Le Havre AC vs Lyon

By: John | February 15th, 2009

Hopefully it will be a slow day for Le Policier against Havre’s “well behaved” offense.
Febuary 15, 2009
Stade de Gerland, Lyon
11 A.M. EST(17:00 CET, 16:00 GMT)

After coming-out of last weekend’s match vs. Nice with three points in an impressive 3-1 victory, OL come back home to take-on Havre AC and hopefully keep the momentum going. Le Havre are currently at the bottom of the table and seem to be destined to head back to L2. They have just (15) points, with (4)wins, (3)draws, and (16) losses. They are 18th in attack with (17) goals scored to Lyon’s (30), and last in defense with (40) goals allowed, compared to Lyon’s (15). Le Havre have two wins in their last fourteen fixtures, but they are coming-off-of a victory last week against Rennes- they seem to have Rennes number this year having beaten them in the round of sixteen in the CdF. Lyon meanwhile hope to improve on their form at home as of late, since they’ve seemed flat at Gerland since the break: with four draws and just two goals scored in their last four home matches. With this stale run of form, rumors are circulating that Puel is considering using the visitors’ lockeroom this weekend as extra motivation for the players.

History: The teams have a 7-5-3 record in all matches, Lyon barely eaking-out a winning record vs. Le Havre with (7) victories. The last meeting between the teams- back in week six- ended in a 1-0 Lyon win, with Ederson netting his first goal of the season.

Injuries: The usuals, Clerc, Reveillere, Govou, Bodmer and Delgado(adductors) are out. We can now add Fabio Santos to that list, as he injured either his quadricep or calf depending on who’s report you read. He should be out for just this week.
Delgado did some light jogging this week. Clerc is doing light ball work and running with the squad, and Bodmer played with the CFA’s last week, but probably won’t see any action till next week.

Le groupe : Vercoutre, Lloris – Gassama, Mensah, Cris, Grosso, Boumsong, Källström, Juninho, Makoun, Toulalan, Keita, Mounier, Pjanic, Ederson, Benzema, Piquionne, Tafer.

Expected Line-up:

The OL website had a small piece on the effectiveness of the 4-4-3 last week. Lyon have only lost one game when starting in a 4-4-3, and espeicially interesting was that in games when the midfeild axis consisted of Makoun-Toulalan-Juninho, OL have never lost, averaging almost two goals a game. Puel had put JMak on the bench for a couple of matches, instead going with Kallstrom for a little more offensive creativity. But after last week’s performance, Makoun going nutts on offense, and scoring two goals, I think we’ll see the 4-3-3 again(with Makoun in it), albiet probably with different starters since some of the internationals may be tired from midweek action.
And at RB, I’m not sure if it will be Mensah or Gassama. Mensah is just coming back and I don’t know if Puel risks getting his only CL capable RB hurt- although Mensah could get hurt getting out of bed in the morning- or he plays him to get him ready. My guess it the latter. I don’t know what all this nonsense in the papers about Gassama not being inexperienced enough to play. He’s more than capable the holding-his-own in league play. To me Reveillere is out of a job when he comes back, unless he wants to be the back-up LB.

Lloris
Mensah-Cris-Boumsong-Grosso
Juninho-Toulalan-Makoun
Keita-Benzema-Ederson

Predictions: Le Havre obvioulsy have a sieve for a defense and their offense is as impotent as a harem eunuch. One of their few bright spots though, is French-Mauritanian striker Amadou Alassane. Alassane has (8) goals- nearly half of Le Havre’s total output. He’s a big striker-taller by two centimeters than Bodmer- with lots of pace and obviously skillful as well, but I don’t think it will be enough to dent Lyon’s defense, although Lyon’s collapses on set pieces are fricking annoying. Though Le Havre have momentum after beating one of the league’s top defensive squads in Rennes last week, unfortunately for them, Lyon are also coming-off-of a big, moral-boosting victory at Nice last weekend, and hopefully are on their way to gaining top form before Barcelona come to Gerland at the end of the month. I’m calling a 2-0 Lyon win.