Houllier Banishes Yet Another Player
By: Inara | April 8th, 2007‘Tis the season for drama at Olympique Lyonnais.
Gerard Houllier has his hands full this year. Not only has he been busy getting Lyon kicked out of all cup competitions, but he’s also been pissing off his players, who in turn have been getting pissed off with him, and that in turn pisses him off even more. And what does any doubly pissed manager in such situations? Send them to the reserves, of course.
Houllier’s hitlist.
The latest player to be exiled by Houllier is Alou “The New Vieira” Diarra, but unlike Lyon’s other troublemakers, Alou did not take his banishment sitting down. Instead, he refused to play with the reserves this weekend. End result: his exile has been extended to the end of the season, and according to President Jean-Michel Aulas, he’ll probably also be slapped with a hefty fine.
This is the same Alou Diarra who played in France’s World Cup final, received call ups to the French NT, was coveted by AS Roma and Juventus at one point, and came to Lyon to take over for Mahamadou Diarra. But it turned out that Jeremy Toulalan became the apple of Houllier’s eyes, and coupled with a thigh injury in winter, Alou has spent most of his time on the bench. What’s even worse is that his place on the bench isn’t guaranteed either. Lyon’s newest recruit, Cruzeiro’s Fabio Santos, was a last minute winter signing that came to help mitigate the defensive midfielder crisis Lyon went through in January. Now Lyon has three defensive midfielders fighting for one starting spot (at least in the 4-3-3).
Houllier’s comment on the situation was quite unsympathetic.
(translated from French): I manage twenty-five players of very high quality. And I am not paid to be their friend or their father. When I choose eleven to play, there are fourteen frustrated players. And of these fourteen, two or three of them at Lyon are more concerned with their ego and personal future than that of the team’s.
Sigh.
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I never thought Houllier would be a good coach for Lyon. He’s too defensive and all he’s ended up doing is stifling Lyon’s attacking talent. If Lyon really wants a European win, they should spend all that money and get a better coach.
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Ohmygosh. Diarra? He has been SO screwed by Lyon this year! Do you have any idea what his crime was this time around?
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Matthew: I was surprised with Aulas signed Houllier, but I think Le Guen’s resignation took everyone by surprise, and Aulas didn’t have enough time to look for a similar manager.
I’ll be covering the Houllier saga next.
Laurie: To be honest, I’m not really that surprised. Diarra and Houllier have not gotten on AT ALL this year. In fact, Houllier never wanted him - it was Aulas who forced his signing. Aulas, as you probably know, likes to collect as many members of France’s NT as possible. Houllier wanted Yaya Toure instead.
Diarra spoke out first in October during their trip to Kiev, which pissed Houllier off, who said that the reason Diarra wasn’t playing as much was because he was still in the process of being physically conditioned. Then Diarra spoke out again last month, saying that he was unhappy at being benched. And then he spoke out again right before Lyon’s CdL defeat. And then again last week.
And Diarra has never quite fit in at Lyon. The talk has been that it really got into his head because he played in the WC final.
Speaking out once is forgivable, but so many times is going to piss off Lyon management, who really do expect their players to keep their mouths shut. After all, Cacapa, the man who captained Lyon to so many titles, is even more screwed over this year, but he’s kept his feelings out of the press. Look at Beckham at RM - abandoned by Capello, he was still circumspect about it in public.
I feel for Diarra, I really do. He’s got a lot of talent, and he’s being punished because Houllier never wanted him. But I think handling the situation more tactfully would have been better for him.
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I have never been a fan of Houllier, he is a very dour man and he really has stifled the Lyon attack to nothing. You could tell that he has little control over the players in the beginning of the season because they were banging in the goals. He is a bit strict, but then again Le Guen was fiercly strict at points. The difference is Le Guen let the players do there thing. He gave them the tactics and let them at it, and only interviened if something wasnt right.
As for A. Diarra, I dont think he is as good as Toulalan, but he is still worthy of a start now and again.Diarra brings a physical presence that his predecessor M. Diarra had, and he probably is stronger in the air because we rely on Cris so much with set pieces that are out of Juninho’s range. Its hard for a player to prove his worth with limited subs roles, like Ben Arfa who is being stifled by houllier because he comes on for ten mintues and thats it. Or Bettiol and Remy, who are just as talented as Benz, but are in the reserves as we speak even though they can do the job they just need more match experiece.
Diara could play for any Ligue 1 team, and he may be a better fit in the midfield then Toulalan against certain opponents who are more attacking, like Roma. Diarra could shield the back four properly allowing the other two central midfielders to move forward with ease. That is something that Toulalan just can not do yet, he needs some support, although he is a much better passer then Diarra. That being said, isnt Kallstrom better then Tiago with regards to attacking? His passing is superb, shooting is strong and he can dribble. He is similar to juninho, and two of those kind of players on the field is rarely seen. It just goes to show that Houllier indeed is defensive, because when Kallstrom played against Valenciennes he was very lively, looked the part to create something. I think if Houllier got his way he would have Diarra out their instead of Juninho just so he felt safer with two defensive midfielders.Posted from
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Corey, you made some fantastic points.
The thing with Houllier is that he would have been a really good manager for PSG - he’s just the guy to get a club back on the straight and narrow. But he’s also as unimaginative as the school teacher he once was - he prefers not to take risks, and that has really hurt Lyon. Often times, he’ll tell his players to play a lot deeper than they are used to, especially Tiago and Malouda, and the result of that is a weakened attack.
About the Diarra vs. Toulalan situation:
Diarra is taller and better in the air, but Toulalan is a better vacuum cleaner, but they’re both stronger and faster than M. Diarra was.
I think right now, Toulalan is a more complete player than Diarra. If he can learn how to be more offensive, then Lyon will have proved that getting Tiago and Toulalan in exchange for Essien and Diarra got us a more skilled midfield.
But in terms of progression, I don’t think Toulalan’s potential will grow anymore. From now on, it’ll just be an accumulation of experience. Diarra, on the other hand, has yet to reveal what he’s capable of, and if he had the opportunity to display his talents (and the right attitude), perhaps Houllier wouldn’t be so quick to send him away.
As for Kallstrom - I think he was originally purchased with an eye to Lyon’s future, as a possible replacement for Juninho. Kallstrom has some talent with fks (though not like Juni of course), has provided quite a few assists and has scored some spectacular goals. Unfortunately, he has yet to display the playmaking talent that Juninho has, and he doesn’t have a lot of pace, so now he’s seen more as a Tiago.
Kallstrom is actually quite strong, and though he’s not as strong defensively, he’s an excellent tackler with great passing and an eye for the goal. Like Toulalan and Diarra, he was also the center of attention at his old club, but he’s taking his bench position with a bit more grace. He has a good margin of progression ahead of him, and if Lyon switches to a 4-4-2, he’ll probably see more action as Tiago and Toulalan won’t be enough in the midfield.
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To be honnest, the resuults of Lyon, this season are bad. The results that OL got at the first part of season were only due to the many years of work. I have finally the judgement that G Houillier is not a good manager. He is not imagnative and his proposals failed all time. Some of you, said that Toulalan is better than Diarra. I don’t think so. First thing: compare the results of Lyon when Diarra play and when Toulalan play, during injury period of Diarra and etc…
I have checked all matchs of these two players in the French Selection and I make a conclusion that it is not true that Toulalan is better than Diarra. I like the precision of Diarra about pass and his significant contribution on the middle..I think this player has a great potential which need to be developped and it depends on the coach. It is dammage his situation in OL.
Houillier said, he thinks about his own carrier. I think, it is a insult to say something like that. Who don’t think about his carreer? Houillier didn’t think about his own carreer during many years? Think about his carreer is obvious thing.
Anyway, it is dammage to recruit promise players and break his carreer. OL has taken now this reputation.
Anyway, the OL game is now sad and not intersting. The football laws need to be adjusted about all of this problem. The players aren’t slave and when the club say to the player, I recruit you to play and do this thing…it is need to be respect this thing. Probably, it is important also to review the contract form e.g more precision about the minimal time spend for official match….
Good luck to Diarra Alou and I hope that Aulas will let him to go out.
I am not sure about the future of OL the next years…Posted from
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Ricardo: I totally agree: Houllier is not an imaginative manager. He has had his moments, such as when he used Clerc as a right winger against Real Madrid, and when he put Malouda as a centre forward (though that is probably more due to necessity than invention), but over all, I wish he was bolder.
As for Toulalan and Diarra - as I said above, I think Diarra has a LOT of potential - but his current level isn’t as reliable as Toulalan. Diarra is capable of the amazing (like his goal against Steaua) and the awful (the Roma match). So it’s really hard to tell what he’d be like if he had more game time.
You bring up an interesting point about Lyon ruining his career - it has happened before as well. Remember Benoit Pedretti, who was an up and coming French star who has several caps for the NT? He came to Lyon and was also benched.
Of course, Lyon should have played him more, but a lot of it is due to the naivety of the players. They assume that since Lyon isn’t a “big” club yet, they don’t act like one. But Lyon does. They, like any football superpower, buy up as much talent as they can whether they need it or not. They have the money and the power to do so. So while Diarra thought, “Okay, I’m a World Cup finalist, they’ll definitely play me over country bumpkin Toulalan,” Houllier went with the player who fit in best with Tiago and Juninho.
That being said, I don’t like Houllier’s attitude towards him. His words were unduly harsh and completely unnecessary in public.
About the future of OL - I think that they will eventually get things right. They are in the unusual position of being too good for France but not yet on par with the big clubs in Europe. Aulas needs to find that right combination of player, manager, and finances to make it happen. But can it? Sure.
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Poor Pedretti, he was decent, he just got benched at Marseille and then came to Lyon low on confidence and got benched again. He had potential, was part of a group of young talent at Sochaux that included Mathieu, but their careers have stalled. Pity…
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