2023-09-25 07:26:00
What if Olympique Lyonnais soon joined the Girondins de Bordeaux and AS Saint-Étienne in Ligue 2? For a club which was still playing in a Champions League semi-final three years ago and which was considered one of the locomotives of the championship, this may seem improbable. But, by evoking the unreal, OL inevitably comes closer to it.
A total non-match in Brest
The latest defeat in Brest (0-1), Saturday evening, plunges the Lyonnais a little further into doubt and crisis. Seventeenth and penultimate in the standings, OL are not advancing and the statistics are simply catastrophic: two points taken out of a possible eighteen, three small goals scored and still no match this season, where OL have led to the score. Worse still, the match in Finistère turned into a demonstration: Lacazette and his people never existed.
2 – Lyon have only taken 2 points after 6 Ligue 1 matches in 2023/24, their worst start in a season in the elite with 1979/80 (2 draws, 4 defeats, 18th at the end of season and maintained following the dams). Bad Gones. #SB29OL pic.twitter.com/a8WR4st9ep
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) September 23, 2023
If he has only been there for one match, and we will easily give him time to prove himself, Fabio Grosso must have realized the magnitude of the task that awaits him. Even the arrival of a new coach, supposed to cause an electric shock, has so far had no impact. Executives like Caqueret, Tolisso and Lacazette are in distress and recruits are having a hard time standing out in such a bland collective.
The worst part of all this? Most of the current criticism targets the young Rayan Cherki, guilty, according to some, of being too individualistic and not being decisive enough. Remember that we are talking about a player who is only 20 years old, who has only been an indisputable starter since last winter. There are a thousand problems in Lyon today before mentioning the Cherki case. We also clearly saw that, for eighty minutes in Brest without him, OL were even sadder than usual.
Aulas, a shadow that always hovers
The current problems at Groupama Stadium appear deep and are unlikely to improve any time soon. Jean-Michel Aulas left the club in a pitiful state to John Textor, whose start to his mandate was very chaotic. While OL is in a zone of turbulence, the former president of the club behaves like Auntie Danielle and multiplies interviews to complain about his fate. For the good of Olympique Lyonnais, Jean-Michel Aulas should remain discreet and concentrate on his duties at the French Football Federation.
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It’s difficult at this moment to be optimistic for OL, who will have to pull themselves together in a championship tight to 18 where the matches will quickly come one after another. Every year on the banks of the Rhône we are given reasons to believe in it with internationals, headliners, one of the best training centers in the world, quality infrastructure, but, by confusing potential and reality, OL ended up not seeing their downgrade coming.
There is still time and 28 days to avoid the worst. That’s what’s at stake in the coming weeks for OL: will the Grosso mark take shape? Will Lyon’s leaders be able to rise to the challenges? Will the players realize that their daily bread will now be the fight to maintain their position? We don’t want to believe that we will find the famous derby against the Greens in the antechamber of Ligue 1, but we are now obliged to tick off this scenario in our minds.
#endless #fall #Olympique #Lyonnais