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redwineconversation · 6 months ago

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Kysha Sylla Extension Video (July 16, 2024)

In the good old days, when Lyon actually had an owner who cared about them and their results, Lyon would handle losing a world class player by simply signing another world class player as replacement. Because that's how you stay on top - you have world class players with a wealth of experience who know what it takes to win big games because they have played in so many of them.

Kysha Sylla is not Griedge Mbock.

Vicki Becho is not Delphine Cascarino.

Let's not sit here and pretend Sylla and Becho are on the same level as Mbock and Cascarino. It's just not good faith to pretend that Sylla and Becho will fill the void left by those players. It's not in good faith to say that those players just need the chance "to show what they can do" and act as though that can substitute big game experience.

Let's imagine a worse case scenario for Lyon, where their entire back line gets crippled by injury. Who will be covering for Carpenter? Can't be Sombath, she will be covering for Gilles. Can't be Renard, she's out with whatever bad injury we are imagining and has Sylla in her place. Bacha won't be able to play because she's out, which means we will be treated with Svava as LB, who has never played/won a UWCL knockout game. This scenario will have Sombath, who those not suffering from selective memory will remember her being eaten alive by bigger teams in the first half of the 2022-2023 season, being the most experienced defender. How the fuck does that not scare more (alleged?) Lyon fans? Where are your standards?!

Renard said it herself - they lost the 2024 UWCL final because certain players lacked the necessary experience. You don't win the UWCL by giving academy players a chance. You're either an academy development club or a UWCL contender. There is no universe where you can be both.

With that being said - blah blah standard disclaimers apply; fuck parasocial fans pls for the love of god talk to a therapist and find a healthy outdoors activity; @OL Comms Dept pls chip in for my AC bill I am dying here; y'all know the speech by now.

This translation is done out of a mixture of self-loathing and because I do believe that to know this team is to understand them. This is how you get to that (I will let you choose which one you identify with).

KYSHA SYLLA OLYMPIQUE LYONNAIS INTERVIEW

Sylla: I'm very proud to continue with my development club [and people wonder why I bitch so much about academy kids...] I arrived when I was 16, today I am 20. And obviously today is a huge source of pride. As time went by I got to do more and more. I went through the reserves and that went well and now I am here with a lot of ambition.

Sylla: In terms of the team the ambition is to win all three trophies [league, Coupe de France, UWCL]. From a personal perspective, it's to play more games, have much more playing time, and make a name for myself.

Sylla: I'm really proud and I want to live up to the confidence Lyon is showing to me.

Sylla: You are so lucky being an academy player at Lyon because I want to say you're with the best team in the world. The support is really great, we're with the best players and we can only improve whether it is as a human being or on the field or off of it. It's incredible being at Lyon.

Sylla: Obviously it's the most important step [going from the academy to the pro team] because this is where you need to play, you need to get those minutes and impose yourself. You need to stand out. The transition is going to be important.

Sylla: I'm a really defense-oriented player who accumulates cards and injuries. I like defending, pure and simple. I enjoy putting in the work, I enjoy the intensity, the fights. Those are my biggest qualities. If I can show them, then I think I will stand out.

Sylla: I started playing with the boys. It went well. I was never afraid, I have no fear. This is what I like to do. I'm lucky to play next to Wendie [Renard] on a daily basis [Macario after missing a sitter while up 5-0 might disagree] She is an incredible role model both in terms of her career and her personality.

VINCENT PONSOT OLYMPIQUE LYONNAIS INTERVIEW

Ponsot: She's a player who arrived when she was 16. She's from the academy so she is part of the long-term project. We have a number of players from the academy. It's something which is important for us. Kysha [Sylla] is a part of that, she's been with the team for a while now. She was on loan at Dijon.

Ponsot: She's a player with a lot of potential who unfortunately suffered a lot of setbacks due to injuries, pretty severe injuries at that [so why the FUCK did we extend her???]. But we have a lot of trust in her since rational fans don't, and we will continue to follow her as she progresses. Beyond that, she decides what she wants to do.

#all good love stories start in the rain #Vincent ponsot #kysha sylla #it's not up to Lyon to teach you how to be a killer. either you are one or you aren't #the only thing Lyon does is take the muzzle off #what you do afterwards is up to you

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redwineconversation · 4 months ago

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well me and my ghosts, we had a hell of a time (Lyon roster thoughts)

Blah blah standard disclaimers apply etc etc. No funny comments in the disclaimers because I am rushing through this.

Putting it under a read more because I monologue a ton even by my standards.

After having completed the signing of Sofia Huerta, Lyon announced they were finished in the transfer window. The press release stated in part "Olympique Lyonnais is happy to be able to rely on an experienced group [of players] but also wishes to show confidence in its young players, especially in central defense. The club will nonetheless be attentive to different opportunities which could present themselves in the upcoming winter transfer window."

Boy is there a lot to unpack in that quote.

First of all, I know I am going to be accused of gloomsplaining, but I think we need to be really realistic about Lyon's trophy chances this season and by that I mean: there most likely won't be any. Now if I'm wrong, great, but let's work through this problem together and see why I am probably right.

Now I know, I know, I bitch an enormous amount about academy players being given playing time. I don't care. I'm still right. You cannot be both a competitive club vying for a UWCL trophy and be focused on the development of young players at the same time. If you are being competitive, it's because you are fielding your strongest players with the aim of beating your opponent. If you are focused on the development of young players, then your goal is give them playing time, not necessarily the result. A club cannot be both at the same time.

I find it especially concerning that Lyon's press release outright states where the focus of the academy players development is going to be: central defense. Lyon's current central defenders consist of Wendie Renard, 34; Vanessa Gilles, 28; Kysha Sylla, 20; Wassa Sangare, 18; Alice Sombath, 20.

There is a massive gulf in terms of level and experience when you compare the level of experience (and talent) of Gilles/Renard to Sylla/Sombath/Sangare. Now, I would be more lenient if any of the latter three were starters on their (pro) national team and it was just a question of trying to get playing time at Lyon, but that's not the case. Let's play my favorite game of worse case scenario: 34-year-old injury prone Renard gets injured and is out for several months and Gilles gets a controversial straight red and has to sit out several games until she returns from suspension. You're left with extremely inexperienced defenders. Now, if this worse case scenario happens right at the beginning of the season that's one thing, but it's a completely different story once UWCL play starts and when Lyon starts playing against heavy hitters.

We've seen what happens when Lyon fields inexperienced players in defense: Lyon had arguably its worse start of the season and also suffered its biggest defeat in UWCL history. It was the accumulation of an injury crisis and putting players in the line-up who had absolutely no business being there. We know that having an inexperienced back line is so incredibly costly.

We don't know yet what the UWCL group stages are going to look like but it is going to take a stroke of incredibly good luck for Lyon to have as favorable a group as they did last season. It played out that way because Paris FC went scalp hunting and was successful and PSG realized that playing in the UWCL was in their best interest. While I wouldn't necessarily write either Paris FC or PSG off from the group stages immediately, it still must be said that an extremely favorable draw is solely dependent on other big team choking.

Imagine if Lyon finds itself in a group of death similar last season's Group of Death (PSG, Ajax, Roma, Bayern). And imagine the injury crisis has hit and Lyon is without Renard and Gilles. Can anyone really say with a straight face that any team with even moderately decent fire power is going to look at a combination of Sangare/Sylla/Sombath and be like "whew, we better be super clinical because we're not going to get a lot of looks at goal"? No. Any half-decent forward is going to be strolling down the center with nay a care in the world.

"You're being so pessimistic!" No. I am talking from experience. Again, we saw this very thing play out in the 2022-2023 season when Lyon was decimated by injuries and we had to play a bunch of academy kids. I am so perplexed at the eternal revisionist history. We've been here before. We already know what the consequences are. We know what the ending is.

I also find it so infuriating when I read comments like "we need to give academy players a chance" or "if we don't give them any playing time then what's the point?" It's such a bad faith, irresponsible comment. You don't win the UWCL by giving academy players a chance. You don't win trophies by giving academy players playing time so their feelings don't get hurt. That is not how competitive teams work.

Mbock was (is) a world class defender. She is very, very good. When healthy, she is amongst the best center backs in the world. She makes any defensive line better. Having lost a world class center back, Lyon's board, instead of recruiting another experienced center back, decided to put their faith in players who, last season: played in zero (0) UWCL games (Kysha Sylla and Wassa Sangare respectively); played in four (4) UWCL group stage games, starting one (1) (Alice Sombath).

I'm sorry, but that is professional malpractice. You can't go from a world class center back like Mbock to academy players like Sangara/Sylla/Sombath and expect there to be no consequences. They could each play 90 minutes the entire season and it will still not make up the gulf of inexperience between themselves and Mbock. It's not a drop off, it's a cliff diving with no sense of self-preservation.

So that's my biggest issue with the roster. Let's talk about the rest.

I'm in favor of the Sofia Huerta signing but with a caveat: I'm much more interested in her playing RB than I am her popping up anywhere else on the field (Le Progres floated her playing LB so we'll see what happens there). I think Carpenter needs both competition and rotation and Huerta provides both. Realistically, Carpenter has never had proper competition for the RB position so I think it will be good for her to be pushed on a regular basis. I don't think it will necessarily fix the crossing issue, but I think it will force her to go up a gear. It also means she - theoretically - won't be run into the ground as much. She did rack up an insane amount of minutes last season because the only other option at RB was Sombath, who is a CB by trade. So, competition is good, rotation is good. If Huerta is there as a RB, great. 100 percent in favor of the signing and I think it will help Lyon in the long-run.

It's a different topic if Huerta pops up at LB. Or, is it? Let's chat about that, too. Huerta isn't naturally left-footed so that's my immediate bone to pick if she starts playing in that position. It's not her natural position nor her preferred foot and that could mean running into problems later on. And yet - and yet I would almost take Huerta at LB over Svava, which doesn't really reflect well on Svava at all.

Here's my bone to pick with Svava: I'm willing to overlook the club hopping (what is love if not fleeting?), it's the lack of regular playing time which bothers me, especially playing time in big games. (See, it's not just academy kids I am picking on about this!) How does Svava cope with high pressure games? Idk, your guess is as good as mine. She was on the bench at Real Madrid, then says in an interview she's more of a winger, which left a lot of people confused about the LB position considering Bacha is out for several months and Morroni left for a dumpster fire and a tan.

So, do I want Huerta as LB? Not really but I will take it.

Having ripped on the defense, let's talk about the midfield. It's a professional foul to not find cover for Damaris. We run an already injury-prone player into the ground because we don't have another natural DM to provide cover. It's absolutely insane to me that a DM was not high on the priority list. People will gesture wildly at Marozsan (old and slow), Horan (slow) and Dabritz (slow) and say they can provide cover as DM, but they are missing the rather vital point which is none of those players are a natural DM. If Maro is playing as a 6, then she isn't playing / isn't the backup as a 10. If Horan or Dabritz are playing as a 6, then it means they're not playing as an 8.

Now I will concede that good DMs are extremely hard to come by and the clubs that have them aren't prepared to let them go but I absolutely refuse to believe there is not a single halfway decent DM that Lyon couldn't pick up on the market. I'm not asking for Damaris 2.0 / Henry 2.0, I'm just asking for a DM who, well, can play as a DM. It really doesn't seem like that unreasonable of an ask.

The 10 position is something else which really concerns me. Right now Lyon basically has three players who can play the 10: Marozsan, who once again is old and slow; van de Donk, who has openly said that her retirement is coming sooner rather than later; and Mendy, an academy kid. In the days when Lyon would win they would live and die by their midfield so I am not particularly interested in the keys being handed to an academy kid who, once again, lacks experience.

The Benyahia defenders perplex me as well because they seem to think Le Havre is the equivalent of Lyon. Give it a few years at this rate and they very well could be interchangeable, but it's not the case right now. Did she have a good season at Le Havre? Yes. Does that automatically mean she will have a good season at Lyon? Well, I guess it depends on how you define good: I want to win, so my requirement is whether a player will make us win; others seem to equate good with players getting sufficient playing time. No. This isn't the school playground, everyone shouldn't get a shot at the merry-go-round to keep everyone happy. In the good old days, you got playing time because you earned it. It wasn't given to you.

I don't think Horan played particularly well in the second half of the season but I think fatigue played a part in it. I have low expectations for the start of the season since she is coming off the Olympics, but we'll see how she does as the season progresses. Unless she too loses her spot to an academy player.

Dabritz's stellar second half of the season was cut short by an injury which is frustrating as she was really on fire. We'll see how she does as she gets back to fitness. I don't expect her to pick up right where she left off because coming back from injury takes time. So she is more of a TBD than anything else.

Which finally brings us to the front line. It looks good in paper but when you did into it, there are actually a fair amount of issues.

Chawinga was a great signing and I am thrilled we got her. She isn't the most technical player but get the ball to her and she can put in the back of the net and that actually meets my standards. I don't need flashy, I need efficient. As long as the forward is scoring goals, we're good.

Hegerberg remains on the payroll and in rehab. She's touching the ball again (good) but still hasn't returned to group play. Once she returns to group play there's still another two weeks of that before she could be game day ready so I think we're probably 6 weeks away from seeing her and that's the most optimistic scenario. Disclaimer: this is based on Lyon's previous timelines and I don't know what Montemurro will do in terms of bringing players back. So my prediction could be way off. When Hegerberg is good, she is the type of player who will grab Lyon by the scruff of the neck and haul them over the finish line kicking and screaming. The trouble is the days of Hegerberg being good are starting to become less and less frequent.

Diani needs to do better. I was willing to give her more of a pass last season because she had to adjust to a new team. She was still top scorer in the UWCL last season, so she was able to put the ball in the back of the net (minimum requirement). She just needs to produce more this season. Grace period is over, let's see what you can actually do.

Dumornay's grace period has also expired. I need her to curb the showboating and do her job. I also want to see how the UWCL loss affected her. I need to see rage, I need to see her up her game and have a score to settle. Nice doesn't win you trophies. Get a blowtorch and see if you're actually an arsonist.

My opinion on Becho/Marozsan/Majri still stands. I don't care what they've done before, they need to go. Two of them are also taking up considerable amount on the payroll, the other isn't expensive but isn't productive either. Well, I take that back. If we're rebranding the club as an academy development team then I guess she is productive. If we're a UWCL competitive team, she's not.

Montemurro is too soon to judge because the team hasn't really done anything either. Let's see how he manages the team when league plays actually starts and we can judge if he really does want Lyon to win everything or if he is happy to collect a paycheck while a bunch of academy kids watch opposing players stroll past them.

Finally, because it seems like it's unfair to rip into the team and not go after Ponsot and Kang: I'm sorry, but there is genuine cause for concern here. The recruitment this summer was absolutely horrific. We only got three signings, one of which is questionable, one is a loan, one is good. We don't quite know yet where Huerta is going to be playing and as she cannot be cloned it does not solve the outside back issue, there was no recruitment for the CB or DM positions, we probably won't have a decent 10 next season. And that's just the immediate issues.

The stadium issue is also really significant. Ponsot and Kang spent the whole summer (and an entire press conference!) saying that the team deserved better than to play at the training center (true), they wanted a stadium which reflected the worth of the team (good). I agree with them on that! But then Kang turned around and said it's actually for the 2025-2026 season. Then Lyon, who was originally scheduled to play the Strasbourg game at Groupama, is now playing it at ... the training center.

Now granted the Strasbourg game was moved because of the men's team and, fingers crossed, John Textor's team will go back to losing sooner rather than later. But this was something that could and should have been foreseen.

Kang and Ponsot spent a huge amount of time complaining that Lyon was getting all the Sunday at 9pm slots and that was affecting attendance. And they have a point. Lyon fans unlike some club supporters have real jobs, have families, and it does make the Sunday 9pm games complicated to attend when you have work/class the next day. Their jobs/work matters to them and they're just not necessarily going to attend late night Sunday games. Anyway, after making all that fuss, the league agreed to have Lyon play on a majority of Fridays or Saturdays, and, you guessed it, that coincides with the men's league games. This was foreseeable.

I don't think the relocation idea is a good one. Yes, not all of Lyon's fans are local, but if you want to build a fan base, you need fans not only to show up but to know where to show up. Playing a bunch of games outside of Lyon isn't going to encourage fans in Lyon to attend home games. The support baseline isn't strong enough to ask them to drive an hour or so outside the city to attend games when the fans could just stay home and do their own thing.

I love Lyon, I do. I'm also not going to drive an hour to see them in Bourg or Grenoble. It also sends a weird message to fans that this team doesn't really have something to call home because ... the owners want to parade this team out to cities where I think the reverse also holds true: if I am living in Bourg or Grenoble, I'm not super sure what the incentive is to drive all the way to Groupama when I could just stay home and watch the game on TV or more likely a dodgy illegal stream. You're not building a loyal fanbase by constantly moving the team around.

So there are many, many issues which will cause problems this season. I think we need to be really realistic: we're probably not going to win anything this season. And the recruitment is a large reason for that.

#all good love stories start in the rain #“omg you're so mean to your team” yeah sorry I just want to actually win shit #this isn't kindergarten stop with the “everyone deserves a trophy” shit

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