• Lille receives Reims this Wednesday (7 p.m.) on behalf of the 7th day of Ligue 1.

  • An already important match for Mastiffs badly embarked at the start of the season

From one season to the next, the Losc has taken a roller coaster ride.

Amazing champion of France last May, the northern club is only a shadow of itself a few months later.

Fifteenth in Ligue 1 after six days, Lille have won only one match and have already lost three times, as much as the whole of last season.

More broadly, the Mastiffs are making their worst start to the season for twenty years.

Beaten on Saturday in the derby, the Losc continues to sink.

What to wonder who are responsible for this bad start when Reims appears this Wednesday (7 p.m.) at the Pierre Mauroy stadium in an already capital match.

Gourvennec at the center of criticism

It's not easy to succeed Christophe Galtier on the Losc bench.

Appointed coach to everyone's surprise last July, Jocelyn Gourvennec had been coldly received by supporters who were very skeptical of seeing a coach with a poorly provided CV landed.

Two months later, criticism intensified in view of the Mastiffs' failed start to the season.

Proof that the situation is complicated, José Fonte, captain of Losc, rushed to the aid of his coach on Tuesday at a press conference.

“It's difficult for the coach but he works a lot to give us instructions and work well. It is up to us to give him this victory, this confidence, this tranquility. He's a very professional person. He's a good coach. The critics are unfair because he gives everything. He does everything possible to give us the best to win a match, ”responded the Lille defender.

Anyone who landed wanting to follow in the footsteps of Galtier, his predecessor, necessarily suffers from the comparison.

Gourvennec has not yet succeeded in imposing his paw.

And not sure that we give him time for the transplant to finally take.

Because the technician is already playing big.

If he does not manage to straighten the bar during the four games that arrive before the international break (Reims, Strasbourg, Salzburg, Marseille), the question of his maintenance will inevitably arise.

Létang is not popular with players

If Gourvennec concentrates media attention in his capacity as coach, Olivier Létang, president of the club since last December, is no stranger to the failed start to the season.

By going to a standoff with Nice at the end of the season to obtain compensation following the departure of Galtier, the manager certainly got what he wanted (4M €) but above all he lost a lot of time.

While Létang, Galtier and Nice settled their accounts, the identity of the new Lille coach was still pending.

The staff even resumed training at the end of June without knowing the name of their new coach or the future staff.

Having left for an internship in the Netherlands, the northerner group finally learned of the appointment of Gourvennec on July 5 when the preparation had already started.

Beyond this late appointment, Olivier Létang does not benefit from an incredible love rating in the Lille locker room. Guided by a complicated economic context, the non-payment of collective bonuses for the league title has annoyed many even if the discussions continue. More recently, the media release of the president in La Voix des Sports has not passed. Asked about the title of last season, Létang summed up in his own way the performance of Lille.

“Last year, Losc won twelve games by one goal.

Twelve matches!

There is nothing between winning by a goal and losing by a goal.

In the elements we have in terms of data, because we follow everything, the LOSC should have finished fourth.

We have outperformed ”.

A frank analysis, but one which greatly displeased internally.

Because the players had the feeling that their president was minimizing their incredible feat.

Less successful players

With the departure of only two holders (Maignan and Soumaré), the Lille workforce has not been transformed this summer. Except that the champions of France, impeccable last season, have been in difficulty since the resumption. Basis of the Northerner success in the title, the Fonte-André-Yilmaz spine is clearly a tone below. The same goes for players who wanted to leave this summer without having managed to find a taker (Ikoné, Bamba, Xeka…) Less efficient, less solid defensively, Losc is fishing in all areas. As if unconsciously, the Northerners were experiencing a post-title decompression.

Behind this drop in performance, the workforce also seems to have fewer resources than last season.

If Lille did not lose a lot of players, it did not strengthen enormously either.

Only three recruits (Grbic, Onana, Gudmunsson) have come to strengthen a club which must play on both counts (Ligue 1 and Champions League).

And among the reinforcements, only Grbic, who replaced Maignan in goals, currently holds.

Less provided, the workforce is also more affected than last season by the injured like Renato Sanches and Jonathan Bamba in the infirmary for several weeks.

To believe that the Losc lost its mojo from last year.

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