Careful in his choice of words, Pierre Sage gave some explanations on his choice not to start Rayan Cherki on Saturday for the Ligue 1 match between OL and Montpellier (1-0).
Lyon supporters may have been surprised when reading the Lyon composition. For the Montpellier reception on Saturday, Pierre Sage decided to do without Corentin Tolisso, slightly injured before the break and sidelined this week, at the kick-off, but also Rayan Cherki, who has been in great form in recent months.
It was only in the 65th minute, when OL had all the trouble in the world to worry Benjamin Lecomte, that the Espoirs international made his appearance on the pitch at Groupama Stadium. Did Cherki pay for a tactical choice? Rumors around his future during this transfer window? Or was it just a matter of breathing space as a busy schedule approaches? Launched at the same time as Tolisso, he did not achieve his best start of the season, far from it, which did not prevent Lyon from snatching victory at the end of the suspense (1-0), well helped by the clumsiness of Khalil Fayad.
“The week guided me towards this choice”
“Why did Rayan start on the bench? For different reasons. One of these reasons was to keep power at a given moment in the match if he was blocked. In this sense, we had to have possibilities on the bench to change the match The week guided me towards this choice, but it could have been on other players”, indicated Pierre Sage, at the end of the meeting, in a press conference.
“He had his week (of training), there are also the others who had a good week and who deserved to play. There are several parameters to take into account, the first to remember is that we wanted to keep the possibility of reaccelerating with half an hour to go,” added the Lyon technician, careful with his choice of words.
Kévin Diaz and Walid Acherchour do not agree on the analysis of the Lyonnais match – 04/01
“Don’t make me say that… Because I had a question a bit like that after Paris which had been diverted concerning Rayan Cherki, and I had to explain myself to him,” he added in a smile. During the defeat at Parc (3-1) in mid-December, Sage chose to replace Cherki shortly after the hour mark and then review his entire attack line. “He brought a lot offensively but he was starting to only make efforts in one direction and it was becoming dangerous for the team,” he explained.
“Wanting to get back on track is one thing,” he said. “But we also had to ensure balance when we didn't have the ball. And as in this half we had very little possession, it could have been problematic for us to leave this space on the right side of the ball. PSG open.”
