Lille OSC Scouting Report 2024/25: Why Their Attack Falters & How To Fix It

After winning their first two league games of the season by two goals to nil, Lille OSC have now lost two on the bounce in Ligue 1 — first to PSG before the recent international break and then, on Friday, they fell at the feet of newly-promoted Saint-Étienne.

On top of that, Lille lost 2-1 to Slavia Praha in the second leg of their 2024/25 UEFA Champions League playoff directly before those two domestic defeats.

While Les Dogues still ultimately progressed to the UCL proper as they defeated the Czech side 3-2 on aggregate, this does technically equal three straight defeats in all competitions — a run which prompted club president Olivier Létang to describe the team’s performances as “shameful” and “unacceptable”.

After progressing to the ‘league stage’ of Europe’s elite competition, Lille will begin that campaign on Tuesday versus Sporting CP and hope to put their losing streak behind them.

Friday saw Lille endure their first goalless game of the 2024/25 Ligue 1 campaign while they’ve managed to score a grand total of just two in their last three matches in all competitions, having scored six in the three games preceding this recent run.

Their attacking struggles have been a major reason for their results of late; this tactical analysis and team-focused scout report aims to shed some light on why exactly Lille have been suffering on that front in recent fixtures and try to provide some viable solutions they can try to implement, starting with Tuesday’s Sporting clash.

Lille’s Attack In Their Last Three Vs The 2024/25 Season As A Whole

Taking a look at Lille’s shot map for the 2024/25 campaign in its whole, albeit brief, entirety compared with an isolated viz focusing just on their last three games, we can see how things have taken a turn for the worst of late.

While they’ve scored nine non-penalty goals this season so far and generated 11.12 xG in the process, Lille have only managed to score two and generate 2.23 xG in their last three contests.

Alarmingly, their xG per shot has dropped dramatically in the last three games, with an average of 0.1 for their 2024/25 campaign as a whole but just 0.07 from their last three.