Le Mans vs. Lyon
By: John | April 3rd, 2009
Hopefully the International break helps our goalmeister out of his slump (goaless since Feb).
Saturday April 04, 2009
1 P.M. EST(19:00CET, 18:00GMT)
Le Stade Leon-Bollee
Saturday, Lyon take-on Le Mans in what will be the beginning of a brutal final stretch of matches that will make or break OL’s hopes for an 8th consecutive league title. Four of Lyon’s last nine matches will be vs. top six teams: Bordeaux, PSG, Toulouse, and Marseille. OL are down to a one point lead in the table ahead of second place Marseille, and the race for the title is a wide-open at this point with the first six placed teams all having a shot at the title; just four points separate them. Hopefully Lyon come back both physically and mentaly reinvigorated for the home stretch after the international break, and are ready to hit their peak- hopefully they didn’t peak during the first leg against Barca- having gone through a dismal stretch, in which Lyon played seven matches in twenty one days, losing four of them.
Le Mans’ current form:
Le Mans is currently in 14th place and struggling, with an 8-8-13 record. They are 10th in attack with (33) goals and 18th in defense with (41) allowed. While Lyon are fighting to take the top spot, Mans is fighting to stay out of the relegation zone: they’re just three points above it. They are abysmal at home with a 5-3-6 record, and they have won just two games in their last fourteen, both of those wins coming against lowly Le Havre. They are also having a petite injury crisis: Ben Frej, Coutadeur, and Gervinho are expected to be out.
History: Lyon are 4-1 vs. Le Mans. OL won 2-0 in week twelve in their last meeting and Le Mans took their prior meeting in ‘08, 1-0.
Injuries: Govou, Fabio Santos, and John Mensah are still out. This week, Delgado, and Toulalan(Injured his foot while on international duty and will be out for two weeks) are out, but Kallstrom- who looked to have picked up an injury during the break- but is included in the squad.
Le groupe lyonnais: Lloris, Vercoutre – Cris, Boumsong, Réveillère, Clerc, Grosso – Bodmer, Makoun, Källström, Juninho – Keita, Ederson, Pjanic, Mounier – Lacazette, Piquionne, Benzema.
Lineup: Ederson at striker; Benzema on the wing? Who knows. I think Puel goes with a 4-3-3 since Le Mans is a defensive disaster, but we could see a 4-5-1 with the same players.
Lloris
Clerc-Cris-Boumsong-Grosso
Bodmer-Makoun-Juninho
Pjanic-Benzema-Ederson
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Comments
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This would be a different match had Helstad been playing for Le Mans. He must of gotten injured on international duty.
Posted from
United States
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Cris. You suck. Lloris is saving our ass.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
Cris is soo soo bad. We must get rid of him when summer mercato starts.
Posted from
United States -
Cleber is horrendous; don’t know how he doing in Brazil. Bodmer looks like Thuram next to him. I’d rather have Paillot, Faure, even Toulalan.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
Jao: I was thinking the exact same thing about Helstad.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
I would like to see a healthy Mensah- ha ha ha- and Boumsong pair-up for a while.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
Yesss. We win. Cris you idiot. You suck. You play like crap. We will sell you. Lloris is star of the season. Benzo, you legend.
Posted from
United States -
Good game except for that giving up that stupid goal. Is it me, or did a whole bunch of people “jump ship” after the Barca loss? I can here the echo out there sometimes.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
I miss Toto. Always sad when we lose an international.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
Yes John I agree with you Toto was our best central defender. I miss him to.
Posted from
United States -
@Ederson – Cleber anderson was our worst defender last year….hence why he’s on loan. Lyon dont want him back, but nobody will really pay to take him off our hands. I would rather have Sandy Paillot back than have Cleber playing defense.
Posted from
United States -
How did Bodmer do in the #10? I tuned-in late. Probably not too good since he yanked early. Makoun is a monster: two assists? He’s an offensive and defensive force. He’s looking worth every Euro of his transfer fee and more, unlike some other Lille players- ahem… Keita.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
Well Ronald if Cleber was our worst defender last year, I still think that he was better than Cris this year. Cleber was good in the air, Cris don’t even try to jump. Also Cleber at least try to play well, Cris try to play every game worst and worst. I think that he said to himself : ” I play awful against Auxerre ( he didn’t play against Sochaux ), but against Le Mans I will play more awful and more worst than last time! ” We must get rid off Cris this summer.
Posted from
United States -
thank god the football game is over and we can get back to transfer-talk.
(that’s a sarcastic, bitchy joke, sorry guys)
Posted from
Canada -
Told you we should have snatched the “ugly big-nosed, French Bstrd,” in the winter.
http://france.worldcupblog.org/euro-2008/france-supporters-vote-yes-on-gignac.htmlPosted from
Costa Rica -
During that time in Barcelona: half time Barca 4 – Bayern Munich 0. Deja vu? No regret really this year Barcelona is way too impressive.
Posted from
United States -
happy easter everybody.
we do ukrainian-style egg decoration every year. here’s my 2008 effort:
[IMG]http://i44.tinypic.com/33jhm5d.jpg[/IMG]
Posted from
Canada -
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I’m watching PSG-Dinamo. Too bad we have so many midfielders: I’d like to see Sessegnon here.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
Hmm, I guess Sessgnon is more like Ederson than an ordinary midfielder. I don’t think PSG would ever sell him to us, though.
@Will: Excellent stuff! Just make sure it doesn’t get broken by a Barcelona egg or something…
Posted from
United States -
Yeah they are similar and unfortunately I don’t think PSG would sell us anything; I’d like Sakho or Hoarau too. I get greedy during transfer markets: I always want OL to buy the best L1 talent. A little off subject, but is it me or are we paying much more for money for incoming than outgoing players lately? We payed more for Ederson or Makoun- won’t even mention Keita- than we got for Malouda. Didn’t we?
Too bad we have no space for an Hazard. I think every year one or two really special players come along in the mercato- an Ederson or a Lloris- whom you have to snatch-up. This year that player has to be Bastos. Bastos fills so many of our needs right now: left wing/back-up left back and free-kick prowess that can slightly ease the pain of Juni’s retirement; and he can score. My lineup for next year- I don’t see us bringing in another CB- would be:
Lloris
Clerc-Boumsong-Mensah-Grosso
…Toulalan-Bodmer-Makoun
Ederson…………….Bastos
…………Benzema……….Also, what you guys think about Tremolinas?
Posted from
Costa Rica -
I think Tremoulinas would be an excellent buy, but he’s only a few years older than Kolo. I don’t see what’s the point of having two very young left-backs without a proper and more experienced replacement for Grosso, especially since there is a chance Revillere could leave in the summer.
So, Bastos is one of the ‘top-signings’, I completely agree. But what do you think about Gignac? We definetely need a striker in the summer whatever happens, and he could be just what we need. Or could it be Trezeguet?
Oh, and we should definetely try to bring Hazard, that boy is astonishing!
Posted from
United States -
Oops, it looks like Tremoulinas is actually 6 years older than Kolo, I don’t know why I thought he’s also a teenager. My mistake. Well, in that case, he might actually be just what we need, the only problem we might have is that it looks like Inter Milan is after him.
Posted from
United States -
Nikola: Point-taken about Tremolinas’ age; forgot about that. But I’m watching Bordeaux-Auxerre right now, and he looks very good. I wanted Gignac signed way before the winter mercato, but some people thought I was crazy. And I was dreaming of a 4-4-2 with Trez and Benz when I saw Trez was ready to leave Juve and there was some goal.com rumor that OL would make a play. But, I see now that Chelsea and another big club- can’t rember which one- are interested, so I guess that’s that. I also want Remy back. A 4-4-2 with Remy and Benz might be sweet. I like Remy bec he can play all three positions on the front line. Hazard looks like one of those players that don’t come-along too often, so maybe OL should try to get him. I’m just wondering what kind of problems that would cause in a team that has many right-sided midfielders/fowards e.g., Ederson,Bodmer, Keita, Govou, and to a lesser extent Delgado, and Pjanic. I think Hazard coming would cause an exodus of players, but I’m most concerned about Ederson, if both Bastos and Hazard were to be brought in; I guess he would have to play as #10.
Posted from
Costa Rica
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