L1 thread prematch/postmatch, whatever

[SportBoy333]

You people who want Fred and Carew both out there in a 4-4-2 if you do that then Tiago has to sit and he didnt come to Lyon to sit on the bench and they didnt pay all that money for him to sit there.

---------------Diarra---Tiago------------
Wiltord/Govou--------------------Malouda
-------------------Juninho

----------------- Carew/Fred ------------------

That is my prefered lineup against the better teams because you need 2 top defensive guys like Tiago and Diarra both out there. Against the weaker teams only you can play both Fred and Carew and sit Tiago.

[sl7vk]

You people who want Fred and Carew both out there in a 4-4-2 if you do that then Tiago has to sit and he didnt come to Lyon to sit on the bench and they didnt pay all that money for him to sit there.


Fred = 15 million Euros
Tiago = 10 million.....


Who shouldn't be sitting on the bench because of all the money that Lyon paid?

[SportBoy333]

Tiago left Chelsea because he wanted to play every day. Fred hasnt paid his dues yet in Europe so he should sit.

[sl7vk]

Tiago left Chelsea because he wanted to play every day. Fred hasnt paid his dues yet in Europe so he should sit.


Well I guess we'll have to agree to disagree..... Two goals in his first match for Fred..... People in Brazil are saying he's better than Robinho.... Sit him? I think not.

[guignol]

I don't understand why Houllier doesn't start Fred and Carew together.he will, he will... not all the time, but we'll see it before rosenborg i'll bet.

[guignol]

yeah what happened with the penalty dispute?

and did Lyon play poorly or did Bordeaux play well?i didn't see the match, only listened to it on the radio, but OL seemed very pale. they picked up the tempo in the second half, especially after the triple substitution, but in the end they were hard pressed again.

the hullaballoo is about no less than three hand balls in the penalty (one by cris and two by tiago) area, none of which derrien saw. to add insult to injury, bordeaux put in the winner near the end only to see it called back for offsides. the offsides was real, but the judge had to be very attentive to have seen it.

bordeaux did play well, and it doesn't seem to be a fluke. they have one heck of a side.

last notes: there were 6 yellow cards against OL, but bordeaux was pretty rough too. and the field was a cow pasture, there were lumps of turf as big as the ball all over.

[guignol]

OL-Lens tonight! a win puts us 4 points clear!

probable starters:

LYON : Coupet - Réveillère, Cris, Caçapa, Berthod - Govou, Tiago, Pedretti, Juninho, Malouda - Fred.

Diatta, Clément, Wiltord and Carew on the bench.
Diarra, Monsoreau, Frau and Ben Arfa in the stands.


LENS : Itandje - Demont, Coulibaly, Hilton, Assou-Ekotto - Keita, Barul - Carrière, Thomert - Jussiê, Dindane.

Diarra and Leroy suspended. Carrière has played just 33 minutes for the sang et or this season, the same as the number of matches he played last year.

ahh... there was another OL-Lens once... we thought it couldn't get any better than that! but we were wrong!

[SportBoy333]

Looking forward to watching this one today. Looks like Fred and Pedretti will get a lot of playing time.

[guignol]

fred's got a least 6 guys who can get him the ball. this might be very sweet to watch, to bad it's a school night...

[SportBoy333]

Wow what an exciting match. You dont see that kinda stuff in the EPL. 18 shots on net for both teams(12-6 OL) which is a shot every 4 minutes. 1-1 was the final score with Tiago getting Lyon's goal. Pedretti was robbed of a goal on a botched offside call by the referee on Malouda. Itanje made some great saves. Just a great attacking football match all around. Its a shame OL couldnt win it.

[guignol]

they were pressing hard at the end and really put the pressure on itandje, who was predictably good. cousin also showed the form he had at le mans; after last year's lackluster season he looks like the real thing again.

a point's a point, but OL's going to have a lot of matches like this (just like last year and the year before) where their opponents put the walls up, and they'll have to do more than just put on the pressure, they'll have to put it in the net not to make platini a liar.

coupet: could do nothing on lens' score, and only one real stop to make which wasn't even that difficult at the angle.

RVR: never caught out on lens' counters, and brought hios game forward. almost scored, forcing one of itandje's super saves.

cris: cousin's height beat him continually in the air, which one is not used to seeing. a couple of duffed passes, all in all a poor night.

cacapa: solid on defense when he had to be, and unleashed a shot that was one of lyon's half-dozen almost winners in the second half.

berthod: he's earned his starts on the left all season, but last night he was out to lunch. permeable on the counters and though he ran down a lot of balls, did zilch with them. for every good cross (one at the end which malouda, carew and wiltord all missed by inches) there were 4 useless ones.

juninho: imperial, but i didn't have to tell you that, did i? ;)

tiago: scored the goal and almost another. a useful little fellow, always there to offer a solution.

pedretti: very tense at the beginning, but scored a goal that was called back on one of his patented howitzer shots. in the second half we saw some of those sweet long balls that made his reputation. justifiably applauded by gerland when replaced for tactical reasons by...

wiltord: did everything he could. when he plays 90" he gives 110%, when he plays 30", it's 330%! i can't understand people who don't love this guy.

malouda: flo and so-so is a rhyme that rarely makes any sense; this time it does.

fred: an OK performance. he says he should score every match, but we all know that's not how it works. remplaced in the second half by...

carew: the same as fred, he didn't play badly but no cigar.

[Oldshoe]

they were pressing hard at the end and really put the pressure on itandje, who was predictably good. cousin also showed the form he had at le mans; after last year's lackluster season he looks like the real thing again.

a point's a point, but OL's going to have a lot of matches like this (just like last year and the year before) where their opponents put the walls up, and they'll have to do more than just put on the pressure, they'll have to put it in the net not to make platini a liar.

coupet: could do nothing on lens' score, and only one real stop to make which wasn't even that difficult at the angle.

RVR: never caught out on lens' counters, and brought hios game forward. almost scored, forcing one of itandje's super saves.

cris: cousin's height beat him continually in the air, which one is not used to seeing. a couple of duffed passes, all in all a poor night.

cacapa: solid on defense when he had to be, and unleashed a shot that was one of lyon's half-dozen almost winners in the second half.

berthod: he's earned his starts on the left all season, but last night he was out to lunch. permeable on the counters and though he ran down a lot of balls, did zilch with them. for every good cross (one at the end which malouda, carew and wiltord all missed by inches) there were 4 useless ones.

juninho: imperial, but i didn't have to tell you that, did i? ;)

tiago: scored the goal and almost another. a useful little fellow, always there to offer a solution.

pedretti: very tense at the beginning, but scored a goal that was called back on one of his patented howitzer shots. in the second half we saw some of those sweet long balls that made his reputation. justifiably applauded by gerland when replaced for tactical reasons by...

wiltord: did everything he could. when he plays 90" he gives 110%, when he plays 30", it's 330%! i can't understand people who don't love this guy.

malouda: flo and so-so is a rhyme that rarely makes any sense; this time it does.

fred: an OK performance. he says he should score every match, but we all know that's not how it works. remplaced in the second half by...

carew: the same as fred, he didn't play badly but no cigar.

I agree with most of the stuff except for Juninho's performance which to me was good but not THAT good. I am also questionning the positionning of Coupet on the goal... to me it's 70% for Cris and 30% for him... And I don't really understand how most people saw a good game from Itandge when 2 or 3 of his interventions almost costed a score to his team (I mean he quietly watched Tiago's soft header hit the post...).. He was just lucky to me.

Other than that the ref decisions were totally against us and the media campaign since the Bordeaux certainly has something to do with it.

And I just don't get how Hatem is not even on the bench for a game like that.
Malouda is a great player but it is not justified that he plays ALL the game especially given his current level... and given what Hatem showed each time he started...

[Oldshoe]

Oh and Govou was terrific... he seems to come back to a very high level... he does all the things malouda doesn't do right now.. except scoring.. which both of them never did anyway :p ...

[guignol]

And I just don't get how Hatem is not even on the bench for a game like that. Malouda is a great player but it is not justified that he plays ALL the game especially given his current level... and given what Hatem showed each time he started...

Oh and Govou was terrific... he seems to come back to a very high level... he does all the things malouda doesn't do right now.. except scoring.. which both of them never did anyway :p ...there are lots of guys on the team now oldshoe, and they can't all figure on the matchcard. remember ben arfa gets CFA match time you can't give to some other guys. the one thing you don't want to do is bring him along too fast, there's no need. i think he'll be really well integrated by the end of this very long season.

govou is getting very strong. as for nino or malouda, judging his performance on how many goals he scores misses out on his real value.

[guignol]

three points in nantes, which i didn't even get to listen to on the radio. (i love OL, but my wife and kids even more, imagine that :eek: )

coupet was the miracle man (wonder if rima caught the match, hehe...). he's the one guy who has a right to crow about the match, and his comments are:

"There are days like that, i played well today and it's a good thing too! i just played my role... we got beat on confrontations though, that's the most worrisome. you can make tactical or technical errors, but the lack of engagement is a bigger problem. Today we were in trouble for 90 minutes... we have to ask ourselves some questions, we were very lucky. it can't be like this on wednesday... penalty ? There's no penalty, and I took another nice bump on the right shoulder."

houllier once again made a coaching move that seemed to pay off though... he might not be such a chump after all... ;)

here's a nice report:
http://www.channel4.com/sport/french_football/l1s0506/nan-lyo.html

and another more in tune with coupet's view:
http://www.channel4.com/sport/french_football/sep26a.html

[Oldshoe]

there are lots of guys on the team now oldshoe, and they can't all figure on the matchcard. remember ben arfa gets CFA match time you can't give to some other guys. the one thing you don't want to do is bring him along too fast, there's no need. i think he'll be really well integrated by the end of this very long season.

govou is getting very strong. as for nino or malouda, judging his performance on how many goals he scores misses out on his real value.

Oh I am not suggesting Ben Harfa should come ahead of malouda in the depth chart. But judging from the quality of his game each time he got meaningful playing time this year, he absolutely should get more playing time. And should be ahead of frau. There is something in french football culture about "protecting" young phenoms and not putting them on the field.. How old are the dudes in south america when they start playing (and damn, even in england or spain or italy.. everywhere basically) ? Ben Arfa has poise, self confidence, strong mental and is hungry as hell (ie the penalty session last year at eindhoven): he could help now. Plus there is really no guarantee he'll stick around for so long in Lyon...

Govou is indeed very strong and for sure brings a lot more on the table than scoring goals (thx god)... he is just unbelievably not efficient when it comes to be decisive and to finish the job (crosses, goals).. I mean he is still a forward and a winger and that is definitely a problem in close CL games when qualification is on the line. And malouda has the exact same problems. In these situations we need guys who elevate the level of their play under extreme pressure and govou has not been able to do that so far (moscow, psv..). That said I agree, what he brings to the game itself is really valuable.

[GRBomber]

Well I guess we'll have to agree to disagree..... Two goals in his first match for Fred..... People in Brazil are saying he's better than Robinho.... Sit him? I think not.

We can't compare both because they play different roles.
Fred is the goal scorer. Like Adriano or Ronaldo.

Robinho is more like a play maker. Like Ronaldinho or Riquelme.

Fred is one of the best goal scorers I've seen and he does not deserve the bench.

[Kaka']

I've got a question here. What is the headset that I see the refs in Ligue 1 wearing?

[SportBoy333]

The team is rolling right along so I dont see the need the worry about ben arfa's playing time. The less he plays the longer the team can keep him. The less he plays the top clubs wont get a chance to see him as much so they wont come after him that hard and that quick. The more he plays the more exposed he'll be to the top clubs so they'll come after him sooner. Lyon is doing the right thing with him.

[guignol]

time to start gearing up for ajaccio!

15th place ACA hasn't played for three weeks, as their last match against lens was cancelled due to strikes in corsica. but rolland courbis' problems only start there! Collin, André Luiz and Dzodic and captain Rodrigo are all injured, and Ziani has retired (j'en ai marre!). the only player to have seen competition in october is algerian international Rafik Saïfi, but with the kind of performances he and Pereira have put in that's not much to crow about. 2 strikes each, and only 7 all year for the whole team!

looking at the match from the OL side is different altogether. most of the players have been active either with their NT's or the reserves, and with a good deal of success. Diarra is as healthy as he's been this year and Abidal is likely to start for the first time since Korea.

this is the kind of match where the team should get a lot of room to work out a lot of kinks and frustration. they've been winning ugly, they would love to do it right sunday, with l'art et la manière.

carew was and still may be under the weather, so fred should get his second start. i see him being paired with nino, as houllier has said to expect some 4-4-2, and there's no time like now, as ajaccio will be playing, like all weak clubs at gerland, inside 30 metres. Frau and Pedretti will get appreciable time too, because they're either they're going to play a role this year or go into the shop window for january.

--------coupet------------
---RVR - cris - cacapa - abidal--
-govou - diarra - juninho - tiago-
-------wiltord - fred--------

pedretti and frau in second half.