Lyon vs Nancy : I’ll have a 3-pointer please. And a soda, with a straw.

Facing Nancy tonight is a daunting prospect. OK, maybe I’m overdoing it a bit, but still: the Lyonnais tradition these past years was to fare honestly against the big guns and stumble against the minnows. And that’s how Nancy can be seen so far, the very last of L1 who hasn’t won a game since matchday 1.

The smell of blood
Indeed, one can sense fear in this Nancy team. The president, the coach seem like they’re hiding from the press, and claim it’s because they need to focus on the inside. And rightly so, it seems, as the club is stuck at the twentieth place since matchday 9, lagging seven points behind Ajaccio, the first non-relegatable team. So it’s needless to say that their confidence is undermined. However, a series of four consecutive draws against Troyes ( 3-3), Ajaccio (1-1), Evian-Thonon-Gaillard (1-1) and Valenciennes (1-1) has helped chase the gloom a bit and revealed a somewhat more offensive side, scoring six goals in four games. Enough to hope repeating last season’s feat, when ASNL saved its place in Ligue 1 thanks to an almost perfect second half of the championship. Still, even with a good coach -that was at least thecase in Auxerre- one an wonder if this is possible this year with such a lack of experienced players. Coach Jean Fernandez will sure put his boots under the Christmas tree, hoping for a couple of winter transfer presents.

OL, the bright side, really?
Granted, OL seems in a totally different landscape. However, in the OL ranks, things are not too rosy either. Yoann Gourcuff, who suffered a torn right adductor last Sunday against Saint-Etienne, is not in the group. The problem is, since the beginning of the season, Gourcuff and Grenier seemed to have a gentleman’s agreement: “I’ll be injured for the next 3 months, and then it will be your turn” so that the playmaker role was usually filled. But now, the must have messed up with their injury schedules as we have both Gourcuff and Grenier (torn hamstring) out. So Garde will be without its two leaders for the last three games of the year against Nancy today, then in Paris on sunday and in Nice on saturday 22. “That’s harsh. This is a time when we would need everyone. This is no good news for the team to have two players at the same position injured. This is bad. That said, I think the group has the resources to find alternatives, even if there was a good balance in the recent weeks. ” He didn’t give away his answer, but in terms of possible solutions one can think of Fofana, or also, why not, Mvuemba, Ferri or Sidy Koné.

Fortunately Lisandro, who has now recovered from his calf injury, is in the group, like Dejan Lovren, who has not played in L1 for more than a month. To add to the depletion of our team, Mouhamadou Dabo and Maxime Gonalons are suspended. But all is well that ends well as Fabian Monzon is available. Just kidding.
So the group is: Bastos, Benzia, Bisevac, Ferri, Fofana, Ghezzal, Gomis, Koné.S, Koné.B, Lacazette, Lisandro, Lovren, Malbranque, Monzon, Mvuemba, Réveillère, Umtiti, Vercoutre.

The likely teams:
Lyon : Vercoutre – Réveillère, Bisevac, Umtiti, Monzon – Lacazette, Malbranque, Fofana, Bastos – Lisandro, Gomis.

Nancy : Ndy Assembe – Sami, André Luiz, Puygrenier, Haïdara – Sané, Mangani – Moukandjo, Karaboué, Mollo – Bakar.

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Category: Team News and Rumors