Caen 1 - 0 Lyon: Lyon Lose, No One Really Cares

By: Inara | December 8th, 2007

This must be the first time I’ve ever gotten a match predication right. Yesterday I said that Caen could snatch a not-so-shocking 1-0 result due to Lyon’s Champions League obligations, and I was right.

Ben Arfa: not as decisive today.

The goals: Caen (Gouffran 18).

Tactics:

Vercoutre
Reveillere - Squillaci - Anderson - Belhadj
Bodmer - Toulalan - Kallstrom
Keita - Baros - Ben Arfa

Alain Perrin kept true to his word and rotated as many players as he was able. I have no doubt that had Fabio Santos been available, Jeremy Toulalan also would have had the day off. Nadir Belhadj, Kader Keita, Milan Baros, and Mathieu Bodmer all received much needed game time, while the regulars of Karim Benzema, Juninho, Fabio Grosso, and Sidney Govou all received much needed rest.

Player Performance:

And the best player was….? I can’t really pinpoint any particularly good Lyon performance today. The entire back line made error after error. Remy Vercoutre had no confidence today and bungled a few of his saves. And let’s not count the numerous times he was caught out of position. Both Sebastien Squillaci and Anderson were dreadful. Squillaci almost had a Ceara moment in which he was about to pass the ball back to Vercoutre except was overtaken by a Caen player. Just embarrassing. The full backs were no better. Nadir Belhadj had an expectedly bad performance - he’s hardly played all season. But Anthony Reveillere was just crap. Like wow. If he was hoping to start next Wednesday, he can forget about it.

So I guess Reveillere will be sitting on the bench at Ibrox…

In midfield, the situation was hardly more reassuring. Jeremy Toulalan, given the captaincy for the first time, had to watch his team fall apart around him (but didn’t he look oh so good with that captain’s armband?). He did the best he could, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t enough. Kim Kallstrom wasn’t poor either, and he had some good moments at the beginning of the match, but couldn’t do much attacking because he had to spend most of his time defending. As for Mathieu Bodmer…well, let’s just say that this is a match for him to forget.

Up front, Milan Baros has basically confirmed his #3 spot in the striker pecking order. He, like his teammate Kader Keita, was basically invisible. Both contributed pretty much nothing except the occasional foul. The only bright spot was Hatem Ben Arfa, who kept trying, but receiving no support from his teammates, he was forced to attack alone.

Midway through the second half, Perrin introduced Sidney Govou, Karim Benzema, and Juninho to see if they could change the tide of the match. Unfortunately, all they could do was join in the disorganization on the pitch. Benzema notably got quite frustrated at the apathy of his teammates and was shouting at them to wake up. That must have worked just a little bit because during the last ten minutes of the match, Lyon suddenly started tackling and getting just a little bit physical - and subsequently picked up three yellow cards in five minutes. Still, it wasn’t enough, and Caen walked off the pitch as winners.

Match Analysis:

Lyon completely sucked today. All their passes went astray, they couldn’t cross at all, they failed to win any tackles, spent most of the time in their half backpassing to Vercoutre, and anytime they tried to clear the ball, they simply returned it to an opposition player. Lyon were frequently outpaced by Caen, so they couldn’t mount a serious counter-attack.

In fact, Lyon played like a completely outclassed Ligue 2 side. The media and even Caen’s coach seem to be in agreement that Lyon’s head was already in Glasgow. It was also clear that Perrin was worried about picking up last minute injuries (like what happened with Benzema against Rennes), so he must have told his players to stay away as much as possible from tackles, contact, or anything remotely physical. No matter how “seriously” Perrin vowed to take Caen, the priority was Rangers, and it was better to drop three points Lyon will eventually earn back than fatally harming their Champions League prospects - that is, more than they already have.

Benzema got frustrated with his teammates.

However, I am in no way taking away from Caen’s fabulous performance. Caen didn’t just deserve the three points - they deserved six! They didn’t hesitate in attacking an obviously superior side, defended well, and broke up Lyon’s midfield play. If they had better finishing skills, they would have won the game by a bigger margin.

Like I said last time Lyon played against them, Caen are an example to the rest of L1 in how to play football. It seems to me that after Barcelona, Caen are the second most attacking team Lyon have encountered this year. And I wonder that if they had a slightly deeper bench, they could even make a UEFA Cup spot? They’ve achieved some great results recently, winning against PSG at the Parc and hammering Bordeaux 5-0, and now they’ve taken Lyon’s scalp to add to their collection.

Ramifications:

If conspiracy theorists are to be taken seriously, Lyon purposely threw this match. Now, I wouldn’t take it that far, but judging from the lack of concern coming out of the Lyon (and even amongst us faithful fans) over what is their fourth league loss so far this season, what is apparent is that Lyon have finally straightened out their priorities.

In previous years, Lyon were hell bent on winning everything, and the word moderation did not exist at the Gerland. Every person would play to their maximum capacities week in and week out, which lead to a fabulous record in the first half the season, easy CL group stage qualification, and adulation from football fans all over the world for playing near-perfect football. By the end of December last year, Lyon had suffered only one loss in four competitions and were the third favorites to win the Champions League.

But the result of that was total burn out in the second half of the season, when even reliable players like Toulalan didn’t have the energy to string together one decent pass. So what ended up happening is Lyon didn’t pick up any of the three cups they wanted - the French Cup, the French League Cup, or the Champions League.

Perrin is taking a different approach from his predecessors. He isn’t asking Lyon to play thundering, swashbuckling football. He isn’t forcing them to win by incredible shows of dominance. He doesn’t care that no one rates Lyon outside of the Gerland. He’s doing his job, and that is keeping his eye on the the Champions League.

If that means a league loss to keep his players fit and match fresh, he’ll take it. And it’s worked out - Nancy drew (not a pun, I swear!) at home to Valenciennes, so Lyon still have a four point cushion. And Perrin knows Lyon will stay afloat. Maybe they won’t win the title by a huge margin like the last few years, but I don’t think he cares about that as much as keeping Lyon fit for the entire season.

Lackluster = longevity?

Will today’s loss affect Lyon’s confidence? On one hand, it always sucks to lose, but then again, Lyon won the weekends before their losses to Barcelona and Rangers, so there’s no saying that a win today would make a difference on Wednesday. But Lyon can take confidence from the fact that they have what it takes to qualify. They played many outstanding games in the last several weeks to be aware of their own quality. So no, I don’t think today’s loss was anymore than a blip on their horizon. If Lyon lose next Wednesday, today will have nothing to do with it.

What will also be reassuring is that they won’t be put under pressure in Glasgow the way they were today. Rangers will have to field Daniel Cousin up front, and despite the goal he scored at the Gerland two months ago, he’s really a nonentity. Maybe he’ll be motivated to play better, but there is a world of difference between him and Yoan Gouffran, scorer of today’s goal. Gouffran, as many of you know, is one of France’s hottest prospects, and actively followed by Arsenal, PSG, and even Lyon, he has a future on the France NT.

I also doubt that Rangers will take the risk of attacking us so openly the way Caen did. Instead, given they only need a scoreless draw to progress, they would be smart to play their defensive football, however much it’s derided (especially by me).

I’ll have more thoughts on this later in my pre-match report for Rangers-Lyon, which should be posted on Monday.

Gouffran’s goal:

Match Pictures: