Pragmatism and purposeful possession: What can be expected from Paulo Fonseca at Lille? – tactical analysis

In 2021, LOSC Lille pulled off one of the greatest title victories of the last decade in European football.

It may not have had the same awe-inspiring adoration and Italian idolisation as Leicester City’s tremendous Premier League triumph of 2015/16, but Les Dogues, under the tutelage of Cristophe Galtier, putting the cash-heavy, state-backed titans Paris Saint-Germain to the sword made for an incredibly memorable campaign in French football.

However, as Galtier surprisingly stepped down from his winning horse to take the reins at OGC Nice, Lille made a rather peculiar appointment in his place, putting Jocelyn Gourvennec in charge.

While the former EA Guingamp boss did guide Lille to their only ever Trophée des Champions in history, the league campaign was nothing short of disastrous as the side finished tenth. Gourvennec was swiftly dismissed at the end of the season.

Lille needed to regroup under a new boss, someone with European pedigree and relatively high stock. Paulo Fonseca was appointed as the new head coach at the end of June.

Over the past year, the former AS Roma boss was linked with the vacant positions at Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa, and Newcastle United, but it was Lille who snagged his signature in the end.

This tactical analysis piece will be an explanation of Fonseca’s tactics over the years to see the style of football Lille can expect at the Stade Pierre Mauroy next season.

Coaching philosophy and preferred formation

The Portuguese coach wants his teams to be in control of games by keeping possession of the ball as much as possible.

But when possession is lost, Fonseca is a firm believer in the Jose Mourinho school of coaching that teams can control the game by controlling the space the opposition has to play into. The keyword here is control, constant control. Control the ball, control the space, control the game – the Fonseca mantra.

Since his days with Shakhtar Donetsk, Fonseca’s tactical identity has been clear. The manager’s preferred formation has almost always been a 4-2-3-1 since his three-year spell in Ukraine.

In his debut campaign with Shakhtar in 2016/17, a team which included Manchester United midfielder Fred, Fonseca deployed the 4-2-3-1 on a combined total of 69 percent of his games in charge.

This drastically began to increase as time wore on. In the 2017/18 season, Shakhtar’s usage of the 4-2-3-1 inclined to 85 percent and then fell slightly to 80 percent in his final year with the Ukrainian giants but still remained their prevalent system nonetheless.