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French Revelations: Lyon Coach Claude Puel Must Mix Pragmatic With Aggressive

With the pressure starting to slowly build on the long-time Monaco servant, Goal.com’s Robin Bairner examines the position of the OL general manager…

Nov 26, 2009 12:00:45 PM

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Ligue 1 : Claude Puel (Lyon)

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It’s a matter of fact that in today’s footballing landscape, club managers and coaches are rarely afforded the time required to build a team unit capable of rising from the mid-table regions to claim title-winning success. Results are demanded instantaneously, and if they are not achieved, the sack is the inevitable result.

Take Serie A for example; an incredible 15 of the 20 clubs in Italy’s top flight have changed coach since June – that’s a quite breathtaking statistic. Ligue 1, however, appears to have been immune to such chopping and changing of late, though this is the time of year that club presidents start to assess their lot and consider their side's direction.

Alain Perrin of Saint-Etienne and Paulo Duarte of Le Mans are just two of the trainers down near the foot of the table to find themselves in a spot of bother. They meet each other on Sunday, and the loser may just find himself out of a job.

Much higher up the standings, where the relegation battle is uncharted territory, not just a point on the horizon, there is a very different kind of pressure, the pressure of expectation.

Olympique Lyonnais general manager Claude Puel is approaching his 18th month in charge of les Gones, and it’s fair to say that they’ve not been especially easy for the former Monaco and Lille boss, who has thus far done the bare minimum to secure his role.

OL had won seven titles on the bounce when he took over in the summer of 2008 from the aforementioned Perrin, and the expectation was that the gritty tactician would be the man to lead the Rhone Valley giants to their eighth. The script, however, was to take something of a twist as Girondins de Bordeaux improved their consistency to outdo the beleaguered Stade Gerland side, while Olympique de Marseille also outstripped les Gones to reach second.

Third spot, though acceptable because it still provided a path into the Champions League, was not especially impressive. Questions were raised about his future, especially given president Jean-Michel Aulas’ fierce drive for success, but the general manager’s first campaign in charge was deemed adequate.

Puel & Co. have once again made just a satisfactory start to the league campaign. Explosive in the early weeks of the season, Lyon looked capable of once again sweeping all before them as they recorded nine wins in their opening 11 games.

Since then it has not been sweetness and light. A 2-0 defeat against Sochaux on October 17 has triggered a run of just two wins in eight fixtures, and although OL haven’t dropped significantly out of the title race, that is only due to the equally unpredictable nature of the pack of sides currently hovering around the upper reaches of Ligue 1.

When Lyon meet Rennes on Sunday, they will have gone close to a month without winning any sort of fixture. Unsurprisingly, whispers have surfaced about Puel’s suitability for the job once again.

OL are a club that really wants to play attacking football, and Puel simply doesn’t give them the spectacular approach they crave. This was the main criticism flagged in the wake of last Saturday’s painstaking 1-1 draw with Grenoble – a side rooted to the foot of Ligue 1 table and already cast off by many as relegation certainties.

Playing with just one in attack, it took les Gones over an hour to muster any kind of shot on target. Though they did take the lead, they would quickly surrender their advantage – but only after GF38 had been reduced to ten men.

Such a performance might have been mitigated had Puel been resting players for the midweek Champions League encounter against Fiorentina, which wasn’t entirely the case. The international break was tentatively blamed – ‘the FIFA virus’ as the Spanish would have it – but matters didn’t really get a whole lot better in Florence, where Lyon were happy to have the tempo of the game dictated to them and rarely forced matters.

The strength of Lyon should be going forward, but with Bafetimbi Gomis – a €15 million (!) summer signing – leading the line on his own, OL could not be expected to cause the Viola real problems. Lisandro Lopez is the only man in the Lyon squad capable of playing that role at such a level, but ‘Licha’ was benched.

To Aulas’ credit, he seems determined to stick by Puel, even blaming the referee for defeat in midweek, so for the moment such performances will be accepted – Lyon may yet, after all, win the group. Indeed, there are few other obvious candidates to take the job at Stade Gerland.

Laurent Blanc would, of course, be many people’s favourites, but it’s an absurd suggestion that the Bordeaux coach might switch to OL. Fiercely loyal to les Girondins, whom he led brilliantly to the title last season, the 44-year-old would probably only leave the Stade Chaban-Delmas for the France job or a significant club abroad.

Not on the list of his priorities is Lyon, where he would be unlikely to be afforded the kind of time to forge team spirit he has with his Aquitaine charges. Though the footballing media tend to focus on the excellence of individuals, the strength of the XI-strong team is often forgotten, and Bordeaux arguably punch above their weight better than any side in Europe at present. Much of that is Blanc’s doing, and it is only right that he’s considered one of the brightest young bosses in Europe.

Victory over Juventus on Wednesday night was achieved without Yoann Gourcuff, highlighting the strength in depth of the French champions. The Old Lady were poor, true, but the organisation and work ethic of Bordeaux helped to disrupt them.

Lyon, meanwhile, lack the understanding and team spirit present in les Marin et Blanc. Given time, Puel can forage it – he did so in Lille and with Monaco – but he must also be prepared to gamble when the opportunity arises.

Draws against the likes of Grenoble are no use to a club of OL’s stature. Trophies are the lifeblood of the great sides, and les Gones are presently an outfit gasping for silverware given the drought they have endured since the beginning of Puel’s tenure.

Robin Bairner, Goal.com

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