Ligue 1 Preview - Part 2

Lyon - 3rd Place

Claude Puels first season was in Lyon's eyes, a failure, no trophies, and they will have to qualify for the Champions League.

This has been followed in the off season with some swift action from Jean-Michel Aulas: Aly Cissokho, Michel Bastos and Lisandro Lopez all joining Les Gones for a combined €57m.
3 moves that could all add so much to the side, but also each of them could fail, Bastos follows the footsteps of Bodmer, Makoun and Ketia moving from Lille to Lyon, Keita has been a disappointment and has now moved to Galatasaray, Makoun has been a great success, making the DM position his own, the jury is out whether Michel will be HIT or MISS, if played in the advanced LW position I think he will succeed.

Lisandro Lopez has been a goal machine with Porto, not only in the League but the Champions League, I would be very surprised if he wasn't as successful, a very dangerous striker, has pace and power, not alot of weaknesses a worthy replacement for Karim Benzema.

Cissokho is a player I've not seen alot of, but he comes highly regarded and has shown for Porto in the last season, following the production line of quality fullbacks from Porto (Paulo Ferreira, Boswinga etc).

Lyon will bounce back this year, whether Puel is in charge by the end of the season, I would question.

Edited to add: It looks like Bafetimbi Gomis will be signing from St-Etienne, this makes a tasty partnership with Lopez or a trio of Bastos, Lopez and Gomis upfront as Puel doesn’t have a history of playing 2 strikers.

PREDICTION - 2nd place.

Toulouse - 4th Place

The best piece of news for TFC is that Andre-Pierre Gignac will still be playing his football at the Stadium Municipal this season, for now..... Lyon and Bordeaux have made their interest clear but with Lyon already signing up Gomis and Lopez I’d be surprised if they made a move for Gignac, Bordeuax could still make a bid if Chamakh moves to the Premiership.

Coming into the side are two talented players in Keeper Yohann Pele and Paulo Machado, the later became a big fan favourite for St-Etienne last season and will be a very effective player in Toulouse midfield, Pele is a keeper I have always liked, and he will now have his chance at a bigger team.

The loses of Jeremy Mathieu to Valencia could be noticeable but Toulouse have a lot of talented youngsters Sissoko, Capoue, Ebondo to name a few, and if the team can add more goals to Gignac’s tally European football will again be Toulouse’s aim.

PREDICTION – 5TH Place