With a delicate schedule and an ultimatum given to Peter Bosz, OL’s season will change in February. For the best or for the worst.
The big games are played on details. A life-saving goal that was no longer expected, a flash of genius or a foot that trailed near the opposing goal. OL will certainly need to be successful in these uncontrollable things in the coming weeks. Under penalty of seeing his season slip through his fingers. From this Tuesday evening in a late match of the 24th day against OM and with a more than decimated group (Kadewere, Da Silva suspended, Aouar, Denayer injured, Dembélé victim of the Covid, Paqueta, Toko-Ekambi in selection, Ndombele and Faivre not qualified, Slimani awaiting departure). Peter Bosz is starting a daunting month of February with a B team against a very ambitious and leggy OM.
Marseilles, Monaco, Nice, Lens then Lille. This is the roller coaster that Les Gones will have to climb in a month. And if they go off the rails, their trainer will be the first to leave the arena. Jean-Michel Aulas will not tolerate his club starting the month of March in the current pitiful eleventh place.
Last December, he gave Peter Bosz an ultimatum to get short-term results. “ He will stay, said the president in The Team. Until the end, I hope, which would be a sign that we would have the results we want, and in any case until the end of February.
A turbulent transfer window
Nothing to panic about for the Dutchman, who has remained faithful to his ideas. “The president does not put pressure on me, he assured. I put it on myself. He didn’t tell me, and that’s not important.” No panic therefore displayed at the OL Training Center.
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However, behind the scenes, it is agitated. Juninho left his post as sporting director and the transfer window suffered, with the failure in the Sardar Azmoun case. The Iranian from Zenit Saint Petersburg, tracked for a long time by the Rhone club, has finally packed his bags for Germany and Bayer Leverkusen.
Bruno Guimarães, the team’s best player for several weeks, has left the club. He flew to the north of England, to Newcastle, where he will see his salary quadrupled.
The compensation earned by this sale – 50.1 million euros, bonus included – allowed OL to activate in the direction of arrivals. Romain Faivre and Tanguy Ndombele joined the club on Monday. Enough to add two ball handlers in the midfield to compensate for the departure of the Brazilian, in addition to the injury of Houssem Aouar.
A game to find … a goalscorer to find
The recruitment unit, however, failed to resolve a recurring problem since the start of the season. Who will score goals? “We don’t need another scorer, clamait Peter Bosz. We need more scorers.” The Lyon attack, which has only scored 29 times in 21 games, will therefore have to find solutions internally. By an exploding Rayan Cherki? Or a Moussa Dembele who finds himself? The future will tell.
Anyway, the technician will have to quickly find the magic formula to offer more in the game against these big teams in the championship. For long weeks, his team has been apathetic and no longer makes people dream. Paqueta has gone downhill and the Lyonnais are having the greatest difficulty in getting chances.
Reason for consolation, the Gones have been better against the “big” than the more modest teams for a few years. With maximum concentration, the Lyon workforce remains capable of great things. It only remains for him to show it on the front of the stage during the next four weeks. With, as an appetizer, two months after the first act interrupted by a bottle throw at Dimitri Payet, OM’s electric reception this Tuesday. An “Olympico” under high tension.
