LOSC Lille - Getting to Grips with the French Division

I decided to take charge of Lille, a creditable side from France who enjoyed massive success in their previous campaign. Having not managed in the French League before I thought i'd give it a crack and share my story with the forum


Expectations

Having won the league in the previous season the board were more than happy for me to aim for finishing within the top half of the league - I think that in itself suggests how much of a surprise it was winning the league. Along with the League Campaign of course Lille were competing in the Champions League which will add extra excitement to our campaign

I've been given a Transfer Budget of £5.21m and a Wage Budget of £475K, however with the club already spending $462k on wages there wasn't much room for manoeuvrability.


Tactics

I've kept the same formation for each of my 3 tactics but with very different playing styles, I will use the standard formation at the beginning of most games and alter it where I see fit

Standard

This will be used much more often than others. A sensible tactic which can easily be changed when necessary.



Only used when we are the clear underdogs and will benefit from a cautious approach.

Counter


Very rarely used a starting tactic, only really needed when in search of a goal or when we need as many goals as poss.

Control



Key Players

Mickael Landreau


Franck Beria


Moussa Sow


And of course, the "piste de résistance" Eden Hazard



Next update will involve a Transfer Update and Pre-season Results.

cheers guys, take it easy.

Friendlies



Went through Pre-Season undefeated, we didn't exactly set the world alight but the again, they're only friendlies. A couple of dodgy draws vs lesser opposition, most notably Southend United. But other than that we got through Pre-Season unscathed with a fully fit Squad.


Trophee De Champions

Unfortunately ended in defeat for us, this game was the equivalent to the Community Shield in England so there isn't much importance attached to the game however, it would have been nice to start the season with some silverware.



We went into the game as underdogs but played like the favourites, Marsielle's 'Keeper won the MoM award which says a lot about the game. Also you may have noticed that our main central midfielder obtained an injury during the game, luckily though he's fine.


Transfers Update

Only 1 player brought in so far and to be honest I don't expect to be bringing anyone else in, during this window. I have signed Caglar Birinci a Turkish Left back for £1.1m who has been signed to bolster that area of the squad.



Finally, our goalkeeper Mickael Landreau whom I spoke about earlier is likely to be leaving the club for a fee around £6.75m to Manchester City. Being that he's 32 and we have Vincent Enyeama as our second 'Keeper, I felt we were in a good enough position to accept the offer.

P.S I will be doing monthly updates so the next update will come at the end of Auguest.

cheers guys, take it easy

It looks good bruh try not to sell Hazard at any price.

story is looking good so far . with the quality of this Lille side and maybe 1 or 2 decent signing could really see u push for the title this season. the trouble will be holding onto Eden Hazard as big clubs will make a move for him .

August

Fixtures & Results



It's certainly been a slow start to the season, The first game against Nancy was very poor and in my opinion we didn't even look good enough for a point. However, an injury time winner from winger Dimitri Payet we stole all 3.



We controlled the game against Montpellier but just couldn't seem to score, the only goal we did get came from an ulikely source in the shape of Aurelien Chedjou our Centre Back.
Caen away in our next game was just a game of 2 halves. They controlled the first half and vica-versa in the seconed, only thing being that they scored 1 more than us in the half which they dominated. I was prety annoyed by this defeat which lead to a slight tactical tweak



Nothing major but this gives us more of an attacking threat going forward as goals have been a problem so far this season which has been nicely summed up by the fact that none of my strikers have scored yet...

The final game of the month brought the Visit of Marseille and we've revenge for our previous defeat, I really wanted to win this one. We looked good throughout the game and deserved the win. It was left late mind with substitute Ireneusz Jelen grabbing the winner in the 86th minute. On a side note it was the first goal scored by a striker this season for us...




Transfers

As I said in my last post there wouldn't be much more activity from the club and I stuck by what I said, having got the money in from the sale of Mickael Landreau it had left the club in a healthy financial position which was a bonus.




And in Other News

The Champions League Group Stages have been drawn.



As it goes it could have been a lot worse, so to be honest I think we have a good case for potentially qualifying here. The games against Benfica I believe will be the Key.

Anyway that's all for now.

cheers guys, take it easy

Looks good mate

the france league is preety easy, but i should scout the youth in Germany if I was you

September

Fixtures & Results



I don't really want to talk about the games with Sochaux and Maccabi Haifa, how we lost those games is beyond me. It was just simply a case of we did everything but score, they had one good chance and took it. (Maccabi Haifa scored a last minute goal on the counter attack for their second.)

Only the one draw this month away to Bordeaux, after only 24 minutes we were 2-0 up and cruising but by half time it was 2-2. Bordeaux's second goal was a lovely gift from our defenders to there striker so understandably I went mad at half time and coinsedently this led to the most boring second half of football I have ever seen! The game ended 2-2 and yes I would have most definately taken a draw at the start of the match, but when you go 2 up it is a little hard to take.

3 First Rate performances this month though vs AS Saint Etienne, Benfica & Lorient. We played each team off the park and my team had shown me that they were actually capeable of playing well!

However I think it's clear that the stand-out performance from the 3 was against Benfica. We played superbly and barely gave them a sniff so the 3-0 win totally justified our performance. Finally a quick mention for Moussa Sow, finally scored for us in this game, well he scored 2 actually so at last he's off the mark for us this season. Typically though however in the following game vs Sochaux he got injured and has been ruled out for a month




Table



Don't ask me how we're top, I have no idea. We don't deserve to be so therefore I think it's just down to a case of other teams also performing poorly.


Champions League



Weirdly enough we find ourselves in the position I would have predicted at this stage, but with opposite results. Still 4 games left though 2 of which vs Arsenal so it could still go either way.


Joker Transfer Window

Slightly bizarre name and also something I wasn't aware of. The joker transfer window gives French clubs the option to buy just 1 player from any other French club during the window...

Therefore I would like to announce our new signing Frank Tabanou! Signed for a fee of £7.5m he is an exciting left winger at just 22 years old who looks to have a very bright future at Lille.



You may notice his squad number is... Lets say slightly irregular! It was an accident I 'left clicked' on him when giving out his shirt number expecting it to be the no. 15 however I didn't see the No. 1 vacant and confirmed the selection before double checking!

cheers guys, take it easy

October

Fixtures & Results



We went the month of October unbeaten with 3 wins and a the solitary draw. The draw came in the biggest game of the month at home to Lyon, being that we were 7 points ahead of them (they were in 6th) at the time a draw certainly wasn't the worst result. We fell behind right after half time but equalised almost immediatly, to be honest we looked good for the win and if it hadn't been for Moussa Sow missing the sitter to end all sitters in injury time so the game ended all square

We claimed a few good wins this month, 2-0 and 3-1 vs Rennes and Valenciennes respectively, however this months stand-out performance came away at Auxerre without doubt. We went in at the break 2-1 up and played absolutely superbly in the second half knocking in another 4. The scoreline maybe be a bit harsh on Auxerre mind, we were good for a win but they will feel that the 6-1 scoreline flattered us a bit.




Table



As you can see we're still leading the way in Ligue 1 but only via goal difference, Toulouse - the surprise package are the side keeping close tabs on us.

Surprisingly PSG and Lyon haven't had the best start to their respective campaigns however, PSG have very recently changed their manager so you should expect them to start rising up the league table some time soon.

Champions League

Just the one game this month in the Champions League and on paper, the most difficult. Arsenal came at us relentlessly in the first half and took the lead after just 3 minutes, how they didn't score more in the rest of the half beyond me, if it hadn't been for the inspired form of goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama they probably would have. In the second half though our hard working attitude paid off and we managed to scrounge and equaliser through left winger Ludovic Obraniak after 71 minutes. After we scored we kept the ball a lot better and we able to see them game out to claim a very well earnt point.



Group Table



Arsenal can more-a-less say they're on their way through, the competition for second spot is going to be very close and one slip up could result in Europa League football or potentially finishing bottom if we're not careful. The game away to Benfica though I believe will be absolutely massive


Coupe De La Ligue

The draw for the 4th round gave us a home tie against Lorient, as this competition isn't top of my priorities list and gives me the chance to field some squad players so I wouldn't be so upset if we were to exit, but in saying that it is always nice to win silverware at every oppurtunity.

In a dull affair Lorient were reduced to 10 men in the first half and we never really took advantage of that. They defended in numbers and we were just not able to create many chances, the game was taken all the way through to a penalty shootout as it finished 0-0. Luckily we kept our nerve and came out victorious 7-6 after 9 penalties each. Credit though where credits due, Lorient defended like beavers and in my opinion probably deserved more from the game.

Quarter Final draw



The draw favours us in that I am confident in my teams ability to defeat Montpellier whilst the other 2 'big' names in the competition are facing eachother - Lyon vs Marseillie so if we were to go through and avoid the winner of that tie in the Semis I believe we would have a great chance of making the Final.

That's all for this update and I shall be back with another update at the end of November.

cheers guys, take it easy

good draw, good chance of potentially winning the competition with lyon vs marseille playing eachother

NICE, good results there! Keep going!

November

Fixtures & Results



Another unbeaten month with 2 wins and a draw so again nothing there for me to really kick up a fuss about. The 2 wins came as expected, no disrespect to Evian and Brest but they are the sort've games we should be winning. The only small 'concerns' were that I feel we should have beaten Brest by more and also that we should not be conceding sloppy late consolation goals which does get very frustrating.

The big game of the month saw us visit 2nd place side Toulouse in a 1st vs 2nd encounter. Unbeleivably we had 3 of our key players suspended for this fixture (our right back, centre back and our playmaker). With that being the case I saw it best to set up defensively and tackle the game that way, we came came out of the game with a 0-0 draw so I was happy with the point and a clean sheet.

Table



It's certainly getting tighter at the top. Toulouse are still looking very good and don't look like falling away any time soon. As well as the threat from Toulouse, Marseille have also started to climb the league and are now only 4 points off us. Lyon and PSG though are still some way behind. However as I previously stated that PSG had a manager change, it was certainly paying off as they had been playing a lot better in recent weeks

Champions League



It's been a very interesting month in terms of the Champions League with 2 tremendously surprising performances against Arsenal and Benfica...

Arsenal



This was a brilliant performance from start to finish, we kept Arsenal at bay for the whole game and matched them all over the park. We took our chances very well when they came about which was the difference between the two sides. Arsenal's late consolation makes it look a little untidy but I can have complaints, 4 points against the 1st seeds is a fantastic achievement in my opinion.

Benfica



Certainly a great game for the neutral! To be quite honest i'm not really sure what to make of this game. Despite at coming back from 1-3 down to go 4-3 up, our defending was so poor. Conceding 3 goals in 27 minutes in my eyes is unacceptable and then after going 4-3 up to concede again was a real kick in the teeth! However, this point saw us through to the next round and being that we have Maccabi Haifa at home and Arsenal have a tricky home game vs Benfica, I believe we may have a very slight chance of qualyfying in top spot!


And in other news

Moussa Sow



This guy is supposedly meant to be our top striker, he has only just scored his first goal in the league and his performances have not been good enough, week in week out he has not been good enough.

So this leaves me in a bit of a predicament. Do I sell him on and spend the money wisely on a better striker or do I keep playing him in the hope that he comes good?

So i'd like for a few other perspectives on the matter of possible? Any ideas would be welcome.

Anyway that's it for this update, i'll be back for Decembers update soon.
cheers guys, take it easy

Sell Sow, if he's nor rendable, just put him away.

Stikers you should look out to:

Lukaku (loan)
Rossi (40M release clausule, but you can pick him up for much lower)
Nilmar
Sanogo (Transferfree end of the season)

#40266 mdlp1991 : Sell Sow, if he's nor rendable, just put him away.

Stikers you should look out to:

Lukaku (loan)
Rossi (40M release clausule, but you can pick him up for much lower)
Nilmar
Sanogo (Transferfree end of the season)

Cheers pal, I think I may take you up on that. Unfortunately Manchester United have already snapped up Sanogo

#40268 Tom_BcFC : #40266 mdlp1991 :
Sell Sow, if he's nor rendable, just put him away.

Stikers you should look out to:

Lukaku (loan)
Rossi (40M release clausule, but you can pick him up for much lower)
Nilmar
Sanogo (Transferfree end of the season)


Cheers pal, I think I may take you up on that. Unfortunately Manchester United have already snapped up Sanogo

Try Edinson Cavani who usually comes for £30mil. Always impresses and scores at a fantastic rate if you pay him in the tight roles.

Another versatile striker, who is cheaper, is Kadlec. He is young and does pretty well too

And keep checking out for Tevez. No one pays Man City £51mil which they ask for, but in the second season, you can snap him up for a fraction of that. In my game, in the second season, Tevez is snapped up for £12.5mil, and scored 9 goals in his first 4 games!!

#40320 nakulp : And keep checking out for Tevez. No one pays Man City £51mil which they ask for, but in the second season, you can snap him up for a fraction of that. In my game, in the second season, Tevez is snapped up for £12.5mil, and scored 9 goals in his first 4 games!!

There all class players, but slightly our of our price range! For some reason despite all there recent success Lille haven't got that much money in the bank, so I would have to sell Sow and use the money from that transfer to sanction another one. Question is how much could I get for Sow?