A masterclass in movement: How Laurent Blanc’s Lyon broke Brest’s brittle bones – tactical analysis

After locking up on 13th November to make way for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Ligue 1 is back. Top-flight football returned to France on 28th December and one of the most engrossing games was Lyon vs Brest. This fixture saw Laurent Blanc secure his third win in six games since taking charge of Les Gones after Peter Bosz’s tenure went down in flames following a five-game winless run.

In Blanc’s six league games since assuming the Groupama Stadium hot seat, his side has generated an xG of 11.19, besting the preceding six-game run under Bosz which saw Lyon generate 9.12 xG. Meanwhile, Blanc’s six games have seen Lyon concede 8.18 xG, which is very similar but a slight increase on the 8.58 xG they conceded in the six games before the former PSG and France boss’ arrival.

Six games is an extremely small sample and all of this should be taken with a big grain of salt but these stats, along with results, provide positive early signs for the 1998 World Cup winner’s return to club management in his home country. Performances have improved, as has the atmosphere surrounding the club.

On the other side of things here, Wednesday also marked Bruno Grougi’s sixth game in charge of Brest on a caretaker basis since Michel Der Zakarian departed from the Brittany-based club 10 games into the 2022/23 campaign with Les Pirates sitting rock bottom at the time of his exit.

Since Grougi took to the helm as caretaker boss, Brest have generated 10.19 xG, a substantial increase on the 5.48 xG they created in the final six games of Der Zakarian’s reign. Les Pirates have conceded 10.11 xG in that time, similar but again a slight improvement on the 10.42 xG they conceded in the dying days of Der Zakarian’s tenure.

So, both of these sides have created more goalscoring opportunities in the last six games following their respective managerial switch-ups and that probably won’t come as a surprise, given that this contest finished with six goals, shared unevenly in favour of Lyon, who came away with a 4-2 victory.

Our tactical analysis piece looks at the strategies and tactics used by both of these sides in Wednesday evening’s game. In particular, our analysis will look at how Lyon managed to open up Brest on so many occasions, generating a solid xG of 2.75 to Brest’s 1.6.

We will focus on how Lyon emphasised the point that Brest’s defence is in dire need of improvement via their build-up, ball progression and outstanding attacking off-the-ball movement; these factors contributed greatly to Blanc’s side decimating Brest’s defensive shape time and time again, creating plenty of good goalscoring opportunities for the away side.

Similarly, we’ll look at how Lyon’s defensive shape was nothing to write home about either, and how Brest failed to take opportunities to unlock up their opponents’ defence more frequently too.

Lineups

Let’s take a quick look at the lineups. Starting with the home side, Grougi lined his team up in a 4-3-3 shape for this contest. Marco Bizot played in goal for the hosts behind a back-four consisting of right-back Noah Fadiga, right-centre-back Brendan Chardonnet, left-centre-back Lilian Brassier and left-back Jean-Kévin Duverne.

Haris Belkebla started at the base of Brest’s midfield, with Mathias Pereira Lage and Mahdi Camara playing on either side of him, just ahead in central midfield. Franck Honorat and Romain Del Castillo played on the wings with Steve Mounie playing up front to complete Brest’s starting XI.