In the first part of the season, OL only won one match against the top eight in the championship. A point that he will absolutely have to correct if he wants to enter the top 4.
Strong against the weak and weak against the strong. This formula could correspond to OL’s course so far in Ligue 1. With the defeat in Paris on Sunday (3-1), they are now done with the duels against the teams in the top 8 of the championship for this first part seasonal. And the record is poor, with only three draws and one success for three losses.
It’s simple, Olympique Lyonnais lost to the first three (PSG, Marseille and Monaco), still picking up a point from Lille (4th, 1-1) and Lens (7th, 0-0). He managed to dominate Nice (6th, 4-1), the only team in the top 8 to have lost against him. Results that explain the current position of Pierre’s men Sage in the ranking (5th), and today demonstrate a certain glass ceiling against the best opponents.
OL’s good momentum was not enough in Paris
If the Parc des Princes is, it is true, hostile territory, Luis’s group Enrique However, he was not in top form. A favorable wind was therefore pushing the Rhone residents, especially after the success against Frankfurt, 2nd in the Bundesliga, earlier in the week (3-2). “I am very surprised because they remained on good momentum with great performances and great content. Personally, I thought they were going to do it, and I was surprised that after a quarter of an hour, it was already 2-0confided Amos Yougamidfielder from Debreceni VS (Hungary) who passed through the Lyon academy. They were unable to resist the pressure put on by PSG.”
Toured by Paris and ASM, beaten by OM very early reduced to 10, Alexandre’s teammates Lacazette Do they harbor complexes in these high altitude shocks, or are they simply less good than their counterparts? “I think they agreed to endure. They counter-pressed once on goal, it’s a shame not to have done it more, regretted Enzo Realmember of Goal FC, in As long as there are Gone. There is an inferiority complex because the PSG players are individually stronger than those of Olympique Lyonnais. But I would have liked them to let loose during this last big test before the holidays.“
A lack of ambition in major events?
Another hypothesis mentioned, that of a lack of ambition in major meetings. “I don’t think it’s about that, swept Pierre Sage. We changed our three offensive elements with half an hour to go to push. We switch to 3-4-3 to defend higher up, but we open up spaces. It’s simply a problem of balance of power, we were facing a high quality opponent this (Sunday) evening. We should have had a better match to compete. We saw at the end of the half when we pushed that we were still capable of doing things.”
Finally, it is also obvious that tactically, OL are still paying for certain shortcomings and individual errors. These flaws are less visible when he faces teams from the bottom of the table. “It’s a tactical defeat in my opinion. The Parisians were much better in terms of football IQ. Olympique Lyonnais falls against an opponent who is superior to them, we are not going to lie. Six months ago, we were far from being able to compete with him. There, we hoped based on our dynamics, but we saw the tactical, technical and athletic gap between the two squads“, observed Nicolas fatally Puydeboisformer Rhone goalkeeper.
1 victory in 7 matches against the top 8
Still, with only 14% success against members of the top 8 for the 2024-2025 financial year, it will be difficult for Corentin’s partners Tolisso to hope to aim higher than the 5th place occupied after 15 days. “That means something, the numbers speak so it’s factual“, noted Nicolas Puydebois, three times French champion (2003-2005), regarding this statistic.
With Montpellier (18th) and Brest (11th) at the start of 2025 to finish the first leg, OL can be reassured at this level. But he still has to manage to maintain the same success against the teams in the second part of the ranking. In any case, it is another area of work for the staff in their quest to qualify for the Champions League.
