Ligue 1 promises
to be another entertaining league this season. France’s top flight is full of
talented players and strong football clubs and fans of the French league will
hope for a close title race, battle for European places and a tight relegation
battle. Defending champions PSG are changing their footballing style and philosophy
but will be overwhelming favourites for the title once again and you’d have to be
brave to bet against them but the likes off Monaco, Lyon and Marseille will
challenge them hard and you never know a surprise could be around the corner.
As
previously discussed, PSG have a new manager in the highly rated Thomas Tuchel.
Having taken over from Klopp at Dortmund, Tuchel had some success and now he
must put all that into PSG. However, it shouldn’t be too difficult with the quality
of players like Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Marco Verratti and Gianluigi Buffon at
his disposal. The real ambition is to win the Champions League and Tuchel will
be under pressure to deliver this immediate desire. However, they will face
severe competition both in Champions League and Ligue 1 and Monaco will run
them close once again. Leonardo Jardim has been a brilliant appointment by
Monaco and once again he is faced with his best players leaving for bigger
clubs including Thomas Lemar and Fabinho. These will be hard to replace but as
they proved last season, they will still be competitive and Jardim will be
determined to keep Monaco’s good momentum and try to win a second title in
charge of the club. However, PSG and Monaco will certainly face competition
from a rejuvenated Lyon and Marseille. Bruno Genesio has got an exciting Lyon
team with Nabil Fekir the pick of their talented crop and they will cause problems,
but they did struggle for consistency last season and Genesio will hope they
can sustain a title charge. Similarly, like Genesio, Rudi Garica has done an excellent
job at Marseille guiding them to 4th place and a Europa League final
in his first full season and their aim will be to return to Europe’s top
competition however, they like Lyon, will also feel they can challenge for
title and they will need consistency if they are to achieve this. It could be a
very interesting title race in Ligue 1 with 4 teams expected to battle it out
and it could spring a few surprises.
However,
below the top 4 sides, there are another crop of teams hoping to get into the
Europa League and possibly dream of the Champions League. Nice certainly fit
this bracket and they will head into the new season with a new manager in
Patrick Vieira and a loss of key stars Alassane Plea and Jean Michael Seri.
While they could struggle to replace them, Vieira will make sure Nice are
competitive for the new season and Europa League football will surely be their
aim after missing out completely last season. Similarly, St Etienne will also
be targeting a return to the European stage. The Green and Whites struggled
under Oscar Garcia during the first half of the campaign. However, Jean Louis
Gasset revitalised the entire football club and they charged up the league table
and a return to Europe will certainly be high on their targets this season.
However, one side that did reach the Europa League is Rennes who had a magnificent
season and finished in 5th place and Sabri Lamouchi will want Rennes
to seize their opportunity in Europe and in domestic terms sustain their place
in top 6. There will be an air of excitement in Rennes as their will be in Bordeaux.
Gus Poyet came into Bordeaux without anybody really expecting much despite the
club having a talented, young side but they managed to secure a place in the
Europa League qualifying rounds and that is nothing short of excellent.
However, the loss of prized asset Malcom will be a huge blow, but the club will
stay strong and be looking out attacking reinforcements to sustain their chance
in Europa League and charge the top 3 for a place in the Champions League.
Mid table mediocrity
is usually very satisfactory for most clubs and Montpellier are the definition
of mid table. Michel Der Zakarian has done a good job in his first season in
charge of the club and although they took points of the better teams, they
struggled against smaller clubs and consequently missed out on the Europa League
and hence finished mid table. However, they will have ambition of returning to
the Europa League. Similarly, Nantes also fit this argument and like Montpellier
they were in the upper echelons of the table and did take points of the bigger
sides but struggles against arguably weaker opposition. However, they head into
a new era under the stewardship of the highly rated Miguel Cardoso following
Claudio Ranieri’s sacking. Cardoso is ambitious as is Nantes’ owner and they
will certainly be targeting a place in the Europa League with a top half finish
being the minimal requirement for the season. In contrast, Lille have been a
constant side in Ligue 1 for several years and following their takeover last
year, it looked like things would improve however, with FFP investigations and
a transfer embargo, the club struggled against relegation and just about escaped
in the final few weeks of the season. The club will be hoping for a much more
comfortable, stable season under Christophe Galtier and he has bulked up his squad
while losing assets like Ibrahim Amadou and Yves Bissouma. Continuity will be
something the Lille fans will want this season as a top half finish will be
their expectation and will be praying they avoid the scrap for survival.
In contrast,
other clubs like Dijon and Guingamp will be delighted to still be in France’s
top flight. Olivier Dall’Oglio has done an excellent job at Dijon and has plenty
of talent at his disposal including Chang-Hoon Kwon and they will hope to keep
him at the club because he is at the heart of everything good at Dijon. They
will be confident of avoiding the relegation battle and a top half finish will be
high on their agenda for the new season. Similarly, Antoine Kombouare has brought
an exciting style to Guingamp and so far in his two seasons in charge comfortably
made Guingamp competitive and mid table finishers and again this will be their
minimum requirement for the season, but the fans will hope the club can
challenge further and surprise a few teams by pinching a place in Europe next
season. They will dare to dream but mid table would represent another excellent
season for the club. Angers will hope for the same in the new season. Angers
were very inconsistent during the previous season but when they did find form,
they were a difficult team to control and they survived relegation once again
and under Stephane Moulin have established themselves as Ligue 1 regulars and
keeping that status will represent another successful season for the club.
The battle
to avoid relegation will be as intense as ever and there will be a crop of
teams hoping to avoid the scrap for survival and certainly Amiens and Strasbourg
fit this bracket. Both clubs are gearing up for just their 2nd ever
Ligue 1 seasons and the jobs done by both Christophe Pellissier and Thierry
Laurey is nothing short of magnificent. Both clubs have talented players and
the managers will hope second season syndrome doesn’t kick in because their main
aim will surely be survival and anything above that is a pure bonus and a
delight for fans. Also, the fans of Toulouse must be sick and tired of battling
against relegation because for the past 2 seasons, Toulouse have survived through
the relegation play offs and surely, they can’t get lucky for a third time. The
fans will expect more this season and will Mickael Dubeve delivers a season
where the club isn’t fighting against relegation because mid table will surely
be their ambition this season. Finally there is Caen, a small football club who
are enjoying each season as it goes by and following the departure of Patrice
Granade, they have a new manager in the unknown, unproven Fabian Mercadal who
will want to make a statement in Ligue 1 and survival would be an excellent
season for the club and anything better such as a mid-table or even top half
finish would be nothing short of brilliant for the whole football club.
And finally,
there is 2 promoted sides in Nimes and Reims. Both clubs had brilliant seasons
securing the automatic promotion places with the latter securing the league
title. However, the league will get much tougher for the new boys and both
Bernard Blaquart and David Guion will feel survival is a successful season for
their respective clubs. Both will need to find a winning formula and some luck
along the way if they to achieve their ambitions. Survival will be the main expectation
for both clubs and they will be desperate to prolong their stays in France’s top
flight.
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