LOSC Lille Métropole - Nous Sommes Les Dogues

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Ligue 1 Preview

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We go into the Ligue 1 2015/16 season as joint second favourites behind PSG. They retained their crown last year and are obviously the top force in French football. We may not have as talented a squad as them but I believe we have a good enough squad to challenge at least.

So here is a preview of each of the title challengers;

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Manager: Laurent Blanc

Major Ins: Dani Alves (Barcelona), Granit Xhaka (Gladbach), Yevhen Konoplyanka (Dnipro), Rafael (Man Utd), Juanfran (Atletico Madrid)

Major Outs: Gregory van der Wiel (Man Utd), Maxwell (Reims)

Paris Saint-Germain retained their French crown last year despite some fierce competition from Marseille. They have wealthy owners who will want them to perform better in Europe and become European powerhouses. The signings of Dani Alves, Granit Xhaka and Yevhen Konoplyanka in particular show that the board are putting everything behind Laurent Blanc's men. They are favourites to retain their crown as they have the strongest squad - simple. With the likes of Thiago Silva, Edison Cavani and Zlatan Ibrahimovic in their side, it's hard to see them not winning Ligue 1 again.

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Manager: Marcelo Bielsa

Major Ins: Lucas Ocampos (Monaco), Emanuel Gigliotti (Boca Juniors)

Major Outs: None

Marseille were PSG's main challengers last season and won the Coupe de France as well in a very successful season for the club. They are expected to push on and give PSG a fight to the wire again. They are also back in the Champions League so that will be an added distraction for Marcelo Bielsa's men. Lucas Ocampos was one of their standout players last season and he's signed on permanently from rivals Monaco, alongside Emanuel Gigliotti - an Argentine striker brought in after a fantastic season in the Argentinian league. Ocampos will be a big player again for L'Om this season, and with Steve Mandanda in goal, Ron Vlaar at the back and the young Gianni Imbula in midfield, the title isn't out of the question.

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Manager: Sean Keaney

Major Ins: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Dortmund), Danny Ings (Burnley), Rafinha (Barcelona), Jese (Real Madrid), Ismael Diomande (St Etienne), Christian Fuchs (Schalke)

Major Outs: None

Lille were one of the success stories last season. They finished in a predictable 3rd place, but their exploits in the cups were the main talking point. Reaching the Champions League final was sensational - with the Coupe de la Ligue added to their trophy cabinet. Keaney has bought well in a busy window with the likes of Aubameyang, Rafinha and Jese added flair to their attack. Nolan Roux is expected to lead the line again after winning the golden boot last season, and a lot will be expected to midfielders Rio Mavuba and Marvin Martin if they are to make a title push this season.

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Manager: Frederic Antonetti

Major Ins: Mirza Mustafic (Metz)

Major Outs: Aymen Abdennour (West Brom), Lucas Ocampos (Marseille), Nabil Dirar (Guingamp)

The money has dried up for Monaco in recent years with no major big money signings for a few seasons. Only Mirza Mustafic has joined from relegated Metz. Maybe the biggest bit of transfer activity is Radamel Falcao returning from loan at Man Utd and not signing permanently, despite him being unhappy. Monaco are in with a shout of the title, but they will need players such as Falcao (if he stays), Joao Moutinho and Yannick Ferreira Carrasco to perform if they are to achieve anything this season.

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Manager: Michel

Major Ins: Henri Saivet (Bordeaux), Maxime Barthelme (Lorient), Osvaldo (Al-Ahli)

Major Outs: Alexandre Lacazette (Juventus)

Lyon underachieved last season as they finished in mid-table. With no European football to distract them this season they are hoping for an improvement, but with top marksman Alexandre Lacazette heading off to European Champions Juventus it's a struggle to see where the goals will come from. A lot is expected of new signing Osvaldo from the Saudi league. Clement Grenier and Maxime Gonalons will be vital for Lyon this season.

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Manager: Alain Casanova

Major Ins: Chris Mavinga (Rubin)

Major Outs: None

Toulouse had a great season last season but just fell short in their push for the Champions League places. They overachieved and have to be mentioned in the title picture. Alain Casanova has had a quiet window as he trusts his players to deliver again. Wissam Ben Yedder, Thomas Kahlenberg and the returning Serge Aurier will be vital for the side as they look to push into the top 3.

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Champions League Qualifiers

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After our amazing run to last seasons final, we have high hopes for this seasons Champions League campaign. Due to finishing 3rd we have to go through 2 rounds of qualifying if we want to make it to the group stage. We were drawn against Greek side Panathinaikos. After the exploits of last season I expect the boys to brush them aside.

1st Leg;

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A comfortable 2-0 win in the first leg puts us in the driving seat for our trip to Turkey. Marko Basa scored in the last minute, which could be a big goal as a 2 goal lead seems a lot bigger than a 1 goal lead. We should have won by more but I'm content with the result.

2nd Leg;

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We were outplayed on the day and maybe slightly lucky to get through to the next qualifying round. Panathinaikos battered us and we held our nerve to progress. We seem to have a knack of winning ties in Europe even if we aren't the better side.

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In the final qualifying round we are drawn against Turkish giants Fenerbahce. I never like the trips to Turkey and this won't be an easy game at all. At this stage last season we saw off Porto so I'm hopeful but this will be a real test for our squad.

Here's a round up of our pre-season (+ Champions League qualifiers);

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Plus some good news on the personal front;

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Lille v Lorient

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We kick off our Ligue 1 campaign at home to Lorient. We found it hard to beat the mid-table teams last season and that's one of the main problems I'm addressing this season. If we want to win the league we have to be winning these games.


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It was a tough win but I'm very proud of the team for picking up the 3 points. The first half was awful and I made the players fully aware of my displeasure at half time. Marion was the match winner with his 2 goals, Rio Mavuba owes him a drink after the game after his needless red card just after we equalised!

All in all, a promising start to the new season.​
 
Caen v Lille

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Up next is a trip to Caen. We failed to beat them in league last season, drawing one and losing one. They won convincingly on the opening day of the season so we know this won't be easy. This is a potential banana skin and I'm just hoping my players can put a performance in.

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New season, same scorer. Nolan Roux bags a brace as we record a fantastic away win. A perfect start to the season and we aren't even playing that well. I don't know where we would be without Roux's goals. The addition of Danny Ings hasn't phased him one bit as he keeps his place in the team and deservedly so.

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Great first season mate, and amazing CL run!
Having never started with a top half premier league team, your story inspired me to start a save with one. I started a save with LOSC as well :D
 
Having played a 5 season save with Guingamp, I've had some great games with Lille! Great piece of writing and looking forward to more, I'm going to take a leaf out of your book and start a story with a French club I think!
 
madpot said:
Great first season mate, and amazing CL run!
Having never started with a top half premier league team, your story inspired me to start a save with one. I started a save with LOSC as well :D
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Thanks mate, I'm glad I inspired you!

Post a story on here about it if you can, I'd be very interested to see how other people get on with LOSC
 
TheTacticalApproach said:
Having played a 5 season save with Guingamp, I've had some great games with Lille! Great piece of writing and looking forward to more, I'm going to take a leaf out of your book and start a story with a French club I think!
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Aha yeah I'm quite surprised how competitive the French league is, wasn't expecting such a big test from teams like Toulouse and Caen. I'll definitley follow your story :)
 
SeanKeaney said:
Thanks mate, I'm currently in the process of trying to fit them all into my team. I kind of bought players without thinking about the system - I'm sure I'll make it work though!
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We've all done it, I brought Cavani once on 300,000 a week and realised he was my third choice striker...
 
SeanKeaney said:
Thanks mate, I'm glad I inspired you!

Post a story on here about it if you can, I'd be very interested to see how other people get on with LOSC
Click to expand...

I took a different approach and doing pretty well with them, my game is a little more advanced then yours atm, second season jan transfer window just closed.
 
madpot said:
I took a different approach and doing pretty well with them, my game is a little more advanced then yours atm, second season jan transfer window just closed.
Click to expand...

Oh nice, how you doing in the league? Hows the likes of Roux and Martin doing for you?
 
Bordeaux v Lille

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Next up we have a tough trip to an impressive Bordeaux side. They have had a great start to the season and are in a healthy position in the league. This is a very tough game, plus we have our Champions League tie against Fenerbahce in mid-week so a few players are rested in this one.

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Our first league defeat of the season. Marvin Martin gave us a good start but the game was turned on it's head before half time by the outstanding player on the day - Wahbi Khazri. We couldn't get back into it despite our 20 attempts on goal. It's a setback but our attention now turns to match in Turkey in mid-week...

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Fenerbahce v Lille

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We need to get the weekend defeat at Bordeaux out of our minds as qualifying for the Champions League is a minimum requirement this season. Fenerbahce are a very tough team and I've mentioned before about these gruelling trips to Turkey. I'd settle for a score draw here as I feel we are capable of beating them on our own patch.

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We were outplayed from start to finish. A real worrying performance from the lads as it's rare we get this outplayed. Fenerbahce are a good side, don't get me wrong, but I really expected us to be more competitive. Vincent Enyeama's own goal after about 40 seconds was the worst start possible. We have a lifeline though thanks to Michael Frey's goal with 13 minutes left on the clock - a precious away goal. A 2-0 win would be enough in France which is more than doable, we need to improve a lot before then though, I feel a tweak to the tactics is needed...
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Lille v Lens

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Those of you that have been following this story will know that Lille v Lens is a pretty big deal in these parts of France. The Derby Du Nord - the 4th in my time at the club. I've yet to lose one and I don't intend to start now. As usual Antoine Koumbare tries to start mind games with me in the build up but I'm not rising to it. We need a much better performance than in the past few games, but hopefully the lure of a derby match will get the players right up for it.

We've also tweaked our tactics slightly so it'll be interesting to see how they work out.

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Another derby win, that's always a good way to keep your fans on your side! Nolan Roux gets his standard goal, but I need to give a few honourable mentions from this match. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang gets his first goal for the club and I hope this is a springboard to better performances as he has been woeful so far. I've changed his role to an inside forward and it reaped instant rewards today.

Secondly, we have a bit of an injury crisis up front at the moment with Michael Frey and Danny Ings both out injured, leaving me with Nolan Roux as my only recognised striker. I always like to have a bench striker so I looked in my youth team and found Gauthier Varez, a 20 year old who has 3 goals in 3 games for my reserve side this season. The youngster came on for his debut today, which is a real special moment as he is from Lille himself so he knows how big these games are. Talk about throwing him in at the deep end.

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Lille v Fenerbahce

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A massive match now, this is make or break to see if we can make it into the Champions League group stage this season. We reached the final last year so to not even reach the group stage would be a massive disappointment. Thanks to Michael Frey's away goal we have a chance, but we can't afford to concede as we lose the value of that away goal.

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We won but it's not enough. We had the chances to win this game by 4 or 5 but we couldn't take our chances. A massive moment for Gauthier Varez though, in a desperate attempt to win the game I threw him on as he was our only striker on the bench and he scored his first goal for the club! The Lille-born forward has a moment that he can tell his family and friends for years to come and I'm ecstatic for the young lad!

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But in all reality we failed to reach our minimum objective in the Champions League. A massive disappointment for the club, but we move onto the Europa League now, a trophy that I want to win.

Here's a look at our Europa League draw;

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I feel comfortable of progressing from this group. Salzburg and Panathinaikos will be tough opponents but I feel we're better than both of them. We've already beaten Panathinaikos over 2 legs this season!


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Tough luck going down there, but you've got a serious chance at the Europa League here!
 
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