Build Your Own Team: Part II

By: Inara | March 13th, 2008

I don’t know about you guys, but I for one am bored with match previews! Unfortunately, due to a hectic month at work, that’s all I seem to have time for. So I thought we’d do something different today. Instead of the usual news and rumors, we can talk about something more pragmatic - our tactics.

Perrin’s Clipboard: The ball is passed everywhere except into the goal. Note the player trying to play by himself.

As Ush mentioned in the comments of this post, Lyon have a lot of options up front, and given Perrin’s penchant for messing around with the order of the front three, it begs the question: just what are we to expect next year?

We know Karim Benzema is staying next season, and Fred may decide to as well (especially if he continues to start). So how do we accommodate them as well as Hatem Ben Arfa off the bench? What about Kader Keita vs. Sidney Govou? The first has more talent than the second, but the second has been performing far better than the first. And let’s not even talk about midfield.

First question: To 4-3-3 or not to 4-3-3?

Lyon’s 4-3-3 evolves (and devolves) to 4-5-1 as the wingers rise and drop but never lose reference to the “insides” (Kallstrom/Bodmer and Juninho). The 5 switches to 3 from 4-5-1 to 4-3-3 as the team unfolds forward and adds width as it comes up the pitch and then narrows back again once it drops back after losing ball possession. That allows Lyon to defend and then mount quick counter attacks.

This system has been wonderfully effective in the past few years, and it has given Lyon that attacking edge that they’re so well known for. The 4-3-3 was adopted by Paul Le Guen purely to bring out the best in Juninho, who doesn’t have the strength or pace to make as much of an impact in the traditional 4-4-2.

But when Juninho doesn’t play, or worse, when he plays like crap, the 4-3-3 loses a lot of its lethality, and a lone striker isn’t enough sometimes. An added problem is that as Juninho ages (he’s 33 now), his contributions to the team are no longer steady or reliable, and it’s unreasonable to expect him to be the player he used to be. By next season, he may even be relegated to supersub status.

The good news is that we’ll have Ederson next year, and even if Kim Kallstrom leaves, we’ll still have Mathieu Bodmer. So Lyon are rich in attacking midfielders. But none of them are exactly like Juninho, though Ederson comes close and could probably slot into that Juninho role. But do we want him to?

Both Benzema and Fred have admitted that they prefer a two striker system, and this summer seems as good of a time as any to accommodate their wishes. And assuming Jeremy Toulalan snags one of those central midfield roles, who would be dropped, Ederson or Bodmer? Or do we put Ederson on the flank, giving up one of our traditional wingers (Govou/Keita/Ben Arfa)?

The current lineup:

Coupet
Clerc - Squillaci - Cris - Grosso
Juninho - Toulalan - Kallstrom
Govou - Benzema/Fred - Ben Arfa/Benzema

A possible “new” lineup:

Coupet
Clerc - Squillaci - Cris - Grosso
Keita - Toulalan - Ederson - Govou
Benzema - Fred

Decisions, decisions, decisions. No doubt Lyon’s main priority next year will be to keep their strikers happy, namely Benzema (who just formally put pen-to-paper on his shiny new contract). And perhaps goal scoring will come more easily with two strikers. But is that worth lessening the impact of our very talented midfield?

Second question: Style

I’m sure that it hasn’t escaped your notice that Lyon are looking more and more like a Spanish team in terms of flair, fluidity, and attacking style, with the added emphasis of typical French tactical play and solid defending (nb: only applicable with healthy defenders). This has made Lyon one of the more eye-catching teams in Europe (call them a poor man’s Barcelona) and is reminiscent of the Ajax power teams of the mid 90’s.

Though L1 is more physical than La Liga and Serie A (but has nothing on the EPL), Lyon’s recruitment policy indicates that the club is moving away from big impact players and towards faster ones with a higher degree of technical proficiency. It’s one of the reasons why Lyon consistently top their league - they are simply technically superior to every other French team.

But nowadays, with the English dominating the Champions League and with a decline in “flair teams” achieving European success, is Lyon’s dependence on style going to hurt them in the long run? In the EPL, the football is faster and the physical engagement is stronger, and continued technical improvement (though I think the EPL is still far behind Spain, Italy, and France in this regard) have made the top four English teams consistent challengers for the European title.

Lyon have never been able to play defensively or push around their opponents with more than a modicum of success. They actually suck at it. The players spend so much time on build up play and on passing their opponents to death that they fail in the final third and worse, can’t cope with defensive and overly physical teams.

Admit it, you miss him.

I’ve always felt that the losses of Mahamadou Diarra and Michael Essien didn’t affect Lyon from a technical standpoint, but from a physical one, perhaps. Toulalan is a strong player who has more than his share of midfield bark, but he could do with a bit more bite (gosh I miss Fabio Santos). And the fact that Lyon weren’t interested in bringing in a rough and tough player to replace Fabio Santos (instead they got Marc Crosas) tells us that Lyon’s starting midfield next year will only feature one physical player.

So going back to the first question, is a 4-3-3 the only feasible option for us?