Laurent Blanc became manager of Olympique Lyonnais in October 2022, tasked with preventing their season from going into freefall following a disappointing start under former manager Peter Bosz.
To give Blanc his credit, he did manage to turn around the fortunes of the club; at the end of the 2022/23 campaign, OL finished in 7th place, just five points off the European places.
His decision to utilise Lyon’s famed youth academy saw the likes of Bradley Barcola and Saël Kumbedi nail down starting positions and become fan favourites.
For the most part, Blanc’s tactics revolved around fluidity and unselfish off-the-ball movement that defences struggled to deal with.
However, he could be conservative when required; the 1-0 smash-and-grab against PSG in April springs to mind when Barcola popped up in the right place at the right time to slot home the winner.
Fast forward to the 2023/24 season, and the landscape looks very different at OL.
The team find themselves struggling, having only picked up a single point from their first four games.
Where Blanc’s tactics once appeared progressive and fluid, they now seem to be quite stagnant and pedestrian.
This comes amid off-the-pitch drama involving the former owner, Jean-Michel Aulas, and the current owner, John Textor, which is being played out in the media.
Coupled with the departures of Barcola and Lukeba, the club appears to be in disarray, with no apparent signs of improvement on the horizon.
As rumours swirl that the 57-year-old French coach could be saying au revoir to Lyon sooner rather than later, we are going to look into what is going on at the club.
In this tactical analysis, we will highlight the departure of Lyon’s key players and the impact it has had on the team, as well as examine Laurent Blanc’s tactics and why Les Gones are struggling to perform on the pitch.
Olympique Lyon Key Player Departures
To begin this analysis piece, we will look at some of the players who have departed OL during the summer window.
The three players we are going to look at are all academy graduates who have decided to move on to play in much stronger squads — perhaps an indictment of where this Lyon team currently are.
Bradley Barcola Radar Chart
Firstly, Bradley Barcola has joined PSG for a fee in the region of €45 million.
Lyon have done alright out of this deal in the sense that they have received a substantial figure that the club can potentially reinvest and improve other areas of the squad.
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