#90% of the time I'm absolutely fine and proud of who I am and accepting

[secretace-ent]

the irony of feeling absolutely broken on the first day of pride month :/

[redwineconversation]

now that I'm grown, I'm scared of ghosts (Fleury - Lyon Postgame Thoughts)

Plus side: we won by a comfortable margin.

Downside: literally everything else.

It's impossible to have watched that game and come away with any degree of confidence. It was a win, sure, but it was ugly as fuck and if we're being frank, paints a pretty bleak picture of the future. So let's talk our way through the issues.

Before I rip into the team, we need to talk about the state of the pitch because I am an equal opportunity hater. It was appalling and that Lyon walked away with no (obvious?) longterm injury is quite frankly a miracle. The French Federation cannot be bragging about how they have revamped the league while having teams play on a pitch like Fleury's. By the end it looked closer to a carpet design than actual grass.

Pitches in conditions like that aren't going to encourage players to play in the league and they're not going to encourage broadcasters to broadcast the games. This is something that needs to be fixed, urgently at that. It was ugly to look at and it was ugly to play on. No one, absolutely no one, enjoyed it.

So let's move on to the game itself.

Lyon's mentality, which used to be such a strong defining characteristic of the team, was absolutely shocking this evening. To have conceded in the opening seconds not just in the first half but also in the second half is just unacceptable for a team of this alleged caliber. They have played games before. In what world should they have switched off so easily? This isn't their first time playing in a new league against an unfamiliar opponent. They aren't amateurs even if the beginning of each half begs the contrary.

The defense wasn't ball watching on the goals which actually makes it even worse. If they were ball watching then they were jut being lazy. Instead they were unprepared and disoriented and got rightfully punished for it. People will argue that it's expected since the defense isn't used to playing in a 3-4-3.

Fine. But they shouldn't be playing in a 3-4-3 anyway.

The system doesn't work when you have the outside backs that Lyon does. Svava and Carpenter both like to break forward and be part of the attack because that's simply how Lyon plays. But in order for the 3-4-3 to properly work you need the defense to sit back the entire game. A 3-4-3 with two outside backs like Carpenter becomes more of a 1-2-4-3 and that leaves the goal incredibly exposed.

If Fleury were able to score two quick goals, imagine what teams with a bigger fire power (PSG, Paris FC) will do to that defense. The system just simply doesn't work with the defenders Lyon has.

Well, the remaining players. Gilles shouldn't have played 90 mins considering she missed the entirety of preseason due to injury. While I will celebrate Montemurro protecting my mental health by not starting Sylla and Sangare, we're back to the real problem: Gilles played because the other option was worse, and the other option was worse because Kang/Ponsot/Montemurro collectively decided that losing Mbock was acceptable because they would give academy kids playing time instead.

Twist and turn it all you want, but academy kids are not on par with Mbock. If only we had a third experienced CB who could have perhaps stepped up and played instead ...

I've ripped on Marozsan so much in the past. I still think we should sell her and I still think she's unnecessary expensive dead weight. BUT I am also not to proud to give credit where credit is due. She has been playing well lately and seems to have remembered that cardio will not, in fact, actually kill her. I'm not sure who was more surprised when Marozsan ran back and did a good defensive slide tackle, myself or the Fleury player. I don't think Marozsan's defensive efforts were necessary in a scouting report. Canal Plus also had interesting speculations about why Marozsan sat on the bench so much last season but that's something we can discuss privately.

The midfield overall was pretty meh. Van de Donk didn't play well but didn't play badly either, but definitely could have done better. I am perplexed at her fucking nutcase stans on Instagram who do not seem to understand that a player can be subbed around the 60th minute for rotation purposes and not because of injury. She is a player who wasn't playing an outstanding game and has openly spoken about burnout. There is nothing shocking or concerning about her being subbed around the 60th minute unless you a deranged parasocial freak.

Horan actually played better than I was expecting. I'm a bit like ??? at some people's willingness to vilify her. Like, she's not in my list of Top 20 players I like, but there seems to be a real interest in putting her down lately while conveniently forgetting both what she has accomplished on the field and other players who have made much more controversial decisions but seem to get a pass because of a bunch of reasons (association with Love Island FC being one of them). Anyway, it's fine, beef with whomever you want, not gonna tell you not to, but is Horan really the most unlikeable player in the world? Like, really?

Damaris was a bit meh at the beginning, was sloppy and careless for Fleury's first goal, but actually got into the game more and seemed to become more interested in the outcome of the game as it went on. Her assist was really good. Just sucks we're going to lose her for several weeks/months at one point in the season as is tradition.

Dumornay has got to learn to control her frustration better. It's frustrating as a fan because when Dumornay keeps her head down and does her job, she's really good at it and is fun to watch. But then she starts being fouled or calls going against her or whatever and she starts committing unnecessary fouls. I'm not fond of the argument "she's young and is still learning." No. Cut that shit out and focus on your job. Which she did in this game.

Canal Plus ripped into Chawinga a fair amount as well and some I think was a bit out of line and some I agree with. Is Lyon a more "technical" team than PSG? I'm not super convinced about that. I think in terms of passing and ball possession, they're not that different from each other. So I don't buy the argument she struggled because she isn't used to being on a technical team. PSG has very good technical players, this isn't the first time she would have been around quick passing.

I do agree she was making sloppy mistakes. There was a moment when she was trying to control the ball and then just kicked out of bounds from 20 cms away for a Fleury throw. She also didn't really have a go at the Fleury defense which we know from her PSG days she can do. Now again, I'll concede she is playing with a new team, but she has played in the league before and she has played against Fleury before. There wasn't really a whole lot of new if you think about it.

Diani woke up as the game went on. Scored, could have done better, have seen her ghost so I know what that looks like and this wasn't it. It'll be interesting to see what her form looks like as the season progresses.

And going back to Endler - I expected better from her. I know she is probably used to sleep watching her way through league games so she is going to be in for a rude awakening if Montemurro continues with this 3-4-3 formation. Before Endler had a stellar backline in front of her. Now she doesn't really have one at all.

Tl:dr version: this game did nothing to make me feel better about how the rest of the season is going to go.