Excl: “Followed Liverpool A Lot!” – Former Lyon Academy Coach On ‘Very Bad Loser’ Bradley Barcola | OneFootball

By Dan Clubbe

Bradley Barcola has gone from coming through the Lyon academy to becoming a France international and one of the most exciting young attackers in European football, and with Liverpool reportedly interested in bringing him to Anfield, we wanted to go right back to the beginning of that journey.

To do so, there aren’t many people better placed to help us do that than our guest today. Amaury Barlet spent 15 years working within the Lyon academy and had a close-up view of the generation that included Barcola, Rayan Cherki and Malo Gusto.

Dan spoke to Barlet to get his insight into what the Reds could be bringing to Merseyside…

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First impressions: “The first time I met Bradley Barcola was when I started coaching at Olympique Lyonnais, with the U12 and U13 age groups. Bradley was playing with the U11s at the time. He was already a striker with a real instinct for goal. He could score from so many different positions and in so many different ways spontaneously after a dribble, with acrobatic finishes, and sometimes in situations where you wouldn’t necessarily expect a goal. What struck me straight away was that he always loved playing football. He had that natural ability to create imbalance, to take players on, and above all, a real sense for scoring goals.” 

On his style: “He is a player who has always been attracted to attacking space. When he was younger, he faced defenders who were stronger and faster, so he was always looking for a strategy to get in behind his opponent. Because he always wanted to sprint slightly early, he was often offside or right on the limit of being offside. He was often caught, but it was a quality that absolutely had to be preserved, and it would make the difference when he was older, once the physical gap was more balanced. Today, players who are capable of attacking the space behind a defence through their runs and of repeating those runs are players who have a huge influence on the game.”

Special moments: “He is a player who doesn’t look to dribble past just one player, but who looks to beat an entire line of defenders. He is capable of doing this through his quality of first touch and acceleration, as well as through his direct runs and his particular style of dribbling. He has a lot of variety in his game and is capable of playing in every attacking position. He is a player who creates imbalance, who finds solutions in possession against very low defensive blocks, and who is very effective in quick attacks.”

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On his character: “He was a boy who was very enjoyable to coach because he was driven by the game. He was very competitive and a very bad loser – a competitor, whether in training or in matches- but he had this ability to hide his emotions easily. He was able not necessarily to show it, which is a real strength.”

On his dreams: “He is still a very young player and has a huge amount of room for improvement. When he was younger, he followed Liverpool FC a lot. That club was always somewhere in the back of his mind.”

Redmen Reacts

Whilst there is clearly still some negotiation to be thrashed out in order for Barcola to be a Red, there is certainly a growing sense of this transfer becoming a reality; therefore, hearing such glowing feedback, and particularly of a long-standing admiration for Liverpool, from a coach who has worked so closely with the player is always a welcome sound.