The match played at the Pierre Mauroy stadium already showed the strengths and weaknesses of Jocelyn Gourvennec’s Lille. The former coach of Guingamp and Girondins does not quite get the hang of the squad that the Lille board gave him in July, when Nice signed the coach who made the Upper France team champion of Ligue 1. With almost the same squad, Lille is twelfth in the French tournament and Nice is second, although at a distance from a PSG that has retaken the hegemony.
Lille, therefore, seem to miss Christophe Galtier, although they maintain a certain structure and a similar game idea. But he doesn’t fuel the midfield and he lacks creativity. He still maintains the physical strength, drive and speed of his three-quarter line. The trio of Jonathan David, Ikone and Bamba deserve special attention from the Sevilla defenders. Renato Sanches, without being a fixture, also acted in that playmaker in the match that tied Sevilla in Lille, a match in which both rivals respected each other more than necessary, although it was Lopetegui’s who sought the victory more without achieving it. .
In that appointment, Bono hardly had to be used in a transfer behind Acuna that his teammates did not see and that reached Renato Sanches. That’s where Lille can really be dangerous, they have speed to break once they steal in the opposite field. On the other hand, he will not be able to count on the veteran Burak Yilmaz (36 years old) as an offensive bulwark. The Turk has a trade to fall to the wings and get the central defenders out of their place, but the main reference in attack stayed in France when he was injured against PSG.
But if he had the top scorer in Ligue 1, as Jocelyn Gourvennec recalled in the previous one. “We must show the quality in attack. Jonathan David is the top scorer in Ligue 1 (8 goals) and has even been able to score more goals, he is in the same dynamic as last season,” he warned.
However, Lille lack ideas in the static offensive game and it is not that they are a very rocky team. In fact, he has a negative balance of goals for and against in Ligue 1: 15 for and 18 against. An absolute contrast with Sevilla, one of the teams that concedes the least in all of Europe and that, against Osasuna, signed its fortieth game without conceding a single goal in 87 league appearances, almost half. Thus, Sevilla will have to let go of its reins more without neglecting at any time those transitions of only the fast midfielders of Lille, their real danger.
