LOSC Lille - Getting to Grips with the French Division

December


Fixtures & Results



The first game of the month brought along our first defeat in 9 matches away at the hands of AC Ajaccio. We were defeated by a solitary goal which came on the stroke of half time, it was an even game throughout and neither team never really got going, but in saying that i'm sure that was partly down to AC Ajaccio's game plan.

Our 2 victories this month came both at home over Dijon and Nice, whom we beat 2-1 and 2-0 respectively. Both were decent performances and we dominated in both games. Dijon's goal came from the penalty spot so there wasn't much to be done about stopping that. On another note however Moussa Sow of all people with the form he's been in bagged an absolutely sensational goal in the game against Nice... So if the link works (fingers crossed) you should be able to see the goal below.


The big game of the month saw us travel to Paris to face big time spenders and yet underachievers Paris Saint-Germain. It's a weird situation to be in with this kind've game, the opposition have so many good players on show with the likes of Pastore, Gameiro & Sakho you can only wonder as to how they haven't been performing well? Anyway the game was even throughout so the 1-1 scoreline is certainly justified and being the away side I feel like we've taken a very good point here.




Table



We've opened up a 3 point gap over nearest rivals Toulouse so I am relieved our slip up away at AC Ajaccio hasn't come back to bite us on the ass. Marseille will be very dissapointed with their months work and have dropped further behind us with there now being a 7 point gap. We're now half way through the season and looking back I feel that if we can achieve them same form we have already produced the the French Title will be ours.


Champions League



We did it! And qualified in first place too thanks to Benfica claiming a point at the Emirates! We beat Maccabi Haifa 1-0 but the scoreline doesn't suggest how comfortable the game actually was for us and we could, and perhaps should have won by more. BUT we were through and came top as well so I have every reason to be happy with my players.


1st Round Knock out Draw



Well, all I can say is thank god we didn't come 2nd! Or we would have been facing Barcelona! We got FC Porto though which will be very tricky without doubt. I feel that the home tie in the 2nd leg will be very much within our favour, so i'm looking forward to the challenge and to be honest i'm just happy to still be competing in the competition.


Transfer Window

So as every football fan knows January brings with it the transfer window! There has been a lot of interest shown in a lot of my players of late and it would take a very big offer for me to part with any of them at this stage. The only player I would look to sell on would be Moussa Sow as he really hasn't performed me yet.

Without that being the case and on a low budget I will be setting out (if Moussa Sow departs) for a new striker. As well as this i'm also keeping an eye out for another play-making central midfielder. This is because we only have one play-maker at the moment and it would just be safe for us to bring in back-up in case of injury crisis.

So any suggestions/ideas would be very much appriciated.

cheers guys, take it easy.

January


Fixtures & Results



Only the 2 games this month, AS Saint-Etienne at home and away to Marseille. We controlled the game over Etienne very well and played them off the park. The 2 goals came from Eden Hazard and Joe Cole, but to be honest I feel we could well of scored more. But none the less it was 3 points and i'm happy to claim them in any way.

It was a big game away at Marseille being that were 7 points clear of them before kick-off a win for them could be the catalyst for some good form and given them the chance to catch up with us. However a win would leave us 10 points clear and in a good position to see the season out in top spot. But as it went we scrapped a point after being on the back foot for atleast 3/4's of the game, after taking the lead after 10 minutes we spent the rest of the game defending and trying to preserve our league. Unfortunately Marseille found their break through in the 64th minute and afterward began to push on for a winner. We held on though and did very well to claim a point. On a another note a special well done goes to our 2nd keeper who has been filling in for Enyeama whilst he is at the Afircan Cup of Nations. He isn't the greatest keeper in the world but if it hadn't been for him Marseille would have won that game.





Table



With Toulouse only claiming a single point in the month of January our lead at the top has been extended to 6 points. Marseille have been over taken by Lyon and much more surprising Sochaux who are occupying 3rd spot and with are next game being away at Sochaux there is a lot more on the game that I first thought.


Coupe De La Ligue



Couldn't believe we lost this! We looked good enough for a 1-0 win but Montpellier's late equaliser forced the game into Extra Time. In injury time Montpellier were reduced to 10 men so really from there I felt we
shopuld have gone on to win. Despite falling behind in the 99th minute we equalised ourselves after 110 minutes through an own goal. The game went into penalties where Montpellier held there never to come out victorious.

If we had of gone through it would have been Lyon away so when it comes down to it i'm not overly fussed we're out anymore!

Coupe De France

There's a lot of rounds in this competition! this month we had 2 games in the 9th and 10th rounds. Firstly against Nimes we won 3-1 and secondly against Nantes where we won 5-2. We made a much bigger deal of the game than the scoreline suggests, we went 0-1 down and didn't look very good at all. Nantes had a player sent off on the half hour mark which totally turned the tide in our favour and afterward the floodgates opened and we ran in 5 times.

January "Ins & Outs

This didn't really go according to plan, I was looking out for a back up play-maker and and good solid centre back. On our budget though we foun
d neither, but I did stumble upon 18 year old play-maker Jose Campana who i've managed to snap up on a free transfer, he will be arriving at the end of his contract in the summer.




We sold 2 players in this window Ronny Rodelin a striker who wasn't in any of my plans so he was sold on for £750K to Real Betis.

The other departure was that of left winger Ludovic obrniak. He left us for the dizzy heights of the Premiership with Liverpool. We sold him for £6m, I allowed this transfer to go through as we have Franck Tabanou also on the left wing whom to be quite honest is our first choice anyway.



For those of you wondering I didn't sell Moussa Sow on because believe it or not he finally hit form! Scoring 4 goals in 4 games back in December thus saving his bacon as it were, 'til the end of the season anyway!

Right that's it for this update, hope you enjoyed reading and I will be back with February's update soon as.

cheers guys, take it easy

February


Fixtures & Results



It's been a tough month but the key has been remaining unbeaten, this way confidence will remain high toward the latter end of the season. There were 4 games this month in which we claimed 3 draws and the solitary win.

The big game of the month was also the first game of the month. It saw us face 3rd placed over achievers Sochaux (who of course beat us in the return game earlier) away from home, to be quite honest they took the game to us and we were on the back foot throughout. However, we managed to take the lead just after half-time through wonderkid Eden Hazard. We tightend up after the goal went in up until about the 80th minute where it just felt the rest of the game was just one whole highlight of Sochaux attacking us! The did manage to find an equaliser unfortunately after 87 minutes to claim a point.




The other 2 draws came away at Lorient and at home to massive under achievers Bordeaux at home. We drew 2-2 with Lorient and with it being an away game I wasn't overly fussed about dropping points in this one. However the Bordeaux game did disappoint me a lot in that as I said they have been really under achieving this season and we really took the game to them, we conceded another late goal in the 82nd minute as well which added insult to injury.

Our only win this month came in an eventful game at home to Rennes. Pretty much all of the action came in the first half. After going 0-1 down early on, we were in front by the 28th minute but that lead only lasted 2 minutes and Rennes were back on level terms! We reached 80 minutes in a quiet second half so I made a radical change by bringing on Moussa Sow and changing in to an attacking set up. This paid of fantastically well as after 88 minutes the man himself Moussa Sow bundled home the winner to send myself and our fans into raptures!




Table



If you'd of asked me who I thought would be in the top 4 after 25 games, my money certainly would not have been on Sochaux, Caen and Toulouse! We're still 5 points clear but notice PSG in 5th who have absolutely rocketed up the league in recent times. Lyon have been doing okay of late, they're very hard to beat as they've only lost 3 times but they've drawn a lot of games.


Champions League



Some pretty outrageous results right there, i'll get to ours in a minute! Manchester City and Bayern totally tore apart their opposition and it's safe to say they'll be going through. Manchester United actually came back from being 0-2 down at half time to winning 3-2 at the San Siro vs Inter which is a fantastic result.




What a result for us! Although Porto it seemed either didn't have their first team out, or they're just not that good. it was the perfect result to be honest and puts us in a commanding position for the return tie. The only goal came just after half time and was scored by winger Dimitri Payet.


Coupe De France

In only the 11th round! We were away to Valenciennes and secured and secured a 2-1 win, with the winning goal coming from Irenuesz Jelen in the 93rd minute



Unbeleivably we've drawn bogey team Montpellier away in the Quater Finals... Can't wait.

In Other News

Congratulations to Eden Hazard...




he won the Ligue 1 player of the month and deservedly so. Scored a couple of goals and made several assists.

Anyway that's it for now, March update will be up soon

cheers guys, take it easy

Nice Update, but I would have betted with the top 5 on these teams:

PSG
Lyon
Marseilles
Toulouse
LOSC Lille


Toulouse played very well in my game too

if your looking for a out and out goalscorer as SOW is playing poorly, then you need Darren Bent. He will easily bag you 20-30 goals a season. in each of my 4seasons at man city he scored atleast 26 goals in each of those seasons in the league. Im also doing a season with Lille so im finding your story very interesting and im hoping my Lille season will go as well as yours.

i would suggest you get Kadlec, who is a young striker and reasonably cheap too. He will be well worth the money.
You can even try getting sturridge on loan. He would probably fit in petty well into your Lille squad, especially with good service from the likes of Hazard.
and i would agree with gooner4eva and say that darren bent is a good signing too

other prospects that may fit your budget:
Darwin Quintero
Demba Ba
Wallyson from Cruzeiro
Jelle Vossen

and if you have more money then:
Edinson Cavani
Leandro Damiâo from Internacional

#40459 gooner4eva : if your looking for a out and out goalscorer as SOW is playing poorly, then you need Darren Bent. He will easily bag you 20-30 goals a season. in each of my 4seasons at man city he scored atleast 26 goals in each of those seasons in the league. Im also doing a season with Lille so im finding your story very interesting and im hoping my Lille season will go as well as yours.

Cheers for your suggestion mate, but the budget won't stretch anywhere near to the likes of Darren Bent's valuation, as well as this Lille's reputation isn't that high yet which means they're unable to attract world class players which is why a big season in the league and a good Champions League run is vital

#40464 nakulp : i would suggest you get Kadlec, who is a young striker and reasonably cheap too. He will be well worth the money.
You can even try getting sturridge on loan. He would probably fit in petty well into your Lille squad, especially with good service from the likes of Hazard.
and i would agree with gooner4eva and say that darren bent is a good signing too

other prospects that may fit your budget:
Darwin Quintero
Demba Ba
Wallyson from Cruzeiro
Jelle Vossen

and if you have more money then:
Edinson Cavani
Leandro Damiâo from Internacional

Nice one mate, I signed Jelle Vossen in my Bristol City save about 6 seasons in so I know how good he gets and may well be a good acquisition. If we have a good season then i'll have to wait until we're given our budget for next season before I can start setting anything in stone

March


Fixtures & results



It's been a fantastic month in terms of league performances with a 100% winning record and without conceding a single goal. 1-0 wins over Auxerre and Evian TG were accompanied by a comprehensive 3-0 demoloshing of rivals Valenciennes much to my delight! But of course the key game this month was to be Lyon away...



What a great win this was, the goals were scrappy but bearing in mind we had to take to this game without star player Eden Hazard I couldn't care less! Both goals came in the first half through Liverpool loanee Joe Cole and Moussa Sow and were enough to put us in a good enough position to see the game out.
Table



After that fantastic month we seem to have chosen the right time to hit good form and we have begun to pull away stretching our lead at the top to 8 points. Marseille and PSG have creeped back into the top 4 by hitting good form themselves, Lyon are some way off the pace down in 6th but notice Toulouse one place below them. It would seem that they haven't been able to maintain there good form over the season and their from would appear to have hit the proverbial brick wall!


Champions League

1st Round 2nd Leg



Not only did we win this game. We absolutely dominated from start to finish! One of our best performances over the season for sure. Moussa Sow scored on the stroke of half time to settle any nerves and that goal was closely followed by a second from Benoit Pedretti. Franck Tabanou rounded the game off in style with another goal on the 55th minute and after this we just played possession football and made Porto chase the ball - but to no avail. So we are through, maybe against the odds but I think we have proved ourselves capable of playing at the top level.


Quarter Final Draw



To be honest this draw could not have gone any better, no disrespect to Olympiacos at all but I do believe we have what it takes to beat them and especially with the 2nd leg being played at home.

Semi Final Draw



Well if we go through we'll be making a trip to Manchester who ever we get! Interesting tie on there part that. Anyway to be honest it would just be a massive achievement to make it this far in the competition so as long as we play at our best and keep it respectable then I'll be happy.

Quarter Final 1st Leg



We are in a fantastic position here and what a classic counter attacking away performance it was too. We struck first relatively early on and it was quite a bizarre goal, our Defensive Midfielder - Rio Mavuba picked up the ball in the centre circle and just dribbled in a straight line whilst the defence just seem to evaporate around him before unleashing a tremendous shot into the top corner... I didn't know he had it in him to be honest! After 55 minutes we scored again, centre midfielder Benoit Pedretti scored a brilliant free kick to round off a superb performance.


Coupe De France



Unbelievable! They've knocked us out of another domestic cup. It was a tight game throughout and it was settled on an own goal on the stroke of half time. Admittedly we didn't have our best XI out but none the less I fielded a team of whom I thought would be more than capable of beating Montpellier but obviously I was wrong. Anyway hats off to Montpellier, they've done very well to repeat the same trick and I wish them all the best for their upcoming semi final.


Okay that's all for this update, April's update will be up soonish

cheers guys, take it easy

No shame in losing to Montpellier, they're a good side.

#40522 DEMBA! : No shame in losing to Montpellier, they're a good side.

It wasn't so much the shame of it. rather than the fact they've knocked us out of both domestic cups at the Quarter Final stage haha!

April


Fixtures & Results



4 league games this month and what can only be described as a mixed bag of results, it hasn't been easy. We started the month away to Brest in one of the most eventful matches I have ever been apart of on FM... We did our absolute best to throw this game it would seem! We fell behind right before half time but equalised straight after half time. I was after this however which came the big talking points of the game, both Full-Backs got sent of 2 minutes apart both for a second bookable offence which completely changed the tide of the game and for obvious reasons. Bizarrely enough it was us that scored next and it was so late as well, so I could have been forgiven for the wild celebrations that went on only for them to be cut short by Brest coming straight back down our end to make it 2-2. Point gained in my opinion though, with only 9 men on the field we did okay.




The following game saw us face AC Ajaccio at home where we secured an easy 2-0 win with both goals coming in the first half. Dijon away were up next and you know those games where whatever you do the opposing team just seem to be able to cope with it? Well this was that kind of game. All the goals came in the first half which led to a very pathetic attempt on our part to make a comeback. 1 down just before


The big game of the month came against the vastly improving PSG, they were steaming up the table and didn't look like stopping any time soon. In an even game though we just about edged and our clinical finishing was the difference. We took the lead after only 7 minutes through Ireneusz jelen only for centre half Aurelien Chedjou to concede a penalty 3 minutes later of which Javier Pastore dispatched. However further goals from tabanou before half time and Hazard after half time saw us run out 3-1 winners to secure a massive 3 points in the run toward the end of the season.




Table



Our lead has been reduced to 5 points but however we have a game in hand which gives us the chance to pull 8 points clear with only 4 games to go, the title is with in our grasp! Not much else to report in terms of other movers at the top of the league and with 4 games to go I can't see much else changing.


Champions League


Quarter Final 2nd Leg

After securing a 2-0 win in the away leg we were in a commanding position for the 2nd leg. However this was put into jeopardy after 17 minutes when Olympiacos scored with their first attack of the game. The game was on a knife edge for much of the game after that but 2 goals 10 minutes apart in the 2nd half through jelen and Tabanou allowed us to see the game out. Olympiacos scored a late goal to claim a draw on the night but a 4-2 win in the Quarter Finals of the Champions League was good enough for me.




Semi Finals



Well the fairytale was over, to be honest we were never in the tie as they totally outplayed us in both encounters. A 0-2 defeat a way and a 0-1 defeat at home was enough for United to set up a final with Bayern Munich. Fair play to Bayern for making it to the final, coming up against Barcelona in the semi final they absolutely turned them over at home in the first leg 5-1! Which set them up very nicely for the 2nd leg.

Bayern Munich with insane result


And in Other News...

With one eye on next season in our 2 games against Olympiacos they're winger Giannis Fetfatzidis had 2 storing games. Having signed the guy before I knew how much talent he had. The beauty of it is that in my Bristol City save about 4 seasons in we signed him for £11m, we've secured him much earlier for a much lower price as well and as we've not enough depth out wide and with Joe Cole going back to Liverpool at the end of the season, I thought this to be a very good and necessary signing.



Quick well done to Montpellier on going all the way in the Coupe De France and defeating Rennes in the final , totally deserved that was.


Anyway that's it for this update guys, the final update of the season will be up soon.

cheers guys, take it easy

Not doing too bad at the moment mate. But, are you getting the best out of Hazard? He should be driving your team forward!! Try training him and playing in the middle of the park. He will get tonnes of assists and quite a few goals too!

#40549 nakulp : Not doing too bad at the moment mate. But, are you getting the best out of Hazard? He should be driving your team forward!! Try training him and playing in the middle of the park. He will get tonnes of assists and quite a few goals too!

He is the driving force to our team! He playing in the Attacking midfield role and has bagged 18 goals (the most in our team) so far this season