Despite a fine European campaign punctuated by a round of 16 against Chelsea in the Champions League, tenth place in Ligue 1, a year after the title won by Christophe Galtier, was fatal to the Breton coach, yet highly appreciated by his players but whose style deemed too cautious did not please the shareholders of the northern club.

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One of them, the Italian Alessandro Barnaba, then took matters into his own hands to attract Fonseca, former coach of Porto, Braga, Shakhtar Donetsk and AS Roma, which he had left in the spring of 2021.

The 49-year-old technician then displayed his entry ambition during his presentation conference on June 30: "I am a coach with different ideas. We know that it will take a little time for the club to adapt. to my ideas. We want to have a strong team, with a strong identity, a team that dominates the game, that produces good football. We also want a team that fights until the end, until the last minute, that 'we face PSG or another club."

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"We want to be ambitious"

"We know that the championship is very difficult with a lot of big teams. But we want to be ambitious and make our supporters proud," he added.

Fonseca will however have to make do with a workforce of lesser quality because the time is rather to degrease on the side of the Domaine de Luchin.

The departures of central defender Sven Botman, right-back Zeki Celik and midfielder Renato Sanches, not yet finalized, will be very difficult to overcome.

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Proof that the time is rather austerity, Losc has been reinforced mainly with free players like side Akim Zedadka and midfielders Jonas Martin and Rémy Cabella.

The Mastiffs, however, have ambition and broke their piggy bank to afford the Clermont striker Mohamed Bayo, to replace the Turkish Burak Yilmaz.

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"Many teams will have more resources than us so we approach this season with humility. What I want is a team that has personality, temperament, heart. We are looking for men before players, with this fighting spirit which is very important for us. We will take stock after five matches and then after fifteen matches and the ambition comes as the matches go by, "explained Lille president Olivier Létang.

"The players are listening"

Paulo Fonseca will therefore try to transform the Lille team to make it more dominant and attractive.

He wants his players to play high and control possession.

The beginnings of his method could be observed during the preparation matches organized in Spain.

"I have seen very positive signs regarding what we are working on in training. We have done very interesting things, underlined the Portuguese technician to AFP. We are changing almost everything, it is very different from what they were used to so it will take time to integrate my principles. The road is still long, we still have to improve a lot but the players are listening, working hard and trying things, that's the most important ."

Losc in particular have work to do in defense because they have conceded a lot of goals during friendly matches, especially against, against Bruges (4-3 defeat), Las Palmas (2-2) or Espanyol Barcelona (2- 0).

The Northerners, however, showed clear progress on Friday in the success (1-0) against Cadiz, achieving an attractive first period.

"We still have work to do but the players are making a lot of effort and have understood what we wanted to put in place, the native of Maputo (Mozambique) told AFP. There is still a lack of automation but I am convinced that 'we will be ready for the first match (of the Ligue 1 season, editor's note) against Auxerre."

© 2022 AFP