This article was first published on footballromance.com (a predecessor to this website) in October 2016.
Team news
Youngster Lucas Tousart once again took the place of suspended skipper Maxime Gonalons in the Lyon midfield, again composed of five players. With top scorer Alexandre Lacazette still on the sidelines, Nabil Fekir led the attack, supported by Mathieu Valbuena, making just his second start in the league this term.
Saint-Etienne boss Christophe Galtier was also beset by a host of injury issues once more, which meant winger Kevin Monnet-Pacquet started at left-back. Ahead of him, teenager Arnaud Nordin was handed his full Ligue 1 debut, while Robert Beric returned to the side up front.
Counter-attacking Lyon’s most dangerous weapon
Despite the fact that Les Verts were happy to surrender possession to their rivals in the early exchanges, a counter-attack produced the first chance for Lyon’s Nabil Fekir inside the opening minute. The hosts’ prowess on the break was evident at various stages of the 90 minutes and rapid transitions after they had won possession could have led to more goals, with Fekir again and Corentin Tolisso passing up particularly good opportunities to find the net.
Fekir and Mathieu Valbuena played fairly similar roles. Both were alert to prevent Saint-Etienne from comfortably playing out from the back, while they were regularly prepared to show for the ball into feet; the issue, however, was that that often left OL without a focal point and/or someone to stretch the play in central areas.
Beric started on his own up front for the visitors, which gave Lyon a significant numerical advantage in that part of the field. Jeremy Morel did nothing spectacular on the ball, but he was often the spare man for Les Gones at the back and was able to start attacks with simple passes out to the flanks.
Space on the flanks for l’OL
Arnaud Nordin and in particular Romain Hamouma took up fairly narrow positions in the opening period, which should have enabled Saint-Etienne to hold their own in midfield. But l’OL initially had little difficultly finding space on the ball in central areas, while there was lots of room for Tolisso and Maciej Rybus to burst into out wide, with both found all alone on numerous occasions with sweeping crossfield passes.
Fekir also had some joy when he moved away from the middle – he easily skipped past Kevin Monnet-Pacquet on one dangerous run into the penalty box and then sped beyond Ole Selnaes to tee up the opening goal for the onrushing Sergi Darder just before half time.
Les Verts’ better organisation in midfield
The goal came when Les Verts had arguably been at their most dangerous, with the introduction of Oussama Tannane for the injured Hamouma brining about an improvement in their play. The latter never seemed to recover from a tough early challenge from Morel, offering Kevin Malcuit next to no defensive protection against the strong runs of Rybus and rarely showing for his full-back when he had the ball. Malcuit made more passes than any other ASSE player in the time Hamouma was on the pitch (via WhoScored?), yet the winger didn’t once pick up possession in a dangerous area of the field.
Tannane, by contrast, put in a telling challenge on Rybus within minutes of coming on, gave Malcuit the option of playing forward passes up the line and was also able to get in support of Beric on a couple of occasions. Vincent Pajot, Jordan Veretout and Bryan Dabo benefited from Tannane – unlike Hamouma – staying out of their way and seemed to understand their own jobs much better as a result, with Lyon afforded much less room for manoeuvre towards the end of the half.
Saint-Etienne’s improvement continued after the break, with Veretout playing a disciplined role in front of the back four, which allowed Pajot and Dabo to take turns in venturing further forward. Both had had sights of goal in the latter stages of the opening period, but by far the best chance came for Pajot minutes after the restart after he had linked up with Alexander Soderlund, who otherwise struggled to get into the game after replacing the equally ineffective Beric.
Monnet-Pacquet’s ventures forward
But Les Verts’ most dangerous threat was Monnet-Pacquet, who showed glimpses of his attack-mindedness in the first half and flourished in the early part of the second. The winger-turned-full-back continuously looked to run beyond Nordin and had some success in doing so; Pajot’s aforementioned chance came from a Monnet-Pacquet cross, while the ex-Lorient man curled an excellent effort against the woodwork having been the spare man at the back post from Malcuit’s ball into the area.
Tolisso, occupied with Nordin, and Emanuel Mammana were easily caught out on several occasions by floated passes in behind them, although Lyon’s resurgence in the final 20 minutes, sparked by a tactical change, gave them some respite and allowed them to close out the victory.
Ghezzal and counters seal the victory
Bruno Genesio’s men offered relatively little going forward in the middle third of the clash, with high balls up to Fekir unsurprisingly yielding nothing and the attacking influences of Tolisso and Rybus stifled. But Rachid Ghezzal replaced Valbuena and played principally on the left, preventing Malcuit from breaking forward with such ease, while Jordan Ferri often shuffled out wide to provide Tolisso with more support against Monnet-Pacquet and Nordin.
Lyon slowly but surely regained control and their considerable counter-attacking ability came back to the fore as they killed off their opponents, who could have been punished more severely for their carelessness in possession. Tolisso twice found himself clean through but was denied by Stephane Ruffier, who also thwarted Fekir after a slack pass had set the attacker and Ghezzal away. But, with just minutes left to play, the Moroccan would eventually capitalise after the Saint-Etienne back four and midfield three had all left a loose pass to one another.
What next?
Les Gones had won just three of the last 14 matches they have played without Lacazette prior to this and had lost back-to-back games, so they will have taken extra satisfaction from a derby win. They broke well after winning possession and could have scored more, although they didn’t create a great deal when they were forced to make the play.
Saint-Etienne can count themselves slightly unfortunate to have nothing to show for their efforts, particularly in the middle third of the contest. The Nordin-Monnet-Pacquet and Malcuit-Tannane partnerships showed signs of promise and Veretout produced a mature display when given more responsibility in the second half, but Galtier continues to struggle to find a system which gets the best out of the strikers he has at his disposal.