ Le Havre 1-0, 27-Sep-08 vs Nancy 2-1. Lyon has also had a four-win streak. Marseille (whom you seem to think so highly of) have also only one streak of five wins in a row (currently in progress), but… No other winning streak of more than three games. Bordeaux have two streaks of five wins in a row (one currently in progress). By your logic, it’s equally improbable that any of the top 3 teams will win their remaining 6 games. So what’s the point? That Lyon have lost because Marseille and Bordeaux have racked up winning streaks like crazy this season, so Lyon can’t catch them now they’re in front?
“[W]e need Marseille to drop points which is looking unlikely.” – Not really. If they get more than 14 points from their remaining 6 games, I’d be pretty surprised.
“Poor squad,unbalanced squad,lack of depth,cowardly manager,deluded presidant. All factors which have lead to this I think 6/7 players HAVE to go and 7/8 players have to come in for next season.” – I’m not even going to comment on this. It’s border trolling. Name a single club that took out 6/7 players and brought in 7/8 players and had a successful season.
“Puel out and the take your pick. Gian Pierro Gasperini Manuel Pellegrini Dick Advocaat Didier Deschamps” – Three managers who don’t speak French? That’s probably a good start. But what takes the cake is when you actually think about the managers’ current situation. Advocaat has the resources of Gazprom to push Zenit into the big boys’ playground, Pellegrini is the manager of a club that is arguably bigger than Lyon (better CL results, playing in a better league, etc.)… Deschamps and Gasperini are the only ones that might have any incentive to join the club, and Gasperini might find it more interesting to stick with Genoa who have more than a bit of spare change and could be a good launch-pad for his career towards one of the “big” Italian clubs. But I don’t want to distract you from the facts. How about we add Hiddink, Benitez, Guardiola or Ferguson to that list? Or Mourinho!
“I mean how is Piquionne and Karim [...] Cris,Boumsong and Mensah [...] Grosso [...] strong enough [...] ?” – 2005/06, Lyon got to the quarter-finals and were only a few minutes away from the semi-finals. They won the Ligue 1 title with such a huge margin they could have forfeited the last few games and still have won the title. Must have been a fabulous team, no? Who was first choice striker? Surely someone much better than Benzema (since they did so much better) or Fred (who has been phased out by Benzema)? Well, Carew. Defense? Cris, Caçapa, Diatta and Müller were dishing it out. They were so much better than Cris, Boumsong and Mensah. So much. Especially Diatta and Caçapa. Grosso? Abidal might have been a better player, but he didn’t have any more cover than Grosso currently has. Unless you think Monsoreau or Berthod were any better than Källström at left back… Lyon never had a lot of depth in their squad. It didn’t stop them winning in the past, and no matter who wins the league this season, they won’t have more (if as much) depth as Lyon have. You could have made the same argument three years ago and it would have made just as much sense… Carew and Fred up front? Cris, Caçapa and Müller in defence? Abidal with no cover?
“For me its Aulas-his judgement in sales is disgraceful,I really dont have to go through the number of good players hes let go,most of his signings suck,hes totally deluded about what team and environment it takes to win a European cup,he never backs his mangers even though its not there fault,he always falls out with other clubs so signing any of there players in the future makes it harder” – Major “wut” point. When he let Malouda and Abidal leave and signed Grosso and Keita, a lot of people at Gerland were saying it was a great move. He fought as hard has he could to keep Essien and Diarra, but when they wouldn’t even come to training, the breaking point was obviously reached. But… Weren’t Essien, Diarra, Cris, Juninho, Coupet, Lloris, Toulalan and Sonny Anderson his signings? I must have missed the part where he was replaced by an evil alter ego who has no idea who is good and who is bad. But -obviously- you knew Essien and Diarra were great players before they joined Lyon, just like Juninho was a great midfield organiser, and so many other uncovered gems. The last point is the most ridiculous though… What club has “good” relations with another club? Man U? Liverpool? Chelsea? Arsenal? Barça? Real Madrid? Sevilla? AC Milan? Juventus? Inter Milan? Club presidents know fully well that there is natural tension between big clubs (and even semi-big clubs), and there’s no amount of “good relationships” between clubs of a similar level that will make transfer dealings easier. Lyon are far from the level of polarisation that certain clubs have (notably Man U and Liverpool with Heinzegate), and the only examples of clubs that have particular bad blood with Lyon are Bordeaux, Marseille and PSG… Even there though, it’s far from the level of rivalry between Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, the Milans and Juve or Barça-Atlé-Real. The only signing that Lyon have reportedly had a strong interest in and were snubbed by both the club and player was Ribéry. For all Marseille’s talk about “never selling to Lyon”, they parted pretty easily with Pedretti and took Ben Arfa without any problems (can you imagine a Barça player joining Madrid in similar circumstances?); Bordeaux don’t have any problems with Lyon apart from the quite normal desire to build a strong side, and have repeatedly said that all their players have a price, and if Lyon matches them, they won’t stop their players from leaving; PSG don’t seem to mind either about Luyindula coming from Lyon, nor do they seem to be the kind of club that would turn down a good offer because it’s from a rival club. Teams don’t sell players on the cheap because they’re “in good terms” with the buyer except if they’re players that the club deems surplus to requirements and there’s an obvious reason to maintain particularly good relationships (Man U and Bury have very good relationships, mainly because MU use Bury’s ground as home pitch for the reserve side, and because it’s very practical for Man U to be able to loan their players to Bury at the drop of a hat). Lyon don’t have particularly good nor bad relations with any club, so I can’t see any validity to this argument.
“Deschamps/Advocaat,Ignashevich, Cetto,Sakho,Bastos,Mancini, Remy,Jose Guerrero and Mevlut Erding,De La Red and Fabio(Man united LB on loan maybe) all in.” – Whatever you’re on must be pretty good. Sakho joining Lyon? When he’s one of the rare PSG fans in PSG’s squad (like Rothen)? I think he’d prefer to go abroad rather than join Lyon. Mancini? The mind boggles at why he’d want to join a team that’s doing worse than Roma in a league that’s supposedly worse. On a big, big transfer why not, but that would almost instantly require selling very important players (Benzema, Lloris, Toulalan) to finance it or not buying anybody else. Erding? 9 goals this season (3 in his first 4 games, 6 in the 26 games since)… He’s a decent striker (better than Piquionne without a doubt), but if he’s meant to be a major improvement, I think the point will be missed. I haven’t seen many teams this season that marked Sochaux as a hard match because of him. Unlike Gignac at Toulouse, for instance. If you really want to take someone from Sochaux, surely Sverkos is a better player, despite being a lot older. Or if you want someone from the relegation battle there’s also Savidan and Alassanne, or even Gomis… Mauro “My last 5 ligue 1 finishes are 17th (Toulouse 2007/08, 24 games), 20th (Nantes, 2006/07, 29 games), 14th (Nantes, 2005/06, 29 games), 17th (Nantes, 2004/05, 26 games) and 6th (Nantes, 2003/04, 2 games)” Cetto? Mauro “Yep guys, I helped relegate Nantes after 44 years in the top division” Cetto? I’d like to see the reasoning behind that. Especially if it’s in some kind of warped “Champions’ League” context. His 6 CL games have yeilded 0 wins (2 losses to Liverpool with Toulouse, losses to Bayern Munich and Manchester with Nantes, draws against Benfica and Manchester with Nantes), and in none of those games did his side fail to concede at least one goal. Fabio is nothing more than a dream (he’s 2nd choice behind Evra, not far enough down the rank to be loan material)… For the others, why not, but they would neither be sure good signings, nor would they surely want to join Lyon.
“By the way just to make it clear these players arent my ideas they are on Lyons Mercato365 list,these players are reportedly being “tracked” by OL,fantastically there are no defenders names linked with us-sensible.” – No. It’s just that Mercato 365 is actually staffed by people like you who actually have no insight as to what is actually happening within a club. Just reading them for more than a month reveals that fact, since they change their lists like you do, to follow the trend of the day. They didn’t notice when Man U signed Fabio and Rafael (or Possebon, Petrucci and Macheda), nor did they have any idea about how good these players were/would be. However, they linked Man U like crazy to about half a million players during that time that didn’t happen. One such incident that was relatively recent was when Ferguson announced Man U had “almost completed the signing” of two young european players (Tosic and Ljajic), and they thought these players were Axel Witsel and Steven Defour. In fact, they didn’t know anything, but Defour and Witsel were just the “flavor of the month” after they had put in very good performances with the Belgian national team and Standard Liege. Websites like this end up just quoting each other (or not quoting, it’s much easier to just claim to have “insider information”), and thus perpetrating myths about player movement that have no basis in reality. “Trezeguet to OL!”
“I can just imagine it-Lyon are in the CL final(Highly unlikely I know)and its 1-0 Lyon with five minutes left and Boumsong makes a collosal mistake which leads to are defeat it would be awful-hes not a good centre back,trust me.” – Yes, and Rio Ferdinand’s lapses in concentration are so bad Man U should buy another central defender. What do you mean, players can actually recieve “mental training” that helps them stay concentrated? What “collosal mistakes” has Boumsong made at Lyon?
“Finally you say [...] I dont think so.” – I’m not even going to quote that it’s so silly. How many teams have players of that quality, a fabulous defence and a brilliant goalkeeper? One, two, three at the very most (I’d say two, Barça and Chelsea). Arsenal don’t have many good players in defence, that doesn’t stop them playing offensively. And whilst that hasn’t won them anything in recent years, it got them to the CL final, and as recently as last year in February they were leading the Premier League… Lyon don’t have a huge squad (when compared to CL sides), but the claim that Lyon only had “one good striker” is a fallacy. Fred isn’t good now? Puel could have used a 2-striker system more often (with the added bonus of keeping Fred happier) without sacrificing Lyon’s title bid. Instead, he chose to play more and more defensive, and ended up playing with almost six defenders even against bottom-of-the-table teams. Lyon only have one good striker left since Puel let Fred go without bringing in a replacement. But more then the actual players, it’s the style of play that people like Pride of Lyon and myself find hard to understand. Källström at Rennes was played as a midfielder with a decent amount of freedom to move up the pitch, to shoot from distance and try long passes. Under Houllier and Perrin he seemed to be more restrained, but still had enough freedom to move forwards. Under Puel he’s almost asked to play as a defensive midfielder. Puel is trying to turn Lyon into a hard-working team like Lille was, where each player runs for 90 minutes and the most important aspect of the game is defensive solidity, with 6 players always at the back (forget attacking wing-backs) and even wingers and attackers that are supposed to track back a lot and press the opponent. The only problem is that Lyon were used (moreso under Houllier than Perrin) to take the ball and set the pace of a game, to push the opponent into their half and to actively create opportunities, not just wait for the opponent to make a mistake like Puel seems to believe Lyon should play. Of course, having a wealth of talent allows a manager to be more free-flowing, but it’s also something a manager can build without outstanding talent. Marseille this season (and last season with Gerets) have played offensively, even though they don’t have (and definately didn’t have last season) the resources that Lyon have. Chelsea on the other hand seem to favor a more pragmatic approach, despite having enough talent to be far more offensive. It’s something a manager can instill a team (successfully or not, that’s another point… Furlan is a very offensive manager, but he hasn’t magically saved his teams from relegation over the past few years), regardless of the players he has at his disposition. I mean, for crying out loud, Lille this season are playing far more fluid, offensive, direct football than they were last season. Sure, they lost Makoun. But the rest of the squad hasn’t changed much.
As a parting note : Ben Arfa and Valbuena… But no Niang? No Govou? I guess they don’t spend enough time falling over and going on unsuccessful solitary raids. They play a bit too much for the team.
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“How on earth does that first line up match up to
Valdes,Alves,Puyol,Marquez,Abidal,Messi,Toure,Xavi, Iniesta,Henry,Eto o(add to that lineup who ever else barca sign come summer)
Or maybe you guys think lyons current first 11 could comfortably beat-
Van Der Sar,Rafael,Ferdinand,Vidic,Evra, Carrick,Scholes,Ronaldo,Rooney,Tevez,Berbatov(add to that lineup who ever else man u sign come summer)hhhmmmmm my gut feeling is that Barca or Man U would rape lyon offence,wing, and especially defence-fuck me it would be about 4-0″
Sadly, Ronan, in Real Life Lyon drew 1-1 with both those sides (bar Rafael and Berbatov) at home, and lost 1-0 against Man U and 5-2 against Barça. In all fairness though, it wasn’t exactly Lyon’s first XI against Barça either though.
Porto must have a much, much better squad than Lyon’s then, since they drew 2-2 with Man U and only lost 1-0. Bayern on the other hand must be worse, since they were 4-0 down by half-time of the first match against Barça…
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Shazback….king of the big posts.
….also i agree with everything you said. This Lyon team is probably going through the roughest patch of games since two year ago ( when he had the title won, but either tied or lose the remaining fixtures ). On the one hand, being a lyon fan, it pisses me off to know we are peforming this way. on the other hand, at least it symbolizes that the league has somewhat caught up to us, alas giving us more of an instinctive killer end for the future.
all and all, all we can do is hope for the best……and pray Aulas doesn’t disembowel the Physio staff ( cause they probably deserve to get slapped maybe
).Posted from
United States -
instinctive killer edge *
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United States -
Govou the clown: http://www.goal.com/en/news/90/france/2009/04/24/1227102/sidney-govou-will-not-extend-olympique-lyonnais-contract
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