DECRYPTION – Relegated to 9 points from the podium and from Marseille, the club is in bad shape. The former coach of the Blues plays his credibility.
«It’s nice to see you again.” Pinched smile, glasses with thick black outlines on the nose, measured flow, as if each word had been combed through, Laurent Blanc addresses the journalists who came to attend his presentation on Monday, and perhaps, through them, to football French.
The new coach of Olympique Lyonnais went through an interminable period of unemployment, after his dismissal from PSG in June 2016. We almost forget that he spent fourteen months on the Qatari bench of Al-Rayyan, from which he was thanked last February. Monday, he did nothing to recall this eastern parenthesis, before which he had opportunities to bounce back with the European elite (FC Barcelona? Manchester United?).
It takes a very high level athletic preparation to set up the game that I want to advocate
Laurent Blanc
“I did not enter them, it is a choice, I assume it completely. This sport, I have it in the guts, White defended himself. The “President”, champion of France in 2009 with Bordeaux, insisted on his “happinessto work for Lyon, where the president (the real one), Jean-Michel Aulas, says he has “always dreamed” to have him as a coach. The Rhone leader (73) did not fail to thank the starter, Peter Bosz, who was laid off on Sunday after a failed first season (8e of L1) and the start of a new exercise just as indigestible (9e after 10 days).
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This is no small challenge facing Laurent Blanc, 56 years old. “There is everything to do, there is work”, noted the Cévennes. “I like it”, he specified. Without benchmarks in the game, Lyon chained four defeats before a draw against Toulouse, last Friday (1-1). Bosz then no longer had control over his locker room. The captain, Alexandre Lacazette, did not understand the exit of an attacker, Moussa Dembélé, against TFC. “I’m a little surprised, I think we were good with Moussa up front. But, afterwards, the coach made his choices. dropped Lacazette at the microphone of Prime Video. Sample of the gloomy atmosphere that reigns at OL. “The mixed start to the season means that the heads are not released”, judged White, who will rely “principally” on “experienced players”. And underlined the psychological pains of his new flock: “The most complicated thing is when it affects the mind, confidence.”
Confidence, it takes Blanc to have said yes to Lyon, 9e of Ligue 1, already relegated to 9 points from the podium and from Marseille. The former coach of the Blues (2010-2012) plays his credibility. “Time passes, we forget you”, recognized Blanc, sometimes mocked for his love of golf in his years of unemployment. He did not fail to sweep this label by repeating the word “work”, he who will lead a team which is said to have complained of not sweating enough with Bosz.
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I think players are going to be surprised, because there’s going to be quite a lot of work between now and November 13. (beginning of the truce due to the World Cup), warned the new OL boss. And, afterwards, there will be even more important work in terms of preparation. It takes a very high level athletic preparation to set up the game that I want to advocate.»
A breath of fresh air on the Rhône? In addition to a change on the bench, Lyon is agitated behind the scenes. The American John Textor was to buy almost all of the shares of OL Groupe on September 30th. The sale has been postponed. Matter of “legal documents” and D’“mechanical steps”, justified OL Groupe. No worries, a priori. Jean-Michel Aulas will remain executive chairman once the deal is sealed. Talks that do not concern Laurent Blanc, eyes riveted on a trip to Rennes this Sunday.
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