Valenciennes vs. Lyon
By: John | May 1st, 2009
Jesus will not be around to make miracles happen this weekend, but hopefully “Easter” will come before nextweek’s Nantes match, if not, definately before Marseille in two weeks.
Week 34
Sat, 02, May 2009
Stade Nungesser
1 P.M. EST(19:00CET, 18:00GMT)
Well, last week’s draw vs. PSG pretty much ended our hopes for an eight straight L1 title, and with Marseille and Bordeaux showing no signs of letting-up- Bordeaux put-on a veritable magic show coming-back from 0-1 to beat Rennes 3-2 with ten men- in their struggle for the top, the coffin seems to have been nailed-shut. But if there are any “glass half-full” people out there that still believe Lyon have a shot, then picking-up three Saturday is imperative. More importantly, what the draw last week did do, is leave us in the nightmare-ish scenario; a more ominuous threat than that of the porcine flu: possibly not qualifying for the CL. I’m still in disbelief, and the thought of not securing a CL berth, and all that that would entail for the club, is really nauseating: no money to sign big players, losing some of our best players, having to sell Karim; what the hell is going on?
Although we currently are teater-tottering on the edge of that precipice, a few positive things did happen last week. First, although we couldn’t score, the team did seem to awaken from it’s slumber and sense the seriousness of it’s current predicament; we played very well but missed several opportunities. Second, Cris and Juni began to take charge on the field again. They had both been pretty dormant- leadership-wise- on the pitch lately, but hopefully they’ve been infusing emotion into the rest of the squad during the week, and are sowing the seeds of nice run to finish out the season and keep our hold on third place. Third, and perhaps the best bit of news, is that all those squads nipping at our heals either drew- PSG and Toulouse- or lost- Lille went down to Marseille, unfortunately.
PSG is still only one point behind us(Hopefully Rennes aren’t demoralized from their loss to Bordeaux and do us a favor by taking-out PSG at the Parc this weekend), but Toulouse are now four behind, while Lille are five down. So we maintained or increased our lead in the race for third; obviously a win would have been even better, but I’ll take it. Hopefully it’s a semi-positive omen that we didn’t lose, and we can grab some momentum heading into the final stretch with away matches vs. Marseille and Toulouse. Oh, and I’m glad we found a new home for Bodmer, he was outstanding at the 10, our best player on the pitch, untill Puel pulled him early.
And I almost forgot: Saturday, Lyon head-up to Valenciennes to play the “first” game in the rest of OL’s season.
Valenciennes’ Current Form: Valenciennes are currently 15th in the table, with an 8-13-12 record. They are 8th in the table in home record and pretty strong at home, with an 8-4-4 record. They have not lost twice in a row since early December. In their last five matches they are 1-2-2 with only a draw at Rennes worthy of noting. They are 16th in attack with (29) scored, and 10th in defense with (34) allowed. Their top scorers are Gregory Pujol (6) and Jean-Claude Darcheville with (4).
History:
Lyon are 8-10-8 vs. Valenciennes. Valenciennes haven’t beaten OL since June of ‘81 at Nungesser. Their last meeting in week sixteen at Gerlande ended in a 0-0 draw.
Le groupe: Lloris, Vercoutre – Clerc, Cris, Réveillère, Källström, Boumsong, Mensah, Fabio Santos, Toulalan, Pjanic, Piquionne, Benzema, Ederson, Bodmer, Mounier, Keita, Grosso, Delgado.
Injuries and Absences: Govou, Juninho is out with an adductor strain, and Makoun is suspended; must be by OL because he never saw the field last week vs. PSG.
Line-up: It appears Puel is still monkeying-around and has had Ederson playing striker during practice. Let’s hope that doesn’t translate to this game, although it couldn’t really hurt at this point, being that our other options aren’t too appetizing. I don’t know that Puel goes with two DMs vs. Valenciennes, but I liked Bodmer playing in the ten last week, and thought our offense looked a lot more fluid that it has for some time.
Lloris
Clerc-Cris-Boumsong-Grosso
Toulalan-Kallstrom
Ederson-Bodmer-Mounier
Benzema
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Comments
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Goodbye Lyon, Goodbye Benzema, Goodbye Champions League.
Posted from
Sweden
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credit to VFC, they played well. But Lyon’s overall pathetic play contributed to that. Makes me feel sorry for the supporters who traveled all the way up there.
Posted from
United States -
can’t score can’t defend i’m sad to say it’s over baby
Posted from
United States -
final score 2 – 0 to VFC. lyon is finished. only thing they can manage now is tire at home. the rest is defeat
Posted from
United States -
i think we would have a good shot at winning the europa league if we end up there, so its not all bad.
Posted from
United States -
i think uefa cup is what lyon needs . taste of european silverware, then CL might be possible
Posted from
United States -
What makes you lot think this team is capable of europa league glory ?The squad is barely capable of paaing the first stage of that competition now let alone winning it teams like Zenit,Roma,Bayern,Everton,Villareal,Sporting,Shakhtar,Hamburg,Aston Villa,Sevilla,Atletico and other CL drop outs are all capable of mauling this weak OL squad.
Posted from
United States -
People like Shazback,Ronald and Lefuter This just proves(as I always new anyway)that you talk utter bullshit about how Lyons squad is “so good” I mean your opinions are so unvalid it makes me cringe how you think the current squad and setup can win the CL its almost comedy remarks you come out with. Aulas,Puel(its not his fault but I think hes an arse licker of the presidant and crap anyway),Cris,Boumsong,Bodmer,Juninho(just for change of scenery and era reasons),Keita,Santos and Piquionne all have to leave. And be replaced for Lyon to make a recovery
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Unbelievable!!! Thank God I missed the match. I think we all knew they were done after PSG, but this is really it. These players are pathetic, and look like they have no desire to be on the pitch; they are a sorry lot. Although Puel hasn’t much to work with, the responsiblity for the players’ lack of motivation has to fall on him. It seems like after the last Barca match, everyone except Lloris has given-up. A while back, I too was thinking that it might be good for OL to play for and hopefully win some hardward in the UEFA Cup, but this team isn’t capable of winning against L1 competition, so how the hell could they ever hope to compete against teams like Sevilla, Aston Villa, etc. What a disaster.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
I think it would be really good for us to not finnish i even top 7, Aulas said we would have the same transfer budget anyway..But this squad is clueless about what being a champions is..It’s easy to see most of the players are bought from shitty clubs.
Posted from
Norway -
Aulas chats shit all of the time though so the transfer budget probabaly will be lower(if it can get any lower than usual)I think the problems with this team are obvious-No balance,depth issues,player quality issues,defencive issues,attacking issues,wing issues, in fact I have an issue with everything at the club bar RB and CM
Posted from
United Kingdom -
I just read the comments of Pierre Menes (a french journalist who keeps a blog on yahoo), and he has the feeling that the Lyon players are turning their backs on the coach seeing how he they played recently.
I don’t always agree with Pierre Menes, but I agree on this one. I think Puel’s message is too opposite to Lyon’s normal style (fast and attacking football).If you want to blame Cris or Boumsong, then you should also blame Benzema. The truth is that the whole team is to blame. We play in the DM zone all the time. That is not football! Everyone at the beginning of the year complained about the fact Lyon had too many attacking midfields, but that doesn’t reflect at all on the style. I have the feeling we play with 1 attacking midfiel (Benzema), 5 DM’s and 4 defenders.
I think a coach should adapt to the players he has in his squad, not the contrary! It is as if Maradona or Pele were playing defenders… they wouldn’t show their talent in this position.
Posted from
Japan -
Oh, and Ronan, if you have such issues with the club about everything bar CM RB, I don’t know what you are doing here.
Posted from
Japan -
pride of lyon is right. But i really feel no need to respond to your comments Ronan. I believe in what i believe, that this IS a good squad. Their not performing, thats basically all i can say. Their playing horribly, i will admit that.
now if you’ll excuse me, ima step aside while Ronan makes more delusional transfer requests ( mostly of coaches and players who wouldnt want to be a part of Lyon )
Ronald Out
Posted from
United States -
It is quite worrying times indeed at the moment, but there is a bit of an overreaction from some people no surprises who. Lyon are going through a bad spell, it has come from a result of too many years of key players leaving and the team lacking any real continuity. None of the players know what position they’ll be playing in or who with at the moment, same goes for who’ll be managing the club. The signs were there last year, as the team was undoubtedly worse than the one of previous years – and I don’t think that the players were worse.
After 7 years of dominance, it is natural that the team will eventually have problems – and unless you are in a poor league (like the Scottish or Portugese ones say) then this will affect your league position. It happens to all the best teams, and they get through it as the team rebuilds after a shift of players – this is what I hope is happening at Lyon. Barcelona had a few years of mid table obscurity in Spain, AC Milan have had some serious problems in the league in recent years and are still trying to find their feet properly again – Juventus even got relegated. Arsenal haven’t won anything for around 4 years! As the above shows, this is what happens to all clubs going through transition phases, Lyon is no different! The players who were dominant in the glory years need replacing and the team needs time to gel as a unit. I think Lyon would do well to reduce the numbers of the squad and fill in problem areas of the squad, LM, CF and CB being the main ones IMO.
I am scared however for Lyon’s CL place though as missing out on it could indeed cost the club dearly as it would force a lot of major players to leave who won’t be easy to be replaced in any shape or form. I also hope Aulas has learned from some previous mistakes of overspending and won’t make the same mistake as with Keita again. It’s been a bad year, but it’s not the end of the world.
Posted from
Japan -
Ronald-I dont need to argue with you-the squad isnt good enough-simple-if you think it is good enough your wrong. I think most people can see that.
Posted from
United States -
If my transfer requests are “disalusional” then god help Lyon we might as well fold if we are not capable of signing players like Remy and out of favour players at other clubs. I mean gee are we capable of signing some one really good like please god Darcheville or Tavlaridis. I mean For christ sake Ronald who on earth are Lyon capable of signing because it seems to me you lot think Lyon can literally sign no one-which if the case we need to stop Lyon all together and go out of business.
Posted from
United States -
when are Lyon going to use
Lloris
Clerc-Boumsong-Mensah-Grosso
Toulalan-Ederson-Makoun
Delgado Pjanic
BenzemaI think thats OL best option for the remaining fixtures
Posted from
United States -
We must try to sing Dzeko. He score hat-trick against fall Hoffenhaim, and I still think that we must try to sing Mario Gomez. Strog header, good tehnique, exellent striker. For defence, I feel that Bruno Alves ( Porto ) will be good. Also Bastos and Mancini will be quite capable for left flank. And the best for the end – Gourcuff – that will be the most important sign for Lyon.
Posted from
United States -
PSG just lost to Rennes, atleast some good news.
Posted from
United States -
^^^Nah, good news would be every club 4th or below suddenly folding.
Posted from
United States -
Marseille drew, PSG lost, Toulouse drew, Lille lost, and Rennes won and are seven points out of third, although I guess they are still possibly in the race. It’s unbelievable the opposition is keeping Lyon in the race even though we are losing and playing like we’ve accepted relegation already. I mean Le Havre is playing harder than us; they beat Nantes and have less to play for then us.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
Like a team that’s accepted relegation that is.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
POL: I read the Menes blog and it makes sense. These players look like they’ve given-up since exiting the CL. I’ve seen teams that were destined for releaation, more enthusiastic than they are.
You make some good points, but I ask myself a couple a questions: If it’s Puel’s style that’s stifling Benzema as of late, why was he such a prolific scorer before he went on this drought? Same with Ederson. And if Puel did suddenly switch to playing attacking football, would that necessarily translate into goals? I know we have a some really talented players like Benz and Ederson who can put the ball in the net, but why are they all in collective funk right now? Has Puel ratcheted-up the defensive mentality even more now, at the end of the season? I just find it hard to believe that Benzema would let a coach bridle his scoring intincts and hunger, especially when he sees how much it’s hurting the team, and play defense to the detriment of the squad and his own interests. I think he would do everything in his power to keep scoring goals and let the coach deal with the lynch mob if he tryed to punish him for it. But if Puel is tightenting that defensive mentality up to the moment, he should be shot, because when you give-up two goals to Valenciennes playing with two DM’s and three midfielders, that has to be a wake-up call that your tactics are wrong.
This team has looked offensively anemic so often this year and no more so than when Benz started his slump. I think this team was in trouble offensively since early in the season: Alot of us noticed that we relied too much on Benzema- he was 60-70% of the offense at times, and most of us knew that if he went down, so did OL; and that’s exactly what happened. Yes, we have alot of offensive mids, but barely any of them are scorers from what I know. We seem to have alot of playmakers, but out of all these new guys we brought in, the most prolific scorer amoung them is a defensive mid Makoun; mind you, we’ve had issues with injury and continuity.
Yes, I think Puel has alot to do with this, but I don’t know that the problems will be resolved by just playing more offensively. We also need some more things: we need finishers; we have to fill in some holes at alot of positions(Keeper,DM/CMF,RB,LB- Grosso’s good, but we need an more defensive LB to let Clerc go forward- and #1 CF are the only positions we’re solid at); more unit cohesion- obviously turn-over and loss of our veteran players is a big deal- and continuity at the positions- although if we don’t have stand-outs at a certain position, we shouldn’t gaurantee a position to the better of the two subpar performers just for the sake of continuity.Posted from
Costa Rica -
has anybody heard anything about OL coming to north america this summer for some friendlies / exhibition games?
Posted from
United States
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