[Billet d’humeur] A failed start to the season: whose fault is it?

A president privileging the financial aspect of the club to the sporting requirements:

Jean-Michel Aulas, after a devastating COVID for OL’s finances, can tell us what he wants … With a loan that must be repaid, the president cannot (wants?) Spend a lot of money . By this choice, he privileges the financial aspect to the sporting choice as the departure of J. Lucas in Monaco proves it. While the young Brazilian was a colt of Juninho and that P. Bosz had made him a potential holder of his midfielder, the player was nevertheless transferred to Monaco without any player coming to replace him for the moment. Between Juninho and Ponsot, JMA did not hesitate for a second, a choice that weighs down the Lyon transfer window and complicates the situation of the sporting director. Especially since by saying from the enthronement of Bosz that “it was Juni’s choice”, he seemed to want to clear himself of a possible sporting failure, a position all the more absurd as it was ultimately he who decides, he who chooses the men.

A “myopic” sports director who did not anticipate:

Juninho is a young sports director who has ideas about football … but lacks networks. Apart from his Brazilian branch (thanks to which he was able to recruit Guimaraes or Paqueta… but also Camilo or Henrique), Juninho does not have much contact in the other championships. Even French is not a field of expertise for him. No good player in the championship has really been in demand for two years, whether Savanier (Montpellier), Ferhat (Nîmes) and so many others have not been studied by the sports director. Since F. Mendy or Ndombélé, we know well at OL that Ligue 2 is full of talent … we still have to identify them and try to attract them.
This weakness in the recruitment unit had serious consequences because, since the start of the transfer window, only da Silva and Henrique have arrived. If it is necessary to wait to judge da Silva, Henrique already seems to be a casting error for Bosz after his destitute performance in a preparation match, he does not consider him at best as a 3rd choice for the left-back position (proof also that the vein Brazilian tends to dry up after the Camilo failure). However, by choosing P. Bosz as coach, the sporting director should have anticipated and understood that the current workforce was not suited to the system that the Dutch coach intended to put in place. Follower of a 4-3-3 with a high team block, Bosz wants fast defenders (where we have Marcelo …), physical and enduring in the middle (where we have Aouar and Thiago Mendes), hard-hitting wingers (there where we have… nobody on the left and far too many supporting attackers: Cherki, Slimani, Aouar or Kadewere). We are two weeks from the end of the transfer window and the club seems to discover that it needs one or two central defenders, one or two full-backs, a powerful No. 6 and at least one left winger…. And I’m not even talking about the depth of the bench necessary to lead the championship and the European Cup.
Especially since “the OL academy” no longer provides Lacazette, Umtiti, Tolisso in spades. Since this generation, only Caqueret, Aouar and Gouiri (alas in Nice) have made it through. The others, whether Cherki, Maolida, Malo Gusto, Bard, Keita and others have not yet succeeded … The OL training center trains good football players (fairly technical on the ball) but who are incapable to integrate the holders of a Ligue 1 team, having too many tactical shortcomings, in the placement or even in the defensive gesture (I am thinking of Malo Gusto but also to a lesser degree in Kalulu or Bard).

A coach who does not have enough “Boszé” (sic):

P. Bosz is undoubtedly an interesting and competent coach with a beautiful philosophy of play but I remain rather circumspect in front of a man able in press conference to explain during his enthronement that he does not know.[t] not the players ”(or before Brest that he did not“ know[t] not the teams of the French championship ”) and especially after Angers, following this non-match that he did not“ know ”.[t] not how it was before ”… so he hasn’t seen the OL games of the last two seasons? It’s been almost two months since he landed in Lyon and he’s barely starting to understand his group. And even ? When we see that Slimani is placed on the left winger and that Bosz criticizes him for refocusing, I have the feeling that he still does not know who Slimani is, a fairly free central striker playing almost 9 1/2 to serve the center-forward (as in Monaco with Ben Yedder for example). But, after all, he has the right to make new tests: to try again Cornet left back, Cherki left winger or Caqueret in 6 … he is in his role.

What I find it harder to forgive him is when I see that he has still not been able to transmit his footballing precepts to the players. Even though I am aware that the football IQ of our players is quite limited, and therefore that it is difficult to succeed in changing the way they play in just two months, the Angers match showed that they are still unable to trigger efficient pressing. Lost on the pitch, they still don’t seem to know what to do, where to stand, what to do with the ball… However, they tried in the first friendlies but the stinging defeats against Sporting and Porto sounded. the death knell of their will to move forward.

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The second thing I have a problem with is the physical condition of the players. Against Angers, the Lyonnais seemed helpless, physically struggling. Already against Brest, they had seemed quickly without energy after a quarter of an hour of play (only the entries of Paqueta and Slimani had been illusory). So was the physical preparation sufficient? With or without a ball, going to Andalusia in July to make land is perhaps not the brightest idea … Do marathon runners go to Italy, Greece or Spain in the summer to prepare for their season? too ?

Senators mode players:

Far from me the idea of exonerating players who, as the Lyon 1950s said very well, are great professionals to clear their customs and find excuses. For years we have had a very weak group mentally. The choice of Dubois as captain (the one who left us at 10 at GG; the one who finds acceptable the slightest draw at home; the one who is unable to remobilize his teammates after a conceded goal against Brest or Angers) is the symbol of an OL that lacks character. Many OL players do not see our club at best as a springboard. Like Memphis, Aouar, Cherki or Guimaraes (even Paqueta and Denayer) only see OL as a means of being then transferred to a “big” club. And many of them do not put in the effort to enable them to achieve their goal. For three years, Aouar has seen his cost reduced, by 60 million, he is only worth 20 and even at this price, Arsenal does not want it … where has the midfielder gone by chaining races to recovery when formed a doublet with Ndombélé against City? To these players are added those who see our club as a pre-retirement home (a Senate what?). What Thiago Mendes has shown us since his arrival? And Marcelo? After six months last year to obtain an extension of the lease, it happened to fall back into its pitfalls once the extension was obtained. At 34, he can think about his retraining and improving himself at golf, he is no longer hungry, like his casual attitude in Angers… but he is far from being the only one.
OL is a nice club where life is good for the players but which no longer seems to have real sporting goals. In the 90s, OL had the ambition to grow, to obtain a league title, this structured the club, conditioned the players to achieve this goal. But today, what is OL’s sporting project for the next 5 to 10 years?

And now ?

For the moment, only two days have been disputed and currently OM, LOSC, Monaco and other teams destined to play the podium are either in the same situation as us, or just ahead. There are two weeks for the directing staff to fill this wobbly workforce and allow Bosz to have the players capable of implementing his ideas. It is then up to him to pass them on as quickly as possible to his group so that the podium does not stray too far.

Nothing is crippling, but the club will have to recover and quickly!

Photos by Icon Sport.

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