On the left Aouar, on the right Paqueta -
Thibault Camus / AP / SIPA
OL once again have a dominant midfielder with the Aouar-Paqueta-Mendes trio.
Garcia can also count on two luxury replacements with Caqueret and Bruno Guimaraes.
Good news for the credit of sports director Juninho, at the origin of the arrival of his three compatriots.
At the Parc des Princes,
Lyon fans ramble a little less on their glory years, because they are starting to smell of mothballs and the grandchildren have not yet been born.
But finally there was a penalty on Nilmar, and this Diarra-Essien-Juninho midfielder, it was something, eh the gones?
The reason for this whiff of nostalgia: the three-way Lyon midfielder as he was taught to newborns before baptism gradually gave up all his power in the 2010s, in favor of an increasing improvisation of collective principles of the Lyon game.
Genesio had his good sides for example, but with him, Lyon's DNA turned into a happy mess more or less organized according to the matches.
The mastery of the environment had become secondary, and it was not for lack of good gear (Ndombélé, Tolisso and others).
Not for nothing that we could still hear some old croutons hanging on the branches of the 4-4-2 diamond at a time instituted by Garde, when Gourcuff and Grenier were up at the same time, which happened less often than a solar eclipse.
The boom years have established this idea that in Lyon, you have to play football well, and that to play football well, you need a three-way player who leads the orchestra.
Ten years later, well even fifteen, we have a track.
OL once again have the sexiest chocolate midfielder on the peninsula.
In any case, this is what we thought very strongly when we saw the Aouar-Paqueta-Mendes trio torpedoing the self-esteem of that of the camp opposite.
Each in his role played a delicious score.
Aouar, the king of the interior left half space.
We don't really know what that means ourselves, but everyone sees the idea.
The Franco-Algerian milieu, diminished by the Covid and undoubtedly disturbed by this aborted transfer to Juve, has gone through two complicated months.
But when he reaches his physical plenitude, that he positions himself between the opposing lines and that he gently stretches the defensive block, mama mia what a player and what regret that Deschamps does not consider him in his middle three, even whether it would be necessary to share the place with Rabiot.
Mendes, the return of the threat
The former Lille took full face last season, wondering if the transfers between Losc and OL do not come under money laundering, sometimes (hello Kader Keita).
Thiago Mendes did not stall, he worked, and he has become the number ten reference for Garcia.
In confidence, he is the one who reads the best and the spaces, and he is a plane physically, otherwise he would not have gone out on Neymar in the 95th minute for this tackle that we hope without too many consequences.
Paqueta, the man who rehabilitates the sole
Landed like a hair in the soup to replace an Aouar finally still at the club, Paqueta had a good 20-plate flop header after a contrasting Milan experience.
It is quite the reverse.
The Brazilian no longer comes out of the eleven, adopted by the group for his starving boxer grinta and acclaimed by Garcia for his ease in keeping the ball.
When he puts the ball under his left-handed sole and wraps around the defender, Marcelo is already leaving his defense for the free kick that will follow.
A little annoying all the time, but what a player.
The most beautiful in there?
We have not yet spoken of the two midfielders who carried OL to the semi-finals of the Champions League last summer.
Bruno Guimaraes and Maxence Caqueret, entered at the end of the match at the Parc to help keep the result.
The first had changed the face of the club last winter before stalling a bit physically (but it's getting better), and the second has few equivalents in its quality harassing the opposing armies.
The king's choice for Rudi Garcia, which we launched on the subject in the amphitheater of the Parc des Princes:
“I agree with you, we have excellent players in the heart of the game, it's no coincidence that you play with three midfielders.
Obviously, we have the luck or the bad luck of being able to work all week on preferential circuits or combined trips.
In addition, among these players, there are not really similar profiles.
They are rather complementary, with different qualities, even if the only 100% defensive midfielder is Thiago and that is why it was important that he be there tonight ”.
At other times, those before Covid, we would have gone to ask Juninho for his opinion.
The Brazilian sporting director has not been successful in his new role, but the arrival of Paqueta, Mendes and Guimaraes has to be credited to him at the same time.
He too must have had a little nostalgia when he came back.
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