Your Mid-Season Ligue 1 Review

It's a sign!

Ligue 1 doesn’t start back up again until January 14th (insert stereotypical “lazy French” joke here).

Not coincidentally, we happen to have played 19 matches, meaning that we are at the halfway point of the campaign.

Remember that one time I made predictions about the 2011-2012 season?

Obviously, I am looking like a genius right about now. Well, ignore the parts where I look like an idiot.

The main plotline at the beginning of the season was clearly how the title race would shape up. Marseille would be looking to reclaim the title from Lille, who were hoping to stage a successful defense, while PSG were waiting in the wings with a mountainous war chest.

L’OM struggled early, not winning until their Week 7 tilt against a promoted Evian club. However, an undefeated month of December has them up to 6th place and still within easy shouting distance of a Top 3 finish. I had highlighted the importance of Morgan Amalfitano as provider, but his poor early form (2 assists, 6 YCs) was partially responsible for Marseille’s slow start. Thankfully for the southern side, Mathieu Valbuena has been absolutely brilliant, finding the back of the net 4 times while providing 9 assists (which easily leads the league). Most of the latter have gone to Andre Ayew and Loic Remy, as Andre-Pierre Gignac continues to be marginalized. It appears that Didier Deschamps has finally gotten his side back on track.

Les Dogues, for their part, have lost only 1 match (a Week 2 loss to Montpellier, 0-1) but have drawn 9 times, which is far too often for their liking. I had noted the importance of Eden Hazard and Dimitri Payet, and both have played a large role, with the Belgian in excellent form (7 goals, 5 assists) and Payet acting as his foil (2 goals, 3 assists). However, the true revelation for this side has been their defensive prowess. Veteran netminder Mickael Landreau has conceded 19 goals in 19 matches, but he has the pairing of Franck Beria and Mathieu Debuchy to thank for making his life easy. They are on pace to come close to last season’s goal differential (1st in Ligue 1) and goals allowed (2nd in Ligue 1), which is a surprise given the loss of Adil Rami.

Especially when one considers that defender Aurelien Chedjou was hit by sniper fire in the Champions League match against Inter:

Dear lord, that’s embarrassing.

Despite those sorts of shenanigans, Lille are fun to watch. They have pace and physicality all over the pitch, and remain a viable title threat as they currently sit in 3rd place. Plus, the Joe Cole experience!

Finally, we come to Paris Saint-Germain. Tipped to improve upon their 4th-place finish of 2010/2011 given the fact that they destroyed Ligue 1 transfer records, the club from the capital currently sit in 1st place on 40 points with a very nice +14 goal differential. Despite a respectable offense (tied for 3rd in Ligue 1 on goals scored), that GD has been more a function of their stoic defense even with Mamadou Sakho out injured for the beginning of the season. In his stead, Zoumana Camara and Christophe Jallet have been instrumental, allowing new signings Milan Bisevac and Diego Lugano more time to integrate into the side.

Still, in Paris the talk (when Parisians bother to talk about football at all) has been about the goals. As I had predicted, the side have been playing in a 4-5-1 formation, with Kevin Gameiro as the lone striker. The result has been a half-season of brilliance (9 goals, 2nd in Ligue 1) for the newly-capped youngster, while Guillaume Hoarau and Mevlut Erdinq remain planted on the bench. And that’s to say nothing of poor Peguy Luyindula, forced to train with the reserve side after having been deemed “surplus”, which the LFP is now arguing violates his professional contract.

I had also noted that record-signing Javier Pastore might have trouble settling into Ligue 1, and many seem to feel that has been the case. However, the Argentine has 6 goals in 17 matches, which is surpassed (amongst the midfielders) by Nene’s 7 goals. Anything to fit the narrative, I suppose.

In the middle of their 1st-place musings, PSG supporters were confronted with the (somewhat) surprising news that gaffer Antoine Kombouare had been sacked. Reports first surfaced in the French media back on December 22nd (French link), but quickly spread to the sporting world at large.

At that point it was widely assumed that former Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti would be taking over at Parc des Princes (and he’s stealing Florent Malouda, too!), but the club are insisting that they are only “in talks” with Komboaure. That type of turmoil certainly isn’t healthy for the club, but they might just have enough talent to overcome these boardroom dealings and maintain 1st place for the remainder of the season.

So, I was fairly close to the mark at the top of the table, but I couldn’t have been more wrong about the sides facing relegation.

The clubs currently at the bottom are: (18) Nancy; I predicted a midtable finish; (19) Sochaux; I predicted they would be fighting for European competition; and (20) Ajaccio; I predicted they were the promoted side that were most likely to avoid the drop.

Nancy have benefited from having Andre Luiz on defense, and Reynald Lemaitre has been revelatory, but the campaign began with several poor attempts from substitute netminder Damien Gregorini, who found himself leaking goals at an alarming rate. However, the bleeding continued even after the introduction of Guy Roland Ndy Assembe between the posts, with the side only managing 1 clean sheet in the past 2 months (against PSG; stop laughing).

Sochaux, on the other hand, have perhaps suffered from having progressed in too many competitions. Seen out of the Europa League by Metalist Kharkov while navigating to the Round of 16 in domestic cups, Les Lionceaux are simply spread too thin. The midfield duo that I highlighted, Marvin Martin and Ryad Boudebouz, have been magnificent, but the rest of the offense has been non-existent (the only place that Sloan Privat has been seen is on a milk carton). More importantly, the “defending” exploits of David Sauget and Sebastien Corchia have been LOLtastic. That’s not a problem that is likely to be solved by the return of Charlie Davies.

As for Ajaccio, the less said, the better. Despite the heroics of Guillermo Ochoa in goal, the rest of the squad (even Frederic Sammaritano) is strictly Ligue 2 material. The only bright spot has been midfielder Mehdi Mostefa, who has 3 goals to go along with a whopping 7 YCs.

Finally, one big mea culpa. For the second time in three years, I completely underestimated Montpellier. Their return to the top flight in 2009/2010 was fantastic, resulting in a 5th-place finish, but then they slumped to 14th during the 2010/2011 campaign. Never one to learn from my mistakes, I assumed they would be comfortably midtable this year, but not at all within sight of the Top 4. Yet here they are, after 19 matches, sitting in 2nd place, just 3 points behind PSG with a better goal differential and a more potent offense. That has come largely thanks to a prolific season to date from Ligue 1-leading scorer Olivier Giroud (13 goals), although his fellow strikers have also done their part (John Utaka has 3 goals, while Souleymane Camara has 5 of his own).

For selfish reasons, I obviously hope that Montpellier fail to catch Paris Saint-Germain for 1st place in Ligue 1. But all of you (sorry clem!) should be rooting for the southern side to fail as well.

I mean, no one wants to see anyone get stabbed in the arse with a sausage.