Pierre Sage explains the metamorphosis of Cherki

Scorer against OM and Olympiakos, Rayan Cherki (21) made a notable return to OL, after a turbulent summer. At a press conference this Friday, Pierre Sage mentioned the Frenchman’s case. “It’s a position in which he expresses himself. He has a lot of freedoms, close relationships. He has players covering him behind. What I liked were his projections without the ball in the shallow end. What’s interesting is that his two goals are situations of receiving the ball in the box and not penetrating the box with the ball like he used to do. Entering the box with the ball and getting into a shooting position is much more difficult than being found by a teammate. Today, we see that he is capable of cutting at the near post, that he is capable of going deep and making the right choice at the right time. Usually he tends to go into action after receiving the ball, yesterday he did the opposite, he was in action before receiving the ball and that made him perform even better. In about ten days, he will be able to play a full match.”

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The OL coach added: “Last season, I think he created a lot of shooting opportunities, but he didn’t know how to convert them. Today, he is more aggressive in the area, we can see it by the force he put into his shot and it shows all his determination. It’s good for him, it frees him, we saw it in his celebration, even if some accuse him of having done too much. For me, these are good signs, it’s important. Rayan is not frustrated by the situation, he responded from his first match. He managed to confirm in the next match, the challenge for him today is to find his consistency to finally be able to show the player he should be. » The Lyonnais will have the opportunity to continue their momentum on Sunday against TFC.