LILLE: Who Let the Dogs Back In?

By: Sam | July 20th, 2007

As the start of the season looms, it’s time for the France Offside to give you an in-depth look at each of the 20 teams vying for Hexagoal. Today, we meet Lille OSC, the team that was doing really well until last year.

The team: The transfer gods didn’t smile brightly enough onto the Dogues this summer, seeing as a plethora of players left the club. First and foremost, of course, there’s Mathieu Bodmer and Kader Keita who left to sign with Lyon. Matthieu Chalmé, their versatile fullback went to Bordeaux and Greek international Efstathios Tavlaridis also departed but for Saint-Étienne. To their credit, they did attract young Colombian international Luis Yanes from Independiente Santa Fe and defender Franck Béria from Metz.

LOSC has a dependable keeper in Tony Sylva and an adequate replacement in Grégory Malicki, that’s not priority number one as it’s more or less covered. They also possess some very good defenders such as Grégory Tafforeau and Stefan Lichsteiner, and a few decent ones like Béria, and Nicolas Plestan. But these four boys together don’t make up such an intimidating back four. Regardless of that, their midfield is nothing short of excellent, even without Bodmer and Keita. Jean II Makoun and Ludovic Obraniak have significant Ligue 1 experience, and players like Debuchy, Cabaye and Dumont do nothing to hurt their reputation. Same for the strikers, where Odemwingie is a force although had a bit of an off year, and Youla, Yanes and Mirallas are good as well.

This is a very, very young team. Only Malicki, Sylva and Tafforeau are in their thirties. With another defender or two, they could be very competent.

The coach: Claude Puel is one of the most respected coaches in the league, bar none. Voted best coach in 2006, he’s brought Lille to the Champions League twice in a row (not this time) and has won the Intertoto Cup in 2004. Before, in Monaco, he was instrumental in bringing together the side that went to the final of the Champions League.

The stadium: Lame! While another one, a better one, is underway, Lille is playing in the neighbouring Villeneuve-d’Asq in the tiny Stade Lille Métropole. Seating just under 18,000, Lille had to play in different stadiums when they were hosting UCL matches. As for the supporters, there’s quite a lot of them in that small stadium, so the ratio is pretty formidable, especially if Lens are in town.

The final say: Like I said, they’re that close to having one of the best teams. But they don’t, so I’m picking them to finish around fifth or so.

Also, Lille are also represented on The Offside! Check out Julien’s excellent blog for more on les Dogues.