Get out of the boss

Ex-Maccabi Tel Aviv presented beautiful and impressive ideas in French, but in practice Lyon is at its lowest point since 1992/93.

Juninho has left, the stars are faking, the CEO is making it difficult and Ulas has given a two-month ultimatum.

Tomer Yitzhak

07/01/2022

Friday, 07 January 2022, 18:05

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In the last days of 2020, during the winter break in the French league, Lyon came to an understanding with Lille coach Christoph Galatia. The move was supposed to happen only at the end of the season and there was a bilateral willingness to conclude, but then sporting director Juninho chose to suspend contacts in light of the fact that both teams competed for the title at the time (Lyon stood at the top ahead of Lille by one goal and Paris Saint-Germain by a point ).

This decent decision of the former Brazilian star, who wanted to maintain sportiness in front of one of the competitors and of course not to challenge his team with the announcement of the next coach while she is at the top, cost the club dearly. At the end of the season, when Galatia decided to leave Lille a few days after the surprise championship and Lyon hoped to return to understandings from the end of December, the coach was already closed in Nice. A misunderstanding in another meeting with Juninho only contributed to his choice of a club from the Riviera.

Having no choice, Lyon moved on to Plan B. Or rather: Boss program.

After half a year, there is no other way to define this matchmaking than failure.

Peter Boss's beautiful ideas were not expressed on the ground, the desperate Juninho abandoned and left him exposed in the turret, Lyon collapses economically and socially, and the league is in its worst position since the days of Raymond Domenech in 1992/93.

So how does he still survive in office?

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Nice words, good ideas, bad execution.

Peter Boss with Juninho and Jean-Michel Olas (Photo: Official website, Lyon Twitter)

It is not the half-season without losses with Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Premier League that led the 57-year-old boss to one of the most coveted positions in French football. Neither is the short period at Borussia Dortmund or the Cup final and the good moments in his tenure at Bayer Leverkusen. The Lyons simply remembered well how his Ajax dismantled them 1: 4 in the first game of the 2017 Europa League semi-final (which even the French's 1: 3 reciprocation did not erase) and displayed attractive football with young talent. With all due respect to the nine years without a degree, this is Jean-Michel Ulas' wet dream right now: an exciting group that will polish diamonds that can be sold later.

The goal was to emulate what Nico Kovacs did in Monaco, and after missing out on Galatia, Lyon chose to go for sure. Boss was free and not returned. There will be no group that will make a better offer. So after Kenny Tata and Bertrand Traore who came from the same Ajax of 2017, this time it was Boss' turn. The fact that he also speaks French, recalled his days as a Toulon player from 1988 to 1991, facilitated his selection as the third foreign coach overall in the club's history.

In France, Boss was remembered as a disciplined and intelligent actor.

All the people of Toulon praised him and believed that he was the right man to rehabilitate Lyon.

His starting point was also comfortable.

He came after Bruno Gencio who suffered from crowd hostility, the Brazilian Silvino who accepted the role due to being a friend of Juninho and remained in shock until the moment he was fired, and Rudy Garcia who did not acclimatize despite relative success.

Boss was an appointment of Juninho, receiving the approval of Ulas and the blessing of the fans.

Despite six league victories and a disappointing 13th place, the (temporary) approval from the president and the support of most fans still has him.

But not much beyond that.

It was not the term in Tel Aviv that paved the way for him to Lyon.

Peter Boss (Photo: Bernie Ardov)

On paper, everything looks great in the beginning. Boss lectured with great passion and his press conferences managed to captivate. In training he presented his familiar emphases: high pressure, five seconds to win the ball again, intensity and ball movement. When the league started, it became clear how lacking the app was. His ideas did not really seep into the actors.

In the second round Lyon provided an embarrassing performance and were defeated 3-0 at Angers. Leo Dubois, the right-back appointed captain by Boss, then addressed the players in an attempt to unify the ranks, and was ridiculed by former captain Marcelo. Boss did not like the challenge of the leader he chose (a choice that also angered the fans who see Dubois as lacking in charisma and carelessness) and removed from the squad the Brazilian stopper who also scored an own goal in that game. Since then, by the way, Marcelo appears exclusively in the reserve team.

A week later Lyon led 1: 3 at home against Clermont in the 80th minute, but somehow managed to finish 3: 3 and were left without a win after three rounds. This time the coach has already criticized his players publicly: "I saw things that do not happen even in teams up to the age of 12." From there the team rose to two wins and in the Parc de France it looked great for long minutes, but then came the turnaround mistake (from the young Gusto caused a penalty in the 66th minute) and in added time Mauro Icardi completed the Paris Saint-Germain makeover.

This instability continues.

Alongside great performances in the home stage of the Europa League, which Lyon finished with 16 points out of 18 and a direct ticket to the quarter-finals, there were incomprehensible falls in the league.

In the derby against Saint-Etienne it was goalkeeper Anthony Lopez with an unnecessary red that the penalty came with an equalizer in extra time, three weeks later a 0: 2 advantage in Nice in the 80th minute ended (due to a stupid dismissal by Tino Cadwara) while a loss in extra time (3: 2 ) And two weeks later a painful 4: 1 defeat was added against Gencio's run, including a quarrel over an unimportant penalty in the 93rd minute.

Managed to anger Peter Boss already in the second round and was thrown into the reserve team.

Marcello (Photo: Reuters)

This is how Lyon found themselves in the 13th round with no less than 21 mandatory goals. Despite a defense that includes the Portugal goalkeeper, a right-back who has already been given a chance in the French World Cup uniform, a left-back in the form of Emerson who played with Italy in the Euro final just a few months earlier, a renowned and accomplished stopper like Jerome Boateng Jason Danair, boss failed to stabilize the back and the team has absorbed as it has not known since the 1982/83 relegation. In addition, in mid-November Lyon was the team that allows the most kicks to its frame in the top five leagues. More table locks like Groyer Firth, Levante or Norwich.

The Dutch style was not assimilated either.

After the 4-3-3 did not work, Boss tried a slight change with 4-2-3-1 and simply could not find wings.

The only player who felt comfortable in the extreme position was Carl Toko Akambi, who also knew how to provide numbers from the left.

The glittering acquisition Jardan Shakiri, who was supposed to take over the right wing, generally wanted to play in the center, where the boss has the excellent Lucas Pakta and blocks Avar.

By the end of October the boss is fed up and Shakiri has been brought down to the bench, with half a season he has only one goal and two assists.

The trials continued with the passage of three brakes in December, and this change yielded four consecutive draws that put Lyon in 13th place.

And this is a team that apart from dominating the French league before PSG with the dynasty of seven championships in the 2000s, has not finished outside the top ten since 1995/96.

Wanted to play in the center, found himself on the bench.

Jordan Shakiri with Peter Boss (Photo: GettyImages, ANP Sport)

Luckily for Boss, the European campaign has been successful so far and the situation in the league is still correctable. None of the teams (in the league after PSG) really ran away. The gap from second and third places stands at nine points, and Lyon is still missing the game that exploded against Marseille and went up by a point reduction. "We will not finish in 13th place, we will recover with a boss and return with him to the top 3," President Ulas promised in a back-up interview with L'Equipe that ended with an ultimatum: "Peter is still a very good coach, exactly the kind we were looking for. "Now that he has two full months, it's not that there are coaches of his level outside. In any case, he will continue until the end of February."

is that so? Boss remains pretty lonely in the campaign. Juninho left because he felt frustrated with the procurement policy, when CEO Vincent Ponso prevented him from adding two million euros in the summer to Gatten Labourd (who eventually signed Bran and scored in bundles, including against Lyon) and expressed in one case that "prefer to invest money in building a special room The Brazilian wanted immediate reinforcements while Lyon would rather save € 107 million in losses and think about how to make money for the future

. Ulas has returned to being more involved and no longer has Juninho's armor. Lyon is looking for a new sports director and at the same time a coach. "

Will he pass the two months of the test?

Peter Boss (Photo: GettyImages, John Berry)

Boss tries.

He provided explanations in half-season summary interviews, received support from the players he considers leaders (Dubois, Boateng and Emerson) and the fans in general shift the blame towards Ulas and CEO Ponso. But it is not certain that there is anything to work with

.

The staff is talented but unbalanced and the aforementioned economic situation does not allow for too much maneuvering, with even the Sardar Azmon deal dragging on since the summer, even though it has already dropped to 4 million euros. FC that came up away from the factory, and following the schedule that was vacated, the coach chose to take the team to a training camp in Mallorca ahead of the return of the league, but there a Corona outburst disrupted preparations for a meeting with Paris Saint-Germain.

Nothing goes.

Even if Ulas gave time until the end of February, no one will be surprised if the decision is made as early as this month.

Lyon will host the champions on their way to PSG on Sunday and less than two weeks later expect the home derby against Saint-Etienne.

Except for Silvino who disbanded in a short time with an average of one point per game, Boss currently shows the lowest success rates among all the coaches who worked at Lyon in the first division.

Only a surprising change of direction in the near future will allow him to escape the terror of the sword.

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