French League 2008/2009

Sochaux 0-3 Monaco
Le Mans 1-1 Lille
Lorient 2-1 Lyon
Saint-Etienne 0-0 Bordeaux
Toulouse 1-3 Strasbourg
Auxerre 1-0 Caen
Metz 0-0 Paris-SG

Another Lyon defeat. 3 points in 3 games is not very impressive for a team that has won the last 6 Ligues.

Nancy have a chance to make it 4x4 tomorrow against Marseille (away), but i don't think they can do it.

And your team needs to beat Valenciennes.

I think Lyon will not do a good season, because they are often better in the first part of the season than in the second without 2002. They have lost too many good players.

Yes it's the derby tomorrow, we need a victory but Valenciennes had good strikers, but i think Audel will not played, i think he is still injuried.

Good luck tomorrow then!

Lyon it's an end of an era for them. I think they're gone. Lost too many players and will keep on losing them.

Also 4-2-2 dose not suit Lyon. They are better playing 4-3-3 where Juninho has the freedom to roam about the place & is at his best, he's to restricted in the 4-2-2.

Thanks, the derbys are often a draw.
Lens 0-0 Valenciennes
Nice 1-1 Rennes
Marseille 2-2 Nancy

Yes they're gone, it's their name in France.
A Lyonnais is a Gone, les Lyonnais are les Gones, and there are supporters who are called the bad gones.

I think you're right it's an end of an era, the new players have to learn and progress like Malouda, Abidal has done before. I think they will not be champion but they will be in the first places.

They should play like this because they have the players to do it with Keita and Govou.

Is Perrin considered a good coach in France? I know him of course, but i'm not sure if he's respected locally.

For the record, i agree that 4-3-3 would suit them better with the players they have.

He's considered as a good coach because he's made a good season with Sochaux last year, for me i think Lyon must have taken a better coach, they had the money to sign one.

I think that you can't coach a team like Lyon in the same way that you coach a team like Sochaux. The players are not the same.

That's what i thought. Thanks for verifying my hunch.

Who would you say is the best coach working right now in France? Based not only on past reputation but also on recent (last few years) success/results.

Le Guen was the best when he left Lyon, but does he still enjoy that reputation after a bad season in Scotland, another bad season with PSG and the bad start to the new season (3 points in 4 matches)?

Maybe Lyon will eventually sack Perrin and re-hire Le Guen.

For me i think Claude Puel from Lille is one of the best.

It's strange that Lyon is the only team that has been consistently good these last few years. There are several teams that did well for 1-2 seasons and then dropped back to mid-table mediocrity. All the other leagues have at least 2 teams that always do well, sometimes 4 (EPL).

In England it was the same before, but now it is often MU, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.

In the first 3-4 years of the EPL it was the same teams that did well: ManU, Newcastle, Blackburn and Aston Villa. Then in the mid-90s Arsenal and Liverpool replaced the last 3. Then Leeds did well for a while and Newcastle returned to the top spots. And in the last 4 seasons it's the big 4.

So, only ManU have been consistent top 4 finishers in these 15 seasons, but teams like Liverpool, Arsenal, Newcastle and Chelsea have been pretty consistent too.

Before Manchester United in the 80's, i remenber there was Nottingham Forest, Liverpool, Everton, Tottenham, Chelsea, Arsenal, West Ham, MU, Aston Villa, Ipswich, Leeds, Watford, Queen's park Rangers who are on the top but it was not the same each year.

You're going way too far into the past! You can't compare football then with football now, especially at club level.

All i'm saying is that i find it unnatural that the big French clubs haven't found some balance so far. How can teams like Marseille and PSG be so uneven all these years?

I'm not trying to discredit the French league, but it is something i find bizarre.

One of the reason that Lyon was the team of the last season, it's because they keep their players but not this year.

When a club do well in France, their best players are bought by big european clubs or even clubs like Lyon. There were teams like Sedan or Troyes who were qualified for uefa cup and came back in Ligue 2 one or two years after.

The teams often changed their players, so the leaders often change, but it has always changed i don't know why, there was the time of Reims, the time of Nantes, of St Etienne, of Marseille, of Lyon.

Caen 1-2 Marseille
Monaco 3-1 Le Mans
Nancy 4-1 Auxerre
Bordeaux 2-2 Lorient
Strasbourg 2-1 Lens
Valenciennes 3-1 Sochaux
Rennes 2-0 Metz
Nice 1-1 Toulouse

And it's a surprise Guy Roux stops, he has resigned, i has taken his decision this week but want to work tonight, i think he has taken his decision too quickly. I don't know who will be our coach.

It's soon but i think the champion will be Monaco.