Blanc's 4-3-3 PSG 2013/14 // Possession

Hi guys

after seeing Laurent Blanc's Olympique Lyonnais poor performances in the first games of this season and seeing him getting sacked, I read some analysis about Lyon and those analysis came to the conclusion that Blanc's old tactics were holding Lyon back.

But I remembered Laurent Blanc in 2013-14 being the manager of PSG playing a quite offensive football, so why did he change so much? Of course, that PSG was quite stronger than the current Lyon squad, in that PSG there were champions like Ibrahimovic, Cavani, Verratti, a younger Thiago Silva, a young Marquinhos just bought from AS Rome, PSG just won the LIGUE 1 under Carlo Ancelotti and Blanc inherited a team already used to win.

Everything is different now, Olyimpique Lyon is far from the team who won 7 Ligue 1 one after anothers in the 2000s, the historical chairman Aulas sold the club to John Textor and retired from the chairman seat, and last summer Lyon sold their best players to solve their financial problems.

Laurent Blanc's stagnant strategy has contributed to their early-season struggles, instead of using a 4-3-3 as many thought, he used a 4-2-3-1 and a 3-4-1-2 and his poor results made Textor decide to fire him and hire Grosso, whose results were also poor and finally, with Jean Pierre Sage's 4-3-3,things seem to go a bit better for Lyon.

A question came to my mind: what if Blanc tried to use the same tactic and the same playing style he used 10 years ago at PSG with Lyon? Could he be still Lyon's Manager now?

I decided to recreate that PSG tactic (I used a positive mentality instead of an attacking one, this was the only thing I wanted to change) and tested it with Lyon In Football Manager 2024, Lyon is predicted to finish 7th, with this tactic and without buying any players, I finished 2nd with only PSG ahead of me, and I won against PSG 1-0 at home but lost away at Parc des Princes.

I hope this tactic works for you too, A hug from your Tikitaka Master