Lyon vs Arles-Avignon : Is the lesson learnt yet?

Caution, trap ahead!
Moving from the high-tension, high publicity Real Madrid then Lille games to welcoming the worst team of the championship, on a late Sunday afternoon, is a wide gap, that is not without risks. Decompression is inevitable, the Lyonnais know it only too well. They’ve been here before, time and time again. Remember, between two high stakes matches (Benfica in the Champions League and the Paris-SG in the League Cup), they had been trapped at the Parc des Sports d’Avignon, where they could not do better than draw (1 – 1). And the recent setbacks in Nice (France Cup), and Valenciennes, recalled that OL lose too many points against small teams. Because psychologically, it’s never easy to adjust to the transition between the big encounters and the junior matches. “This game is not a headlines grabber, you have to get mentally into it,” Cissokho said. Puel may well insist that facing Arles-Avignon “is as important as the trip to Lille, even if it is not the same approach”, the players will have to demonstrate they’re fully into it. And never ever reproduce a first half like the one in… Arles-Avignon, precisely.

A walk in the park?
Let’s be honest, Arles-Avignon are not equipped for Ligue 1. In 25 games, they won 1, drew 8 and lost 16, snatching a mere 11 points, whereas the second worst team of L1, Lens has more than double (25 points). And here comes the final blow : an abyssal goal difference of -32 !
Yet, because they have nothing to lose but their honor, it’s a game to take seriously, because they are a team who defend hard, and are especially motivated against the big guns, as demonstrated by the narrow defeats to the powerful sides of Marseille (0-1) and PSG (1-2 ).
For all this, OL must avoid the pitfall. Aware of that, Puel even takes this game as a good test, and wants to “see where our attitude and our level of concentration stand. It will be a source of lessons. It will show whether we will have climbed one level and we can compete for the title till the end. ” But we all know that what has been missing in several poor games this year is the mindset, not the tactics nor the talent. Are the players really determined not to repeat this persistent feature of theirs? “We need to play as seriously as against Nancy (4-0, 2 weeks ago). We know that the path to the title goes through matches like this “, Briand said. Well, guys, we’ll be watching you.

The must haves
1- Lyon MUST win. Any other result would be an utter, scandalous, unacceptable disgrace. Not to mention that a win would allow us to overtake PSG in the rankings, as they lost to Auxerre yesterday.

2- In a ranking that tight, the number of goals will perhaps make the difference in the end. For instance, if, in the clash that will end this 26th matchday Marseille lose to Lille, we will overtake them in the rankings if we score 2 goals more than them tonight. And, against the worst goal difference of Ligue 1 it’s the best opportunity ever to work on this aspect. So, yes, it’s a must to score a brace of goals and emulate yesterday’s 7-0 by Real versus Malaga.
And yes also, it would be a good idea from Lisandro to start scoring again, just to remember how good it feels…

3- Do so in style
The positive effects of the victories against Lorient, St Etienne or Nancy went much further than winning and pocketing 3 points. Because more than just wins, they were convincing ones for which, collectively, the players played well; they really boosted the self confidence and morale of a team who, since the beginning of the season, have been criticized for not playing at the level they should have on paper. So it’s important they continued on the positive trend they seem to have embarked on, that they went out of this weekend comforted in their potential, so that they do well next week against Sochaux (currently 8th of the championship, so not an easy customer) and arrive in full confidence gainst Real in a make or break second leg.

Also…
This matchday is peculiar, because all the refereeing will be done by officials from lower leagues (Ligue 2, National, Fédéral, etc..). No, they haven’t all gone on a cruise to the Caribbean, they threatened to delay the kickoff of all games by 15 minutes to protest against the lack of consideration they claim they’re subject to. Which of course includes the fact that they did not get a bite in the big deal Nike signed with the French Footbal Federation. So the Direction Nationale de l’Arbitrage, the French refereeing body decided to replace all L1 referees scheduled for this matchday with colleagues from the lesser leagues. So far, after the first 7 games it is working well, no major mistake is to be signaled. There even are far less cards than usual, 1.8 per game on average, whereas it would normally be 3.6… Didn’t someone say once that no one was irreplaceable?

The likely teams:
Arles-Avignon : They’re missing several players, either suspended (Baldé), injured (Merville, K.Diawara) or in recovery with the reserves (Kermorgand, Dja Djédjé). But Abenzoar, Fanchone and Ben-Idir are back in the group.
My guess : Planté – Laurenti, Soro, Pavon, Lorenzi – Aït Ben Idir, Meriem, Piocelle, Rocchi – Ghilas, Ndiaye.

Lyon : No surprise, except maybe Lisandro who’s been declared fit, and Kallström, who’s in the group but has been spared this week due to minor strains. Ederson plays with the reserves, and Cris (knee tendinitis) could resume in the course of next week. Puel is likely to try a new version of the 4-2-3-1 to suit both Gourcuff and Lisandro, resting Gomis and Bastos. And Lacazette is excused, he had to go buy some more bread as he didn’t have any left at home.
My guess : Lloris – Réveillère, Diakhaté, Lovren, Cissokho – Toulalan, Källström – Delgado, Gourcuff, Briand – Lisandro.

Allez l’OL!

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Category: Team News and Rumors