League 1 The ‘dogos’ have signed the best start in their history and lead by two and three points to Lyon and PSG
EFE and Rafa Casal / BRAND
El Lille Olympique Sporting Club, as if it were Astrix and Oblix, remains irreducible before the ’empire’ of the almighty Paris Saint-Germain. ‘Les Dogues’ dream of winning the League 10 years after winning the third winding in his history with Real Madrid player Eden Hazard as ‘MVP’ of the tournament.
His journey, to date, is almost immaculate. They had never added so many points (54) after 24 days. Hence, they lead Ligue 1 with two points ahead of Lyon, three over PSG and six over Monaco.
The ‘LOSC’ has become strong in adversity. The huge debts – estimated to be around 200 million euros – led to the departure of the hippano-luxemburgus Grard Lpez in December. “My goal was always to straighten the sports field. When I assumed the presidency the team was 17 and now it is the leader. I have achieved the goal. It is time for a new owner to take over,” said the exmandams.
The lack of income from ‘ticketing’ and the breaking of the television rights contract with Mediapro it has not helped.
The investment fund Melvyn Partners took control and put 40 kilos to avoid suspension of payments and end the season. In addition, he appointed Olivier Ltang, former Reims, PSG and Rennes president: “We want to move from a business model to a more measured, more classic one. We have 55 professional players, 17 of them on loan. There are too many.”
The departure of Grard Lpez was accompanied by the resignation of the former blue-born Marc Ingla as CEO – he remains, however, on the Board – and the departure of Luis Campos. The former Lille sports director is the ‘architect’ of this project. In almost four years he signed 79 players and released 73. Sales, among others, of Pp to Arsenal (80) and Osimhen to Naples yielded a profit of 125 million euros.
Fonte, elik, Ikon, Botman, Burak Yilmaz, Writer, Jonathan David, Renato Sanches … The backbone of ‘los dogos’ is ‘made in’ Luis Campos, who has multiplied the value of many of his ‘anonymous’ bets.
“Lille are the big favorites,” said Rudi Garca, Lyon coach. Christophe Galtier, who took the reins in 2018 after Bielsa’s premature goodbye with LOSC 17, denies it: “Public opinion is excited to see PSG in danger. They want there to be a fight because there hasn’t been one in a long time. Being a leader is fun, but my experience tells me there is still a long way to go. I’m not going to fall asleep looking at the rankings. We are the first, but not the favorites. “
His 1-4-4-2 works like a ‘Swiss watch’. Lille are the second least thrashed team in Ligue 1 with 15 goals against and their goalkeeper, Mike Maignan, is the one who has left the goalkeeper to zero the most times (13). That, together with a great efficiency in front of goal (18.39%) has allowed him to chain six victories.
The defense of the ‘bulldogs’ begins with their men on the wing and above. They all bite. No wonder they are the team that recovers the most balls (1,549), the quarter that wins the most duels (2,708) and the team that receives the fewest shots on goal (67).
Lille conquered Ligue 1 2010-11 hand in hand with a luxury trident. Sow (25 + 6), Gervinho (15 + 11) and Eden Hazard (7 + 11) produced 47 goals and 28 assists.
This LOSC is more coral. Burak Yilmaz is Pichichi in Ligue 1 with nine goals, but his top scorer is Yazici. The Turk, a substitute in the League, leads the scorers table of the Europa League with six goals and has 13 among all tournaments.
The good news is that Jonathan David, the most expensive signing (27 million) in the club’s history, has awakened and adds five goals in the last five games.