Originally posted by BelgianBono:Olof, how good would you say Lyon's squad is this season? Compared to the glory days from a few years ago with the consecutive titels?
Pato, I know you love Romero because you're Argentinian, but really, he had hardly any job last gamesIt's not because he didn't conceive a goal that he's good, cause there weren't any necessary saves
my favorite player ever) leading the team during those glory days. But I would say we've definitely strengthened our squad this summer... and we did finish second behind PSG last year. Now we've brought in Valbuena, Yanga-Mbiwa, Rafael, Beavue (second best French striker in the league last season, a purchase I really like), Morel and, pending a medical, Sergi Darder from Malaga. Our only real losses has been N'Jie to Tottenham, which I'm not unhappy about since they overpaid massively, and Yoann Gourcuff to free-agency, but he was injured all the time either way.We've also signed our young, home-grown stars who did so well last season to new deals. Last year we averaged around seven players from our academy in our starting XIs. That's something I'm quite proud of. Most teams can't do that and finish 2nd in a league like Ligue 1. I do think it's wise that we've added depth this summer though, because we'll have a lot more games this season with the CL and the domestic cups, if we do a better job in those than last year when we ended up being able to have the league as our sole focus.
I'd say our strength is offense, we have some really great players there. Valbuena-Fekir-Lacazette has potential to be the best attack in the league if they get things going. Our central midfield should also be really good with Darder (if he's as good as they say) and Corentin Tolisso, a fan favorite who played every game last year, and is very flexible, he'll play CM, CDM and LB/RB and do really well.
Our weakness would be defense. Our captain, Maxime Gonalons, who I do love, is great most of the time, but has developed a tendency to, once or twice every game, hit a really stupid pass that ends up with the opposition. That's something we probably can't afford in the CL. Behind him we have a CB duo of Samuel Umtiti, 21 years old with 136 games played already. He's great, the worry is his partner, Yanga-Mbiwa was just brought in from Roma, and that was a critical acquisition because what we had wasn't good enough. Now they have to develop chemistry. Our full-backs are quite good, Jallet was great on the right last year and made it back to the national team, Bedimo was fine, but not as great as 13/14 when he was fantastic. They're backed up by Rafael (from ManU) and Morel. We do however involve our full-backs in our attacks a lot, which makes us vulnerable sometimes. Luckily, we have who I'd like to think is the best goalkeeper in Ligue 1, Anthony Lopes. He's a bit erratic sometimes, but makes a lot of amazing saves. He may actually be our most important player. He was fantastic last year and will hopefully now make a name for himself on the european stage.
Our outspoken president, Jean-Michel Aulas, has said that the goal is reaching the quarter-finals. I think that is a high, but realistic goal. In the league I think it's gonna be between OL and Monaco for the second place. Maybe next season PSG will be dethroned, but I don't think they will be now.
It's been a few years since Lyon fans have been this excited. In January we'll be entering our new, state-of-the-art stadium, the first one in France to be completely owned by its team, which should enable us to get more income (it better, it's cost us a lot). That will hopefully enable us to keep pushing and reach new glory days.
