LOSC

I was wating to make this post. Because i do not like to put salt in a wound. LOSC played the best away game of the season. We never let you to breath. You can’t play an entire game without the ball. As you noticed, Bouaddi, is not a standard 16 year old. if you come to Lille, let’s have some beers.

My favourite player, I have his number on my jersey. He’s exceptional with the ball, but he lacks experience. His positioning is sometimes a bit off. Last time he started he took two yellow cards. The academy produces truly great players: Chevalier, Bouaddi, Yoro etc. It’s a shame they leave rather fast, and it’s impossible to replace that kind of players.

This is the projected eleven, seems like Fonseca wants to rotate some players. If this eleven is correct, Thiago Santos and Jonathan David rests today. Bouaddi (16 years old) takes Bentaleb’s spot. Probably a smart move to have Aleksandro, Yoro and Diaketé at the pitch. They are all very good on the head, so we can better face your large attackers.

@Vuibrett I know very little about German football. Bentaleb did it ok in Tottenham, but the league was maybe a couple of steps too good for him. In Ligue 1 he’s a very solid player, he did it well in Angers and this season extremely well in LOSC. But of course Ligue 1 is probably 1 step behind Bundesliga, the football is very different as well. But he will for sure be missed on Thursday.

Hi, Sorry for the confusion, Angel Gomes - Benjamin André Angel Gomes normally plays in front of André and Bentaleb, in a 4-2-3-1 system. Gomes has been amazing as 10, and especially his cooperation with David is excellent. As a side note, Andre Gomez was great in LOSC last year, unfortunately, we didn’t have the money to convert his loan to full time contract. He received a too high salary in Everton. So went for Bentaleb instead who is originally from Lille, and he’s been great.

Seems like Nabil Bentaleb is suspended against Sturm Graz. That will weaken LOSC substantially. Now André-Gomes will play DM, that is bad both offensively and defensively for us. This probably means that Cabella, Yazici or Haraldsson will be 10.

Hi @prep0an, To answer the questions: David’s start of the season wasn’t very good. But after the short winter break he’s been the best scorer in Ligue 1. David is a pecualiar player, most of his goals are from 1-3 meters and penalties. He was for example not dominant in any way against a 6th division team. On the other hand, he scores a lot of goals. He lives a lot on his intelligence in the box, not so much on speed, strength or technique. He always finds a way to get away from his defender in the box. I would guess Leny Yoro carries the highest valuation in the team at the moment. This is because the interested clubs (some PL teams, Real and PSG). Edon Zhegrova, Lény Yoro, Lucas Chevalier and Angel Gomes have been our best players seen over the entire season. Edon not so good during the recent month, but he’s viewed by many journalists and experts as the second best player in the league. Maybe all the hype got to his head, that’s maybe why he puts up a worse performance at the moment. Lucas Chevalier is an amazing keeper. I wouldn’t be surprised if he and Yoro actually gets called up for Les Bleus the next time. Rumours say that he already signed for a top PL side for summer 2025, and will be on loan to LOSC next season. Concerning the set pieces, we do not have a very tall team. Therefore, we sometimes have problems on especially defensive corners. However, we also score very often on set pieces. Edon got an amazing serve, and the central defenders plus André and David are very capable players in the box on offensive set pieces. However, it will be interesting to see how we could manage your team that appears to be much taller than ours. Fonseca warned about your aerial strength. The main weakness is our away game. We have a young team that sometimes play a bit naive on away ground. We for example want to dictate the game in Paris against PSG. We push the wing backs very high up in the pitch, leaving lots of room behind them. We also play with a really high defense line, since Yoro is so fast. We usually have problems with teams, especially away, that plays a direct football and target the spaces behind the wing backs. But I think that we will not see a naive LOSC on Thursday. Fonseca played more defensive against Reims, they play a football rather close to what you do. I would expect us to play like in Reims, that we stand a bit lower to avoid counter attacks. Our central block is very good with Yoro-Diakete/Aleksandro, Bentaleb-André. They are difficult to play through. So you should really try to attack on the flanks, behind our wing backs.

We played much more defensive compared to previous away games on Saturday. It was a great game in Reims even that I managed to lose my wallet. We were 1700 Lillois in Reims, so it was like the boys played at home. It seems like Diakete is fit again and probably starts on Thursday together with Yoro in the central defence. Thiago Santos on the right, and probably Gudmundsson on the left. Fonseca somehow sees something in Gudmundsson. Central midfield will be Bentaleb and André behind Gomes. The flanks are the most uncertain. Haraldsson have taken the chance very nicely on our left flank. So I think he starts. Then either Edon or Ounas on the right flank. Edon has not played on top during the last month. No clue what happened there. David will play up front. Fonseca expressed after the game the biggest respect for you guys. He said that you’re a team that presses hard and have guys that are good in the aerial game. So we are not going to Graz with the idea that we will win easy. This will be an even game. I do not think we will play very offensively away. We would be super happy with 0-0 or 1-1.

Schnegg will have two difficult evenings against Edon. This is Edon against Hernandez: LOSC are lucky to have two players that love football more than life. That is Edon and Cabella. Our problem is that we have very few players that love LOSC more than life and their premier league contract. It will only be Chevalier and Bentaleb, that plays for our city and region. Lucas Chevalier is a top chap, we have common friends and he has a LOSC tattoo. PSG wanted to buy him to compete with Donarumma. He told them to fuck off. Lucas Chevalier leaves LOSC summer 2025 for a very good Premier League club, deal is made. Bentaleb is from what used to be a rough area in Lille. Bentaleb is what I heard a bit of a weird person. But he loves LOSC, and you can see it when he plays. He became two levels better when he plays with his heart. In Le Nord, we have two teams. Lens is only 30km away, they fill Boulleart every game 38000. Outside central Lille, everyone supports Lens in the region. Historically, Lens is the miners club, while LOSC is for the factory workers and the Bourgeois. We have a too big stadium for our club. If you sell out tickets on the away stand, just buy next to it. It costs like 10e to get a ticket in Euro games. I’m really interested to see Prass and Otar. They should be great players. I also learned that Schnegg should be top shelf material. Sorry for a bad joke about Schnegg. For you that come to Lille, and are not looking for trouble. I can talk to Eric the owner of the LOSC bar in old town of Lille if you can come before the game. But we do not accept any aggression, racism or bad behaviour. Being drunk is always ok, as long as you are friendly.

Zhegrova has contract until 2026. I hope he stays one more year, there’s some rumours about Leverkusen. But we will not sell if not Edon really wants to leave. This summer we have to sell Leny Yoro and Jo David. Their contract expires 2025. that should hopefully give us up to 100million. Our economy is shit negative equity of -30mil. Hopefully, we can extend the contract of Angel Gomes. If not we have to sell him too. The space for the away supporters is usually between 1000-2000 supporters. The good thing for you in Lille is that our supporters are very friendly compared to Lyon, Lens, PSG and Marseille. So you never have to be worried to wear your colours in Lille.

Thank you for the kind words. Diakete is a great player, but he’s been injured and just returned. It is not so certain that he will be in the starting 11 when back. Thiago Santos has been amazing this season on the right back and Yoro -Aleksandro plays well together in the center. Umtiti, has been injured for a big part of the season and played very few minutes. He had a surgery recently. Yazici is good. But it is difficult to place him on the pitch. We play 4-2-3-1 He sometimes start as a centre forward. But I prefer David there. Angel Gomes is better as 10. I beleive you play a type of football that fits us very badly. This will be an even game. No one in Lille that knows football is happy with this draw. The key will be for you to win home and then park the bus in Lille.

If you play a more direct type of football there’s usually space behind our wing backs (Tiago Santos and Ismaily), they push really far up. Our defence line also stands very high, since Leny Yoro is extremely fast. So there’s really little space to play a possession based football against us. If you want to beat us, you should check how PSG played a couple of weeks ago. They gave up possession and the central midfield to only play on the flanks. You should also double or triple on Edon Zhegrova. All Ligue 1 teams at least play two guys on him. L’équipe called him the second best player in Ligue1. Our offensive game is concentrated on trying to get Edon one on one with the defender. Our left flank is much weaker. At the moment we play Adam Ounas there, Remy Cabella hasn’t been that great this season. I think you need to win at home to beat us. At Pierre Mauroy very few teams can manage us for 90 minutes. i hope there will be lots of people at the stadium. In the group stage it was rather empty. But we had a really boring group. In the league it is usually around 40000 people. Hopefully it can be something like that the 14.3 as well.

Hi, You are all very welcome to Lille. Let me know if you have any questions about our team, city how to easiest get here etc. We play a possession based football, where the entire team is rather skilled. Our best players are Chevalier (goalkeeper), Leny Yoro (central defender), Angel Gomes (10) and Edon Zhegrova (right winger). We are not a rich club, 7th budget in the league. But we are the club with the highest net transfer value in Europe during the last 10 years. The academy is great so you will see some of the upcoming stars. The problem is that we sell every good player. Leny Yoro is in talks with Real Madrid, Chevalier with some top English clubs and Jonathan David (not so good this year) with Manchester United. Our away game has been really weak this season. Only two victories against Lyon and Le Havre. However, we only lost 2 games at home in over two years (PSG 2022 and Reims 2023). So you really need to get a good result with you from home. which type of football do you play? The teams we have the biggest problem with is playing more direct type of football. To get to Lille, you easiest fly to CDG or Brussels. From CDG there’s a direct TGV (takes 50min), from Brussels airport there’s a bus, takes 1h20 min. See you Lille, you are very welcome to come here. cheers, Magnus