At the end of the 2020/21 campaign, Christophe Galtier’s Lille were crowned French champions, overcoming the financial might of Paris Saint-Germain to finish top of the Ligue 1 table for the first time since the 2010/11 campaign when the likes of future Chelsea and Real Madrid playmaker Eden Hazard helped Rudi Garcia’s side to the title.
Fast forward to the beginning of the 2022/23 season, Lille were coming off the back of a reality check campaign in which they crashed down from first to 10th on the Ligue 1 table, while Galtier was getting ready to embark on a new journey as PSG boss following a season at Nice.
Another manager getting ready to start a new challenge at the beginning of the current season was Lille’s Paulo Fonseca. The 50-year-old Portuguese coach had sat out the 2021/22 season after departing from Roma in the summer of 2021 to make way for his compatriot José Mourinho’s Serie A return, undoubtedly refreshed and full of ideas of how he could get Lille back into Europe.
At present, Lille sit sixth in Ligue 1, five points off Monaco in fourth and a place in the UEFA Europa League group stage. Securing qualification for the Europa League, at least, would be an excellent way to cap off what’s been an exciting first season for Fonseca at Stade Pierre Mauroy and may well be on the cards.
Though only time will tell if Lille can pull it off. What’s for sure is that they’ve been quite entertaining to watch this term under Fonseca and this tactical analysis will delve into some aspects of their strategy and tactics that have made them entertaining for us to watch and far more effective on the pitch than they were last season. Our analysis won’t just be positive, however, as we’ll also look at some of the weaknesses evident in Fonseca’s side.
Build-up and ball progression
We’ll kick off our analysis by looking at Lille’s approach this term in the initial stages of possession: their build-up and ball progression phases.
Lille have kept the highest average amount of possession (59.6%) of any team in Ligue 1 this term and they’ve played the second-most passes (512.27 per 90) of any Ligue 1 side. As they try to control the game with the ball, they take a fairly methodical approach in the build-up and ball progression phases, with some clear patterns of play evident in these stages of their attack.
Figure 1 shows an example of Les Dogues’ shape in the build-up phase. There are a few fundamental principles of Fonseca’s in-possession approach evident in this image — firstly, he likes the goalkeeper to step out, be brave and contribute in possession.
Meanwhile, the centre-backs spread wider, as do the full-backs, both of whom place themselves high and wide on either sideline. This level of width is another fundamental aspect of Fonseca’s approach in possession.
