Lyon suffered a confidence sapping defeat away to Premier League side Bournemouth in their final pre-season friendly before hostilities resume in Ligue 1. This latest reversal means that they have lost four out of five friendlies since new manager Sylvinho took over, and none more emphatically than this. It was the first time they have failed to find the back of the net under the Brazilian and it looks increasingly as though he has yet to discover his best eleven and formation. However, you can’t read too much into the pre-season formbook, so it will be interesting to see how they get on when they kick off the new season away at Monaco on Friday (9th August).
Sylvinho initially deployed his men in a very attacking 4-2-3-1 formation as follows:
Lopes – Dubois, Andersen, Denayer, Rafael – Mendes, Aouar – Traoré, Memphis, Terrier – Dembélé
However, they failed both to carve out many opportunities going forwards or to keep things tight at the back and Bournemouth were two goals up within twenty minutes through Wilson and Kilkenny. Tete, Lucas, Cheikh, Tousart, Gouiri and Caqueret were introduced at various points during the second period, but they had little impact on proceedings as Bournemouth eventually extended their lead through King in the 73rd minute.
Sylvinho will have a lot to ponder over the coming few days. Not least how to plug the holes in a defence that appears to be every bit as porous as it was last season under Bruno Genesio. If he can work that out, without losing any of the potency at the other end of the pitch then he should do well. If not, then Lyon fans could be in for a testing season.