Taking Lyon back to the top!

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jckstevens

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Hi guys,

I'd like to initially state that this is my first thread so please excuse any errors I may make! This thread is just as much for my own enjoyment as everyone else:)

Having grown up during the era of Lyon dominance where they won 7 titles in a row in the 00's, its a shame to see them so far off challenging the current rulers of french football PSG. Along with PSG, Monaco are also now seen as the second best team in France due to the huge cash injection they have had!

This challenge will consist of me trying to take Lyon back to the top domestically, before setting my sights on European success! However i'll be trying to achieve this without the millions PSG and Monaco have!

One aim of this save is to not rely a huge amount on the transfer market but instead do things the 'Lyon' way... blooding youngsters from the academy. Luckily, in recent years Lyon have been successful in doing that, and have developed a great core of products consisting of the likes of Lacazette, Fekir, Gonalons, Grenier, Lopes, Tolisso and Ferri just to name the main ones! Something I am desperate to do is to keep this core together as its the key of what I want to achieve, however it could be very hard if we do achieve some success! Below is a few screen grabs of some of the players I want to keep around as long as possible.

This is the first instalment just outlining my intentions, ill be sure to follow it up later this weekend with a pre-season review and transfer round up, and a quick look at what tactics I aim to employ!

Thanks for reading!
 
August Update

Hi Guys, back with the first update. As it stands, August is done and dusted and it was a strong month for me, I couldn't have asked for a better start all things considering.
The first game against Paris Saint German was a thriller, with Cavani scoring after Yanga M'biwas opener from a corner. We managed to adjust our tactics towards the end to play narrow and force them out wide where both my CB's could deal with Cavan's ariel threat. We won on penalties, with Tolisso bagging the winning penalty, a shootout in which Paris were terrible scoring just 2 of the 5.

Onto the league where played Nancy, a decent 1-1 draw with Nancy scoring a thunderbolt to equalise. The team wasn't quick ticking, Grenier wasn't finding his passes and the Fekir was still searching for that link with Lacazette. Nonetheless we look good at the back, with N'koulou and M'biwa looking imperious.

The next game was another lack-lustre event, with a 1-0 win over Caen with Lacazette bagging the only goal with a nice finish from a Fekir cross. This is something I am looking for, a connection between Fekir and Lacazette which I believe can be invaluable to me challenging for the league. But overall, a pretty dead game with few chances.

The final game of August was against Dijon, and a further goal by lacazette assisted by Fekir's eye of the needle pass which put his through on goal. A very nice win, we controlled the game, and continued out trend of scoring just before half time. We lined up in a 3-5-2 just to try and centralise Fekir and Lacazette to develop their relationship and it worked well. However in the second half we switch back to out 4-3-3 which allowed up to control the game and stretch them more. In the end a nice win, and it keeps out good start going.


The major outgoing was Valbuena. Due to his age and his huge 99k per week wage, we couldnt afford to keep him on a wage which was better used renewing Gonalons and Ghezzals contracts. So far we haven't really missed him, and hopefully him leaving opens to door to a few more you players like Cornet and Ghezzal.

Incomings were mainly young squad players, Guitane being an exiting play maker who I will look to give cup game time this season. Ongenda was a signing from PSG, a player who isn't going to be getting much action who has undeniable talent, so PSG's loss may well be our gain. Pellenard was a signing from Bordeaux, a left who has solid potential gives us another option over Morel who is declining quite rapidly. Our last signing was Simunovic, a player signed from Celtic who gives us that 4th centre back. I also signed him due to the fact he is young, capped at U21 level and has clear potential, and when you're managing Lyon you have to think for the future in terms of losing either one of our top centre backs... RIP Umtiti.


IN other news our Champions League group was announced and boy did we get lucky. Juventus, Basel and Ludogorets gives us a very high chance of qualifying which would be fantastic. The lesser opposition also gives me a chance to rest some of our better players and give out young players a good chance to impress.
 
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