Despite the returns to the 11 of Corentin Tolisso and Rayan Cherki, OL seemed not to know how to maneuver the Brest team (2-1). A worrying observation.
Pierre Sage and his staff will have to ask themselves the right questions if they do not want to waste all the work that has been done so far. After the setback in Brest on Saturday (2-1), there is no need to be alarmist, because OL will still be in the top 6 at the end of the first leg. The podium is only three lengths away, so everything remains possible. But the performance achieved during the 17th day is worrying, being in line with what has been offered by this team since mid-December.
Coming out of the convincing 3-2 success against Frankfurt in the Europa League on December 12, 2024, we said to ourselves that Olympique Lyonnais had found their cruising speed. However, the setback conceded on the PSG pitch following (3-1) visibly derailed the machine. Since then, he has had a string of mediocre performances, to say the least. The results followed, until this relapse in Brittany.
Cherki and Tolisso stand out from the crowd, but for what collective result?
For this poster, the coach had chosen to reinstate into his 11 the two best elements of the first part of the season, Corentin Tolisso and Rayan Cherki. But nothing happened. If the two players were rather good individually, the Rhone club was quickly weighed down by defensive errors. Trailing 2-0 after 30 minutes, he was never really able to catch up, despite Jordan’s goal Veretout before the break.
If possession was largely in their favor (67%), OL were unable to do anything with it. Too readable, he didn’t manage to sort out Eric’s plan Roywho blocked the wings very well. “It’s difficult to start a meeting like that. We have two thirds of possession, which is also linked to the scenario, but it was not sufficiently impactful for the opponent. We only created four or five situations. It’s too little“, lamented Pierre Sage.
OL lacked speed in the game
However, the 45-year-old French technician acted, switching to 4-2-3-1 after the break. But this change of system, if it had the merit of refocusing Cherki in the heart of the game, did not really reverse the balance of power. On the contrary, the Brestois were able to take advantage of spaces to attack during rapid attacks. “It was to have a speed profile on our right side, with Ernest Nuamahbut we rarely hit him with deep runs, it didn’t live up to what we expected, recognized the Jura coach. We lacked speed on the sides, in the game, in decision-making, in races.”
Watching the Lyonnais struggle to try to equalize, the feeling of helplessness hits us in the face. Apart from two great situations for Tanner Tessmann and especially Alexander Lacazettethey were not able to impose a siege on Marco’s cages Bizot in the second act. “In the second half, we came back with better intentions, with more desire, aggression, races too, but that wasn’t enough, Clinton pointed out. Eye. A football match is 90 minutes… However, we showed a better face and we will have to build on that for the next posters.”
A strategy better read by the adversary
For OL, what are the solutions to redress the situation? Difficult to answer this question. The different systems used (4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1) are now better read by opponents. The famous three-way recovery base, with a full-back higher on one side and its counterpart returning to the level of the central defenders, is now thwarted. The movements also appear less coordinated, which Pierre Sage noted in recent days.
We will therefore have to reinvent ourselves, implement other ideas in the Rhone game. However, after this defeat, the 5th of the season in Ligue 1, Sage was not worried. “In Paris (3-1), we logically lost because we didn’t get into our game, it’s a bit of the same scenario, he observed. I think we played better than against Montpellier (1-0). We are in a healing process. This suggests that we will play better if we continue to work as we have been doing since the start of this week.“Taking refuge in work indeed seems a good idea, with a series of six meetings looming until February 2.
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