Is this the end of the line for Lyon?
After six titles on the spin, Lyon may finally be tamed when the new French season gets under way.
August 2, 2007 5:03 PM
This time last year all the talk in French football was still about a butt in the chest. Now it's about a shot in the arm. Because that's what the country's top flight needs after a season in which Lyon chugged to a sixth successive title with unhealthy ease while all the other big sides were held back by strategic straitjackets (hello Bordeaux), suicidal signings or squabbling (Nantes, Monaco, Saint Etienne), chronic inconsistency (Lille, Lens, Auxerre, Marseille) or some strange, recently-diagnosed neurosis whose symptoms can range from any of the above to writhing around at rock bottom. Something doctors dub PSGitis.
But Paul Le Guen may have found a miracle cure for that condition - and that's just one of the reasons why this season promises to be more entertaining than last. On the surface that statement may seem rasher than a strip of bacon; after all:
* For the severalth summer in succession, a slew of top talent (Florent Malouda, Franck Ribéry, Younes Kaboul, Yaya Touré, Seydou Keita, Ismael Bangoura, etc) has defected to richer leagues.
* The fact that eight of the league's 20 teams changed manager over the summer (the second-highest turnover ever) doesn't exactly suggest owners are embracing sensible stability.
But that only tells half the story. Plenty of exciting players have opted to stay in Ligue 1 despite being serenaded from aboard, notably outstanding youngsters such as Samir Nasri (OM), Jérémy Menez (Monaco), Bafé Gomis (Saint Etienne) and Toulouse's Swedish striker Johan Elmander. And, as Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas repeatedly points out, the champions have replaced Barcelona-bought Eric Abidal with Italian World Cup winner Fabio Grosso.
What's more, there's been method to the movement of managers. And discovering whether they were fine or flawed methods will be one of the most fascinating features of the season. Will the virginal Laurent Blanc blemish his blank managerial sheet at Bordeaux? Will promoted Strasbourg survive after ditching another French playing legend, Jean-Pierre Papin, and replacing him with Jean-Marc Furlan, whose attacking philosophy is expected to please fans more than Papin's dull pragmatism, but whose most recent claim to fame is that last season he guided Troyes to ... relegation?
If Strasbourg's decision sounds odd, then Monaco's removal of Laurent Banide was monstrous. Having replaced Lazlo Boloni at the helm last season after the would-be title contenders lost eight of their first nine games, Banide steadied the ship, rescued them from relegation, steered them on a late-season surge that took them up to ninth, and was rewarded with the boot. So Monaco went in search of their sixth manager in less than two years and, bizarrely, opted for Ricardo, the Brazilian whose sepulchral style of football bored Bordeaux fans to death over the last two seasons despite delivering a Champions League berth (in 2006) and the League Cup (last season). You'd be forgiven for deducing that, since Monaco have sod all fans, style doesn't matter to them - but Ricardo's been told otherwise and, hey presto, insists he's going to abandon his Bordeaux beliefs and go for all-out attack. And with sparkling youngsters such as 20-year-olds Menez, Serge Gakpé and Juan Pablo Pino and late bloomer Frédéric Piquionne, that approach could well bring success. Or a seventh manager in two years.
Another side worth training your camera on are Lens. After Francis Gillot decided management was no fun, the Blood and Gold found him a different job and lured the legendary Guy Roux out of retirement. This season, then, we'll get to see whether the coaching guru can work his wizardry anywhere other than at Auxerre, where he wielded his wand for over 40 years. He won't be helped by the sale of Seydou Keita to Sevilla, or the fact that most of his attacking players will head off to the African Nations Cup for at least a month. But with his penchant for powerful attacking and pithy quips, it'll certainly be entertaining.
Of course, the most significant managerial change was at Lyon, where Alain Perrin has replaced Gérard Houllier, who shuffled out of Stade Gerland after somehow blending back-to-back titles with a strong sense of underachievement. Is Perrin the right man to perpetuate their domestic dominance while, despite the loss of several key players and his own lack of Champions League experience, elevating them to a higher European plain?
Possibly. Perrin is sometimes caricatured as a shouty disciplinarian and though there's no doubt he's a stickler for detail (recently, for example, he expelled new signing Mathieu Bodmer from training for misdirecting three consecutive corners), he's evolved since his stint at Marseille and he's clearly become a subtle man-manager. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to reinvigorate the careers of mercurial magicians Jérôme Leroy and Karim Ziani last season, when he guided Sochaux to sixth place in the league and glory in the cup. He can be relied upon, then, not to be cack-handed enough to divide the dressing room as Houllier did.
Perrin's treatment of playmaker Juninho, with whom Houllier forged a sort of Sven-Goran Eriksson/David Beckham relationship, will be intriguing. The political aspect shouldn't be too problematic, as the Brazilian's no prima donna and, as a sop to the team-mates who complained about his influence, has relinquished the captaincy. What's more interesting, then, is the positional aspect.
For the last four years Lyon have played in the 4-3-3 system originally conceived by Le Guen. In it, Juninho has been supported by two midfielders who do most of the labouring so he can concentrate on artistry. But Perrin is devoted to 4-4-2, reasoning that it allows for much faster and fluid attacking even if it means no longer monopolising possession. He's played this formation for all the pre-season games, including last week's exhilarating Coupe des Champions (equivalent of the Community Shield) victory over Sochaux. Juninho wasn't available for those games: when he returns, how will he fit into the side's new shape? Could the team's talisman actually be squeezed out?
Of course, playing with two up front also demands having two decent strikers, and it's far from certain that Lyon will meet that criteria. Nineteen-year-old France international Karim Benzema is looking every inch the new Nicolas Anelka, but Milan Baros is the same old Milan Baros and Fred, afflicted by injury, personal problems and an obvious desire for a transfer, only reluctantly returned from Brazil this week. Sidney Govou or their explosive new signing from Lille, Abdelkader Keita, could be deployed up front, but both are more effective out wide. Lyon are desperately seeking another option.
Replacing Malouda, Ligue 1's Player of the Year last season, on the left is also tricky. Twenty-year-old Hatem Ben Arfa is promising but unproven; Keita could go there but is better on the right; so the best choice may be Algerian international Nadir Belhadj, who was a wonderful buccaneering full-back at Sedan last season but, by dint of his defensive dodgyness and the arrival of Grosso, may be best deployed in a more advanced role. But that's not for sure; and the freakish injury to Grégory Coupet in training - which is expected to rule the keeper out for four months - adds further doubt to the champions' ability to defend their title.
As it happens, if Lyon wobble, the team most likely to leapfrog them is one who haven't changed their manager. We're not talking about Elie Baup's Toulouse, who, despite clinging on to Elmander (fending off Lyon, among others) and adding Andre-Pierre Gignac, don't have the squad to cope with a title challenge and a Champions League run, particularly as injuries mean they're likely to start the season with a depleted defence. Lille may still have Claude Puel but their playing staff is in more disrepair than their stadium. And the losses of John Utaka and Jacques Faty will ruin Rennes's chances of repeating last season's surprising run, even if the canny captures of Leroy and Mikael Pagis mean they'll be well worth watching.
PSG may not have bought in much new blood (though Zoumana Camara will plug the gap left by David Rozenhal) but, crucially, Le Guen convinced Sylvain Armand and Jérôme Rothen to stay and the manager's steadying influence appears to be bringing out the best in players hitherto beset by fear and confusion. For how much longer 34-year-old Pauleta can prosper, however, is uncertain.
