The 2021-2022 Ligue 1 season opens on Friday evening with the Monaco-Nantes poster.

After the coronation of Lille the previous season, PSG, which has strengthened considerably, will want to regain its good.

But it will also be necessary to take into account the contribution of foreign coaches, in particular in Lyon and Marseille.

DECRYPTION

Monaco-Nantes.

Here is the very first poster of the new season of Ligue 1, which therefore opens Friday evening on the Rock.

The 2020-2021 championship had given birth to a huge surprise, with the coronation of Lille in front of PSG, ultra-favorite.

Despite a change of coach and an upheaval in its workforce, will the Losc keep its rank?

Revenge and strong of a five-star recruitment, will PSG crush the championship?

As for the underdogs, OM and OL, headed by two foreign coaches, will they live up to the offensive game promised?

Christophe Galtier, the great architect of the Lille title, will he do it again in his new club, Nice?

And who are the recruits to watch out for?

These are the five questions to which Europe 1 provides some answers.

Lille will he keep its rank?

Unexpected French champion in May and winner of the Champions Trophy on Sunday against Paris SG (1-0), Lille is undoubtedly in a positive spiral. But many uncertainties weigh on the shoulders of the Mastiffs, while the financial situation of the club is still not cleaned up and the summer transfer window is not over. In addition, the miracle worker coach Christophe Galtier, great architect of the title, did not want to continue the adventure, and preferred to put his bags in Nice. And his replacement, Jocelyn Gourvennec, appointed to everyone's surprise, has as only reference to the position of technician a victory in the Coupe de France in 2014 and a journey to the 16th finals of the Europa League in 2015, at each time with Guingamp.

So inevitably, the new coach of Losc will bet on continuity. In preparation matches as in the Champions Trophy (won against PSG), it is in the 4-4-2 used by his predecessor that the former Bordeaux technician has arranged his men. With, as a common thread, the ability to alternate pressing and defense together. Still, the workforce is not yet consolidated. Lille must sell to balance its accounts. Renato Sanches, Jonathan Ikoné, Jonathan Bamba and others will not be accepted in the event of a satisfactory offer.

Hence a certain caution on the part of Jocelyn Gourvennec.

During his induction at the beginning of July, the new coach of the Mastiffs had not mentioned a ranking objective.

Its president, Olivier Létang, was more direct: "We want to qualify every year for a European competition."

So finish in the top 5 ... or win a Cup.

But to keep the title of champion of France would be a colossal feat.

PSG and its stars will they crush the season?

PSG's season has not started under the best auspices, and the defeat against Lille (1-0) on August 1 at the Champions Trophy reminded the capital club that recruiting is not winning. And let slip a cut that PSG monopolized since 2013 is a stain in view of its immense resources. Suffice to say that Mauricio Pochettino starts the season with a lot of pressure on the shoulders.

For his first summer in the capital, "Poche" tried to infuse his philosophy of ball movement and pressing, helped by an XXL recruitment allowed by the financial boost from the ambitious Qatari owner of the club. PSG therefore attracted two former Champions League winners, Spanish defender Sergio Ramos and Dutch midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum, as well as the best player of the last Euro, Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and one of the best full-backs in the world, the Moroccan Hakimi. At the same time, Neymar has extended his contract until 2025, Angel Di Maria until 2022 and Kylian Mbappé, whose lease expires next June, is still Parisian for the time being.

This armada must, on paper, work on Ligue 1. But the failure of the Champions Trophy reminds Pochettino that the work is far from over.

And the Mbappé case, which has not yet been extended, will continue to feed the chronicle in the coming weeks ...

Welcome to Paris @ gigiodonna1 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/pVcV8bW0f4

- Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_inside) August 5, 2021

Are foreign coaches going to revolutionize the championship?

This is one of the peculiarities of this 2021-2022 season: a number of foreign coaches will sit on the Ligue 1 team bench. In particular among the underdogs Lyon, Marseille and Monaco, and among the seriously injured, Bordeaux, traumatized by a complicated sale.

Peter Bosz, the Dutch method.

In

Lyon

, the main mission of Rudi Garcia's successor, Peter Bosz, is to regain the Champions League, an objective missed last season. The former Ajax coach arrives at OL after two mixed experiences in Germany, first at Borussia Dortmund and then at Bayer Leverkusen. The site is sizeable for Bosz, who will have to reconstruct an orphan attack by his compatriot Memphis Depay, who left for FC Barcelona. "I need time," warned the Dutch technician Monday in an interview with AFP, refusing to set a "specific goal". Its first mission will be to conquer the supporters thanks to an attractive game, turned towards the attack.

Jorge Sampaoli, for a Marseille renewal.

Satisfied by a transfer window in line with his requirements, the hot Argentine coach of

Marseille

Jorge Sampaoli must live up to his first full season in Ligue 1 with Marseille, to materialize the ambitions of his management and finally shine in Europe. The time has come to write a happier story with the Marseille club, which sticks to the DNA of this offensive game enthusiast with a fiery temperament. The ingredients are in any case united to bring back a smile to the supporters: a Stade Vélodrome once again invested by the fans (even in limited capacity), a president Pablo Longoria on the same wavelength as his technician and above all a promising transfer window.

Despite limited resources, OM has hired several young "nuggets": Arsenal French midfielder Mattéo Guendouzi (22), Turkish winger Cengiz Ünder (23), Argentinian defender Leonardo Balerdi (22), French defender William Saliba (20), American winger Konrad De La Fuente (20) and especially Brazilian midfielder Gerson (24) (

see below

) have joined the Commanderie training center. It is however only on the lawn that the supporters will judge the impact of "Sampa", whose main feat as a technician remains a success in Copa America in 2015 with the Chilean selection.

Nilo Kovacs to confirm.

Third in Ligue 1 last season,

AS Monaco

wants to "perpetuate at European level", as claimed by its vice-president Oleg Petrov, who relies on a stabilized workforce to return to the Champions League in September. Champion in 2017, on the verge of relegation two years later, ASM now seems to have regained stability, thanks to the foundations laid last year by the arrival of Paul Mitchell as sporting director and especially the coach Niko Kovac.

Last season, Monaco made a successful comeback phase, with a 3rd place at the end and a Coupe de France final (lost to PSG) which bear the mark of Kovac, whose principles, between evolving system (4-2- 3-1 in the defensive phase, 3-5-2 in the offensive phase) and high pressing, were convincing.

Vladimir Petkovic, recovery mission.

 By attracting until 2024 the experienced coach Vladimir Petkovic, who comes out of a successful Euro with Switzerland, the new

Girondins de Bordeaux

boss

Gerard Lopez legitimizes his plan to take over a club at half mast by sending a strong signal. The Swiss coach, aged 57, including seven at the head of the 'Nati'. Recognized as a fine psychologist, he is seen as the main architect of the renewal of the Swiss selection, stopped on penalties by Spain in the quarter-finals of the Euro (1-1 ap, 3-2 tab), after to have taken out France in the round of 16 (3-3 ap, 5-4 tab).

The Swiss coach has in any case aroused astonishment in the country according to the newspaper

Le Matin

, which stressed that Bordeaux had "nothing of a great European club or a prestigious address".

There is no doubt that he has received guarantees on the competitiveness of his future group in order to achieve the goal set by Lopez: a place in the first half of the table at the end of his first season, then Europe in three years.

Christophe Galtier will he succeed in his bet in Nice?

Sacred with Lille in the spring, Christophe Galtier headed south this summer, to Nice: symbol of the Aiglons' ambitions after a disappointing season, the coach has yet to finish building a team in his image, a delicate exercise. At 54 years old, Galtier the Marseillais, who has signed up for three seasons, knows he is expected to build his classic 4-4-2 at the height of the recruitment already engaged (36 million euros). The exercise is delicate: ninth last season, the Aiglons have known two different coaches, Patrick Vieira and Adrian Ursea, and the workforce, very rejuvenated because of the absence of internationals and injuries.

Galtier benefits in any case from a huge aura, thanks to the magnificent title of champion of France with Lille.

However, the technician has work to do and the players will have to deal with his temperament.

Are the star recruits going to be up to the task?

From the superstar Sergio Ramos to the returning Kevin Gameiro via the revenge Alexander Nübel, the 2021-2022 season of Ligue 1, which begins on Friday, will see new figures tread the lawns of the French championship.

Fleuron of an XXL recruitment with

Georginio Wijnaldum, Achraf Hakimi

and 

Gianluigi Donnarumma

, one of the best goalkeepers in the world

(like his teammate and future competitor Keylor Navas ...),

Sergio Ramos

brings to the Parisian club his immense experience ... and his share of questions. Affected in the left calf at the end of July, his first appearance in the Parisian jersey is long overdue. He missed the Champions Trophy, lost against Lille (1-0), and the physical form of the 35-year-old defender is questioning after a year punctuated by absences at Real Madrid, with 30 missed matches. 

"Home sweet home": eight years after leaving L1 for La Liga,

Kevin Gameiro

returns home, where he was launched as a pro in 2005 under the colors of Racing club Strasbourg. "Delighted to find this Meinau stadium" which has "given him so much", the center forward passed by Sevilla, Atlético Madrid and Valencia admits to having had "goose bumps on his return" and will have to prove that he has not lost any of his scoring qualities.

"The greatest Brazilian talent of his generation" according to its president Pablo Longoria, the Brazilian

Gerson

is the head of the gondola of the ambitious Marseille transfer window.

Arrived from Flamengo for a transfer estimated at 25 million euros, the 24-year-old relay midfielder is expected at the turn, two years after a first mixed experience in Italy with AS Roma and Fiorentina. 

A fast player capable of playing on the wing or in the middle,

Justin Kluivert

hopes to finally break through in Nice and live up to his illustrious father, former center forward Patrick Kluivert.

Barred at AS Roma and after a mixed first loan with RB Leipzig, the Dutchman should find on the Côte d'Azur a more favorable environment for his emergence.

Finally, that the time when

Alexander Nübel

was presented as the successor of Manuel Neuer at Bayern Munich and with the Mannschaft

seems a long way off

.

Since his transfer to the Bavarian ogre in the summer of 2020, from Schalke 04, Nübel has been content with crumbs: a small match in the league, as many in the Cup and two in the Champions League.

But his two-year loan to ASM should give him the opportunity to finally shine, far from the shadow of his compatriot.

The program of the 1st day:

Friday August 6:


(9 p.m.) Monaco - Nantes

Saturday August 7:


(5 p.m.) Lyon - Brest


(9 p.m.) Troyes - Paris SG

Sunday August 8:


(1 p.m.) Rennes - Lens


(3 p.m.) Bordeaux - Clermont


Saint-Etienne - Lorient


Nice - Reims


Strasbourg - Angers


(5 p.m.) Metz - Lille