Real Madrid prepare to welcome eternal Champions League foes Lyon tonight. Instead of the regular preview, I had a different idea. Mostly because it is midweek and writing extensive previews about teams and leagues that we don’t follow too much is not what you guys deserve. I love technology, and I haven’t made it a secret how much I love Twitter, one of the great things about it is that you get to interact with many brilliant people from all over the world. One such person is Ryan Chase. Ryan is a regular reader of the blog and one of the most knowledgeable Madridistas on the planet. If you are on the network, he is one person you should definitely follow. Ryan is based in the beautiful French city of Montpellier and follows Ligue 1 along with supporting Real Madrid, and hence I thought there wouldn’t be a better person to do a Q and A with, which could then be converted into a Lyon Preview. Without further ado, questions et réponses.

Thanks for taking part in this Q & A. We all know Lyon, they are a familiar opponent to us in recent times. Not a favourable one though. How different are Lyon this year compared to the last time we faced them in February?

Well, for starters, they are playing under a new coach. Claude Puel was fired at the end of last season and it’s Remi Garde, a former player who was working at the club as a director of the academy, who took the job. It was made clear by Jean-Michel Aulas, the president, that the club couldn’t afford to spent big any more and had to go back to a more smart way of signing players. So Aulas opted for a a young coach (although not technically one yet) knowing the club and who wouldn’t have any problem to built his team relying on the academy. Some key players were sold, as it was also important for the club to get money, and Toulalan, Delgado and Pjanic all left the club. In the same time, several players of the academy got promoted (Faure, Sidy Koné, Lacazette…) and the club also bought some young players like Bakary Koné, a Centre Back coming from Guingamp (Ligue 2), Mouhamadou Dabo a Left Back, ex Sevilla and Gueida Fofana, a Defensive midfielder, captain of France U20 and coming from Le Havre (Ligue 2). The latter has apparently been watched by Mourinho for a while.

With that in mind, the squad hasn’t changed that much but Garde decided to trust some players that Puel saw more as backups or alternatives, while also bringing some fresh blood. Now, Kallstrom, Briand & Gomis are regular starters while Koné is the only new player who got into the starting XI. On the field, it’s still a rigorous team who works a lot and know how to defend as a unit, but Garde is trying to install a more offensive mentality. They ‘play’ more and are more adventurous. Garde quickly settled a 4-4-2 with Lisandro Lopez as the support striker, but since his injury, nobody hasn’t been able to perform the same role as well and Garde decided to add a 3rd central midfielder, changing the shape to a 4-3-3 / 4-5-1. Even with this change, they tend to built a lot from the wings though (even more since Lopez is injured) which can make them a bit predictable. But they are more comfortable while in possession and tend to move more around the player having the ball. The rest hasn’t really changed so far. They’re still dangerous on set pieces and know how to play quick devastating counter attacks, like us.

 

How have they started the Ligue 1 this season? February onwards is a tougher time to play opponents in Europe, I believe we’re facing them at a right time. Do you think that is correct?

They started quite well, better than i would have thought. Right now, they 3rd on the table, 1 point behind PSG and only have lost one game against… PSG.

We are facing them in a good time, but mainly because we won’t have to deal with Lisandro and Gourcuff, at least not at 100%. Otherwise i think both team are in better condition that they would have been in February.

 

 

From what I have read, Bastos is having a good season so far. I thought we were blessed with him not being available for the second leg. He is a tricky player. Do you believe he will be the biggest threat?

He is having a great season and will definitely be a big threat. He has scored 4 times and delivered 4 assist in the League so far and is probably the player with the biggest impact on their game. He initiates plays, finishes them, takes free-kicks (scored a nice one against Nancy just last week-end), work a lot on his wing… Really, he’s in a impressive form. L’équipe ranks him as the best player of the League so far, just in front of Pastore and I have to agree with them.

 

What’s going on with Gourcuff? For the moment, and his career? Also, coming from a Frenchman’s perspective do you reckon he will play an important role (if at all) in the Euros?

It’s kind of a long story but i try to shorten it. Right after Bordeaux crashed in the second part of the 2009/2010 season, he was, as the team at the time, in a poor mental state, and entered a period of disbelief. He joined Lyon in the summer to start things over, but the team wasn’t doing well and he had trouble to find his place on the pitch as well as dealing with the pressure of his transfer (~25M€). The rest of the story is a bit Kaka-esque. He had several little injuries and then a big one, forcing him to go go through surgery and missing the pre season. Few weeks ago, he got back on training and played almost 50 minutes last week-end against Nancy, after 5 month of absence. Right now, he’s on the process of regaining the rhythm of the competition.

Regarding the French NT, i’am not sure yet. He’s been out of shape and then injured for a long time, but Blanc always trusted him and knows him very well from Bordeaux. The next friendly games will give us more informations.

 

What sort of a lineup can we expect from Lyon? And tactics? And who should we keep an eye out for?

 

It’s a good question. With Grenier, Pied and Lisandro out, Garde has to make a serious choice. He could start Gourcuff in the head of the midfield an going with a 4-5-1, but the Frenchman just got back and could suffer if the game was played on a high tempo, not mentioning the risk to getting injured again. Ederson who can play on the wing and in the centre is also in the same situation. He was badly injured on the knee in mid July and just got back. Also still early, i think.

Garde could put a more negative side and reverse the triangle in the midfield, in order to use a spare man in front of the defence. Here, Gonalons could to the job, while Kallstrom and Fofana would play more upfront, to initiate counter attacks and the pressure. There is also the option of the 4-4-2, with Lacazette, Belfodil, or even Briand as the supporter striker, but I can’t see Garde going back to this idea, since he put it aside in Ligue 1 a few weeks ago.

My opinion is that Garde will go with the 4-3-3 switching to a 4-1-4-1 in defensive phase.

Lloris

Reveillere Koné Lovren Cissokho

Gonalons

Fofana Kallstrom

Bastos Briand

Gomis

 

As of what players we should be careful about, i would say without a doubt Gomis and Bastos. They are leading the side right now and are in a very good form. I was chatting with a friend a couple of days ago and i randomly threw a number trying to estimate on how many goals they were involved. My guess was 70%, and i was close, though it’s actually a bit more, ~ 74%. Makes quite clear how important they are in this Lyon side.

 

What do you feel of Real Madrid’s season so far? Who are the standout performers and who has gone down a step?

I think we should have started better, specially after the good performance the team offered during the Supercup. My feeling is that the team got affected by what happened at the end of the game at the Camp Nou and had trouble to deal with it. A shame in my opinion because, we could have been few points ahead of Barca right now and capitalise on our advanced shape.

The players who standout in these first month of competition in my opinion were Benzema, Ronaldo, Kaka and Xabi. I feel Like Benzema was the best player in the team for a few weeks while Ronaldo and Kaka also were doing well. Xabi, despite not being in a good shape, was doing a good job in my opinion and maintain a good level despite the fatigue.

In the other hand, i’ve been disappointed by Carvalho, Di Maria and Ramos. Carvalho gives me bad sensations right now and i think he may be losing his football in a quick and brutal manner. His positional sense, his decision making, his tackles… All have been questionable lately. About Di Maria, i though his decision making was particularly poor in the last couple of weeks and in my opinion, it came from the fact that he had accumulated a lot of mental fatigue. He probably needed to have a bigger break between the Copa America and the pre season and i think he suffered from this lack of rest. I think he’s doing better since coming from the bench though and is properly getting back to a better form.

About Ramos, errr. It’s just about Ramos playing as RB. I don’t like him there and i think he has a much better future as a CB. The rest of the players have been Ok imo, though some like Ozil and Marcelo have been close to the ones going down.

 

Do you like this counter attacking set up that we are turning into? We do get lovely goals, but I am sure you agree with me in saying we need to get more control in the midfield. What do you think on this?

I like the counter attacking style. One of my favourite side in the recent years is the Netherlands NT who featured in the 2008 European Championship. They were absolutely brilliant on counter attacks and a joy to watch for me. Regarding RM, i don’t have any doubt about the team being capable of pressing high and taking the control of the game. We saw it several times, as in the Supercup, and it worked quite well, which means that it’s a question of choice. My suspicion is that Mourinho is waiting to get Sahin back and in good shape to go back to the more pressuring and controlling approach. In the meantime, we rely a lot on players like Ozil, Benzema or Di Maria to beat teams who play deep, compact lines, as Levante or Santander.

 

 

I remember one of your tweets where you wondered why people are doing this Benzema v Higuain debate, and that two top quality strikers in form is the best thing a squad can ask for. I’d love to hear your elaborate views on this.

With Benzema and Higuain being young players who can improve and evolve a lot, there is plenty of rooms for discussions but I feel that the debate has taken too much space though. If you think about it with some distance and imagine that this situation happens in an other team, you will probably think that this precise team is lucky, and it’s the case. For a coach too, it’s always better to have more options to win a game. It’s good that Mourinho can bring Benzema if he want to create more danger between the lines and add a good passer as well as an associative player in the last meters. And it’s also good that he can bring Higuain in if he wants to exploit space behind the back or the defence or if he feels that the game calls for a more opportunistic player upfront. Last season, we had either one or the other, and as they were going into bad phases or were injured, there was an enormous pressure on Ronaldo. This season, this question probably won’t exist and the winner is the team.

 

Regarding the Lyon match, what’s your take on a starting lineup? And what tactics we should be using?

I expect a very similar team to the one who played against Betis, with a couple of changes. First, Khedira playing instead of Lass in the midfield and second, Di Maria taking the place on Ozil on the right. As i see Lyon, i think it will be important to stretch the play a lot and have someone playing near the touch line. In that sense, i feel like Di Maria is a better option than Ozil. He’ll be more comfortable in 1vs1 or 1vs2 situations and will offer a better defensive performance than the German. Of course, Ozil could be used in his usual role, but i think that Mourinho will try to capitalise on the form of Kaka and see what he can do in this type of game. Same goes for Higuain who doesn’t seem to be the best option for this type of game, but who is literally flying right now.

In terms of strategy, i would say quite simply: stretch the play. Make the field as widest as possible and play one touch football as much as possible between the lines, to find space and create panic in Lyon half. I think they’ll have a spare man at the back, so we probably won’t have a lot of opportunities to take long range shot, but it could be a solution too and we know that Kaka is good in this exercise. Of course if we have the opportunity, we should also try to kill them with counter attacks, but that’s a bit an obvious one. In any case, it may be a game requiring patience. The team has improved on that matter so i’am not really worried but i’ would like to see us pass the ball calmly if there aren’t solutions. There is nothing wrong with taking the lead after 1 hour in in the game, at least that’s what i think.

 

Do you think this will be the year we can finally get a win at the Stade de Gerland?

Good question. If i remember well, we were close last season, if not for a Gomis late equaliser. We know that Mourinho and the players want to secure the qualification as quick as possible, so i guess if they really want to, it will be done. The game in the Bernabeu will give us good informations on that question.

 

Thanks again for taking part, if there’s anything else important you might want to share with us that I may have not asked please do so.

Well, thanks for thinking of me to make this Q/A. I hope everyone will enjoy reading it and find some interesting stuff in it. If not, you can blame Kaushik for asking the wrong person. Keep up the good work on the blog, you guys are doing a great job, and good game to everyone. HALA MADRID !

Haha! I am quite sure there isn’t a better option. Those were great insights on Lyon as well as Real Madrid. Merci, again, Ryan.