Lyon conceded an unfortunate 0-0 draw at home against Nîmes on Friday, September 18, after a sad game in the 4e Ligue 1 day, his third without a win. For the Lyonnais, the state of mind displayed in August in the Coupe de la Ligue final against PSG (0-0 5-4 tab defeat) or in the Champions League is already a distant memory and the doubts of last season, concluded on a 7e place without European qualification, reappear.
Apart from an initial victory against the red lantern, Dijon (4-1) with two goals on penalties and one against his camp, OL lost Tuesday in a late match in Montpellier (2-1) with, again, a goal on penalty, and left two points in Bordeaux (0-0).
Here is the Olympique Lyonnais, with two new points left on the way, still stuck, temporarily, at the 10e place in the standings with only five points out of twelve possible, one more than Nîmes (12e), far from aligning the declarations of intentions of the players who claimed the podium, or even the title, both in terms of accounting and play.
Weak offensive animation
The inability of OL to score on playing action says a lot about the weakness of the offensive animation of Rudi Garcia’s team as it again displayed against Nîmes.
However, the Rhone coach had tried things by making some changes with a passage from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2, the tenure of young people Melvin Bard (20 years), a defender, and Rayan Cherki (17 years old ), an offensive player who tried to shake things up, and with the return to the top as holder of Moussa Dembélé. But it did not have the desired effects.
Absence of deep races, no or few stalls, overall little effort, the game of Lyon, deprived of Houssem Aouar, suspended after his exclusion in Montpellier, remained too static and, on top of that, mediocre performance supposedly major players. Memphis Depay or Dembélé, who hope for a transfer by the end of the transfer window, have absolutely not weighed on the meeting.
Finally, Lyon was only dangerous on a recovery from Maxwel Cornet launched in depth by Cherki and stopped by Baptiste Reynet (8) and on a beautiful recovery from the head of Dembélé, above, after a cross from Léo Dubois (10).
Second period even poorer
The Lyonnais did try to claim a penalty for a supposed fault of hand of Ripart, this one was not validated by the video assistance (67) during a second period even poorer than the first while in the last minutes, Reynet diverted a recovery from the head of Tino Kadewere on a corner (89).
Conversely, the parades of goalkeeper Anthony Lopes supported this very sad picture because the Nîmes were certainly the most dangerous with well-conducted attacks. The Portuguese international was the best Lyonnais, a shame for a home game against an opponent with a budget seven times lower than that of Lyon. It was decisive on a shot from Lamine Fomba deflected by Marcelo (4), ahead of Renaud Ripart (30) who also shot on the bar (11) or on an attempt by Zinédine Ferhat (40).
For the Nîmes, the result is very encouraging but for Lyon, it already requires a severe questioning without waiting for the end of the transfer window.
