The Official French Ligue 1 Thread

[J-Mezzy]

They are off to a good start so far. Their best player, some guy named Revire or something like that. He has scored 4 goals already lol.

I wonder if they will really try to sell Falcao. That would be such a massive failure.

[Foye]

Olympique Marseille - AS Monaco is on currently.


Halftime score is 1-0. Header from Lucas Mendes after a Valbuena corner.

Marseille is fun to watch. If I'd watch Ligue 1 they would certainly be my team. Also, their fans are amazing today.

[J-Mezzy]

Good win for Monaco today. That guy Riveire is turning out to be a gem. 5 goals already! That is 2 more than Falcao, 3 more than Ibra, and 4 more than Cavani.

[Tone-]

I know you gonna laugh, but OM's coach - Elie Baup - is kinda one of the best coach ever.
Marseille was the second best team last year in France, with a very bad squad, a goal differential equal to 0, it's pretty amazing!

Now, with Payet (International A), Mendy, Thauvin & Lemina (huge prospects U20/19) he gonna make something really great! I trust him.

[J-Mezzy]

Marseille is an interesting squad, but I think a top 2 finish this season will be hard. PSG has a loaded team and Monaco has some pretty damn good youth players to add to their core of stars. I expect those 2 to be the teams that make the CL barring major injuries.

[J-Mezzy]

Monaco vs PSG this Sunday. PSG seems to be in better form and they have a more complete team anyways, I would be surprised if Monaco pulls this off.

Still curious to why Moutinho and James have played so little. Doesn't make any sense.

[J-Mezzy]

Monaco was able to pull out a draw in Paris despite PSG being in top form recently. Good result to keep them atop the table. Zlatan opened the score early, but big game Falcao comes through again when needed and equalized in minute 20. The dude seems to score on every big game there is regardless of what club or league he plays in.

[b-ball forever]

Monaco vs PSG this Sunday. PSG seems to be in better form and they have a more complete team anyways, I would be surprised if Monaco pulls this off.

Still curious to why Moutinho and James have played so little. Doesn't make any sense.

Moutinho was injured at the start of the season, he's a key starting player now who likely won't leave the lineup so long as he's healthy.

Rodriguez hasn't been a starter so far due to first not being in game shape yet, then the red hot start by the young/dynamic offensive midfield duo of Ocampos and Carrasco. For now, James looks like he's still adapting and hasn't had a great game yet, unlike the other 2.

Monaco has been off to an impressive start and currently lead the French league. The team is full promising young players like Rodriguez, Ocampos, Fabinho, Carrasco, Kondogbia, Kurzawa, Isimat-Mirin or Rivière, who are all 19 to 23 years old, and for the most part have been playing very well so far. Vets like Falcao, Toulalan, Abidal, and Moutinho have been very steady and not had any issues adapting to the new team.

Ranieri has been doing a good job, good thing they kept him coaching.

[b-ball forever]

The Ligue 1 should be a 3 way race between PSG, Monaco, and Marseille this year. All 3 have been playing well overall.

For PSG, the main issue so far has been inconsistent play by offensive midfielders Pastore, Lucas, and Lavezzi. On the other hand, Zlatan, Silva, Motta, Matuidi, and most the rest of the team have been playing well.

Marseille added on some nice offensive talent with Payet and Thauvin. Imbula, Mendy, and Lemina seem like promising additions as well. They were an elite defensive team last year, but had issues offensively. This year their offense is better, even if their defense hasn't been as good yet.


Lyon and Lille (especially Lille) coulda been up there too if they didn't sell all their best talent over the past few years. Lille has lost nearly all of their key players : Hazard, Cabaye, Debuchy, Adil Rami, Gervinho, Cheydou, Moussa Sow, Landreau, Lucas Digne, and even the promising Thauvin to Marseille before he ever suited up for the team.
It's kinda surprising that they're still selling everybody despite the massive boost in income thanks to their new stadium with a capacity of 50 000 built in 2012 (replacing the previous 18 000 capacity stadium).

Lyon has a very high level youth academy and could very well bounce back to top level soon, plus they're building a new 58 000 capacity stadium. They're still reasonably talented and should be able to qualify for the Europa league again this year.

The outsider is Saint Etienne, with Galtier having quietly put together an good looking squad despite losing young talents Aubameyang and Guilavogui for a combined 25 million euros.

[J-Mezzy]

Monaco vs PSG this Sunday. PSG seems to be in better form and they have a more complete team anyways, I would be surprised if Monaco pulls this off.

Still curious to why Moutinho and James have played so little. Doesn't make any sense.

Ranieri has been doing a good job, good thing they kept him coaching.

See, I thought James was out of shape and/or in bad form, but then he played the 2 qualifying games for us and was our best player and by a good margin. I guess he has to adjust, but I would still play him at LW over Carrasco. You said those 2 guys had a red hot start, yet Monaco has only scored 10 goals in 6 games. 4 of these goals came in the same game and all 10 have been scored by either Falcao or Riviere.

So far Monaco's scores are
2-0
4-1
0-0
2-1
1-0
1-1

I wouldn't say that anyone other than Riviere himself has gotten off to an explosive start and he usually comes off the bench so 3 of his goals came on the same game, not even Falcao who has yet to score 2 goals in one game and 2 of his 5 goals are pks. Rodriguez is still the most viable option to take scoring pressure off Falcao. He is a proven guy and ahas shown the ability to score in double digits in a similar league. He has also scored on the CL and scores for his national team.

The coach is doing a tremendous job defensively and overall getting and keeping the team atop the league, but their offense is anything but explosive and coud use a guy like James. There is also no point on spending 45 million euros on a guy to play him 20 minutes a game. James will fit in once he gets playing time.

[b-ball forever]

Monaco vs PSG this Sunday. PSG seems to be in better form and they have a more complete team anyways, I would be surprised if Monaco pulls this off.

Still curious to why Moutinho and James have played so little. Doesn't make any sense.

Ranieri has been doing a good job, good thing they kept him coaching.

See, I thought James was out of shape and/or in bad form, but then he played the 2 qualifying games for us and was our best player and by a good margin. I guess he has to adjust, but I would still play him at LW over Carrasco. You said those 2 guys had a red hot start, yet Monaco has only scored 10 goals in 6 games. 4 of these goals came in the same game and all 10 have been scored by either Falcao or Riviere.

So far Monaco's scores are
2-0
4-1
0-0
2-1
1-0
1-1

I wouldn't say that anyone other than Riviere himself has gotten off to an explosive start and he usually comes off the bench so 3 of his goals came on the same game, not even Falcao who has yet to score 2 goals in one game and 2 of his 5 goals are pks. Rodriguez is still the most viable option to take scoring pressure off Falcao. He is a proven guy and ahas shown the ability to score in double digits in a similar league. He has also scored on the CL and scores for his national team.

The coach is doing a tremendous job defensively and overall getting and keeping the team atop the league, but their offense is anything but explosive and coud use a guy like James. There is also no point on spending 45 million euros on a guy to play him 20 minutes a game. James will fit in once he gets playing time.

Oh he's def back in physical shape now, but that wasn't the case at the start of the season.

Ocampos and Carrasco haven't scored yet, but they've for the most part been dangerous off of their cuts and passing. James has more natural talent than them, but he doesn't have the chemistry down just yet (which is to be expected since the other two have been on the squad for a longer time), and hasn't been agressive enuf on the field for now. It's worth noting that the French league is more physical than the Portuguese league, which could be a reason for the adaptation period. Neither of Ocampos or Carrasco played well against PSG last night, so if there is a continuation of down form by either of em, Rodriguez could be starting soon.

How is Rodriguez defensively? I haven't paid much attention to their respective defensive performances, but maybe Ranieri wants Rodriguez to improve his defense before throwing him out there, reason being that the Monaco right and left backs are both rather offensive minded, and team balance is a necessity.

[J-Mezzy]

I was thinking the same about James' defense. Rinieri seems to be a defensive minded coach and perhaps that's the reason to keep him on the bench. It is hard to rate James' defense. He is pretty active, chases down balls, puts pressure on the opponents, and is often going down to help defend. I wouldn't call him a good defensive player, but he is not lazy and puts in the effort, I guess you can say that he is as good as you can expect from an offensive LW. He might have to work harder at it if he wants to lock up his starting spot.

[J-Mezzy]

Good win by Monaco today. 2 goals for Falcao and 2 assists for James on his first start of the season. No coincidence there.

[Man of Steel]

Them playing together should be great for NT chemistry. Perhaps Rodriguez will finally get the minutes he deserves.

[J-Mezzy]

He'll be starting for sure now. I saw the game and he played very well. They might actually switch to 4-4-2 and start both Riviere and Falcao now. I usually hate that formation, but I am down with it seeing as they lead the league in goals with 6 and 7 respectevely.

Speaking of Colombia, looks like the guys are finally getting into form. We will need that if we want to remain seeded.

[b-ball forever]

Rodriguez had a good game, but I'm not sure that Ranieri will make him a surefire starter like Falcao or Moutinho just yet. This was Monaco's 2nd game in a week with 3 games over 7 days, hence the rotation of players. I bet he'll continue rotating Ocampos/Rodriguez/Carrasco on the wings for now, then if one of em stands out (which James should be able to do) he'll make him a key starter and rotate the other 2. Will be interesting to see how the rotation pans out. Speaking of the other wingers, Ocampos was solid as well. Not as good as Rodriguez offensively, but he had some good defensive sequences.

Falcao was huge and his best game as a Monaco player so far, very high activity level. Moutinho also had another good game. Still no goals by anybody other than Falcao/Rivière so far (13 total goals between them). One of Monaco's players said that it's because Ranieri's offensive tactic is to get the strikers in a postion to score, with the wingers/fullbacks/midfielders setting them up instead of looking to score.

The 4-4-2 was interesting given the quality of their 2 strikers, Ancelotti's PSG played like that last season. Maybe we'll see some more of that that, but once Toulalan gets healthy that'll happen less often.

In the other Ligue 1 contenders' games :

PSG won a close away game over Valenciennes with Cavani scoring the only goal, being set up by Ibra. Verratti and Matuidi dominated the midfield once again.

Marseille beat in form St Etienne 2-1, with a another big game at midfield by Imbula, who is looking like the bargain transfer of the season. Huge activity level both offensively and defensively by him. Andre Ayew also continuing his good form with a very sound technical performance.

[J-Mezzy]

B-Ball,

I had read before the season that Monaco was going to be deducted 2 points from the campaign due some violations. Is this true? And if so, when will the deduction happen? I was wondering since all the websites have Monaco with all 17 points rather than the 15 that they would have if the penaty is true.

Falcao played really well. Hopefully he regains his form and goes on a rampage like he ha done in the past. It is crazy to think that an out of form Falcao was still able to bag 5 goals in 6 games, but the dude just has a habit of finding the net.

I think the goals by other players will come in time. The midfield is too talented not to produce goals.

[b-ball forever]

Ya, the French Football Federation had initially put a 2 point penalty on Monaco due to some their fans invading the pitch and getting aggressive during the end of last season, but the federation decided to replace that with a home game played closed to public instead, after Monaco contested the initial decision.

So they do lead the league by 2 points over PSG currently (17 total points), and do not have any point deduction.

[J-Mezzy]

Oh ok. I remember that closed to the public game. I thought the penalty was 2 points in addition to the closed to public game. Thanks for clearing that up.

How is attendance in Ligue 1? Many of the games I watch or see highlights from look pretty empty, even Monaco games. Is this a problem to expect all season?

[b-ball forever]

Attendance is certainly lower than in say Spain or Brazil.

However, the attendance is currently deflated due to renovations going on in the country's major stadiums like the Velodrome or Geoffroy Guichard. Since we're hosting the 2016 European Cup, all the major clubs are working on their stadiums, and some of em are partially closed because of that.

Attendance should go up once the Velodrome fully expands to to 67000 seats, Lyon builds their new 58000 seat stadium, Bordeaux gets their new 42000 seat stadium, and Saint Etienne/Toulouse finish their expansions.

Also, RC Lens has one of the biggest football fanbases in France and have a 44000 capacity stadium, but they're currently in the 2nd division. Once they get back up, that'll boost overall showings.

The small clubs all have small stadiums and low attendance, though.