Ligue 1 Review | Lyon flying high after summer turmoil | OneFootball

After months sat in the stands surveying the stadium like a Roman Emperor, Paulo Fonseca might not want to come down. The Olympique Lyonnais manager, two months away from finishing his nine-month touchline ban, has had an excellent vantage point to watch his side collect six wins and six clean sheets out of the first seven games across all competitions.

Lyon are flying high and ended the weekend top of the table, level on points with Paris Saint-Germain, but behind them on goal difference, following their 1-0 victory away to Lille OSC. It’s a result that has become synonymous with Lyon’s start to the season, with five out of their seven games ending with Les Gones winning this way.

The only aberrations to their trademark 1-0 wins were a 3-0 victory over bottom-of-the-table FC Metz and a 3-1 defeat to Stade Rennais. The latter of which was on course to be another routine 1-0 victory until Tyler Morton was harshly sent off in the 75th minute. Down to ten men, Lyon collapsed, and Rennes put three past them, the only three Lyon have conceded all season.

From chaos Lyon bloom

This start to the season is made all the more impressive when considering the chaos that Les Gones were embroiled in over the summer. It’s no exaggeration to say the club’s future was on a knife-edge. John Textor’s presidency and economic plan had left the side in the crosshairs of the DNCG, who sanctioned them with relegation to Ligue 2 in June.

It was only on appeal that Lyon were able to escape what would have been a likely ruinous decision. A new presidency, under Michelle Kang, was able to convince the appeals committee of their “Serious management.” And were able to escape with wage bill and transfer budget restrictions. A far lesser sanction than relegation.

Still, it was a sanction nonetheless and one that forced an austere summer where they needed to sell or release talent, much of which they would have preferred to have kept. Rayan Cherki, Nemanja Matić, Alexandre Lacazette, Lucas Perri, and Georges Mikautadze all left the club, and there were obvious concerns that they would not have the means to replace them. And in truth, they haven’t.

Maximising resources on and off the field

Lyon have had to maximise their resources both on and off the field. In the market, they had to source bargains and take risks. Morton, an England youth international, arrived with a reported fee of €10m from Liverpool, and was perhaps the safest bet. However, elsewhere, the club recruited Pavel Šulc from Viktoria Plzeň, Dominik Greif from RCD Mallorca, and Ruben Kluivert from Casa Pia. On loan, Martin Satriano joined from RC Lens, while Adam Karabec came from Sparta Prague.

These weren’t the big-name draws from the Textor era (which is precisely the point of the new leadership), but they have so far done the job, and in the case of Morton and Greif excelled in the current setup. The other feather in Lyon’s bow has been the way in which Fonseca has managed to draw the best out of the squad he has been provided.

The transfer window saw a loss of creativity and finishing, so Fonseca adjusted pragmatically by focusing on the strengths still present. Namely, his midfield is stocked with talent, with the likes of Morton, Tanner Tessmann, Corentin Tolisso, and academy graduate Khalis Merah. In matches against level or superior opposition, he wants all four on the pitch in a strikerless 4-2-2-2 formation. While against opposition, where Lyon expect to be the more dominant side, Satriano is given a chance to lead the line in a more orthodox 4-2-3-1.

Naturally, there will be lingering questions over how long this can last as the club look to be drawing the best out of what they have at hand. However, in the here and now, it’s so far, so good. They’re pleasant to watch with the ball, uncompromising when they don’t have it, and clinical enough to see out games.

This week’s Ligue 1 subplots

GFFN | Nick Hartland