What happened to Lyon?
In the noughties Lyon were the team to beat. They dominated Ligue 1 and were great in Europe too. Now they are falling down the table, can we revive them?
Here we are with another instalment of managing in Ligue 1 on FM24. The purpose of this guide is to manage every team in the French league and then provide a guide to help you get started with them. The problem for most new managers is designing an effective tactic for their new team.
Taking over Lyon is an honour. I have always admired their run in the early 2000’s with their amazing team winning 7 league titles. I still remember Junior Pernambucano smashing knuckle balls from miles out, Benzema playing up top and Toulalan bossing the midfield. Let’s see if we can get them back to the top!
In our guide, you’ll find everything you need to know to get started with Lyon on FM24, including:
- What objectives Lyon have and why they are important.
- The different types of players and how they work in the squad.
- Tips, tactics, and best practices to succeed with Lyon.
Let’s reverse engineer Lyon’s downward spiral and take this title back!
Lyon objectives
So the first thing we need to do to try create centre of excellence is to take note of the board and supporter objectives. On FM24 it is important to take note of what the board or supporters want. Ignoring them could seal your fate when times are tough.
Looking at the board objectives it is clear to see that they want to be sustainable and look after their investments. They do not want to lose their first team on free transfers and miss out on a return on investment. They are also interested in signing players from in the league. This makes things easier for scouting as we will know about them straight away.
While the board are succinct in what they want to achieve, but the supporters are ambitious. They want attacking football and so we will need to play gegenpress or tiki taka football. This is a great sign as teams that attack want to win. Along with forging a higher reputation than Marseille and being competitive against PSG shows that they want to compete again.
There is also a push to use the youth facilities and develop players. You can create a whole culture around this objective, replacing the coaches with coaches that specialise in working with youngsters. Get scouts that can judge potential with an awesome head of youth development.
Lyon First 11
Our next step is to assess the players and see what we can achieve with them on FM24. We sort the Lyon players by using the assistant reports by their star rating. Anyone under 3 stars is on the list, 3 stars makes you a squad player and over 3 stars means you are a key player.
Let’s look at the key players for Lyon on FM24. There are some early observations to make here, we have good selection of quality across a number of good positions. We also have a number of players over 30, so technically they will need replacing. The other thing is that a formation is already developing in a 433 DM.
The squad makes for interesting viewing, most of the team are fairly young and have got a decent potential. They also fill all the positions around a 433 DM, although we have number of wide defenders which you need to play with three at the back. It actually looks very straight forward in terms of the structure to build the team around.
Lyon Tactics
So the next step is to put everything together, build a strategy for the Lyon on FM24. This is what will make or break our season, if we set up correctly then it gives us a good base to launch from. I am a strength based manager, so I am more concern about how our team can oppose on the opposition.
Let’s start with how we are going to score goals. With Lyon we only had a couple of options up front, unfortunately they are both advanced forwards. With the two inside forwards we need to have forward that drops deep and pulls a defender with him. The false nine, deep lying forward, target man all do this, and the pressing forward wins the ball back and plays it off.
This formation shifts into a 442 diamond, with Lacazette dropping deep and the inside forwards overloading the centre and running in behind. The wing backs push up and provide some extra width and take up the positions vacated by the inside forwards. As well as this we have two ball playing defenders to find the forwards and start another attack.
Defensively, we are pushing up the field and trying to pin the opposition in their own half. We need to watch the through balls over the top, dropping the line slightly will help mitigate this. We are relying on a sweeper keeper to mop up the balls over the top and the DCs and DM to defend the middle.
Get started with Lyon today
Lyon have great prospects and ambition on FM24. They are technically a fallen giant that needs rebuilding to push back up for the title. We want to relive the glory days with this team, even though it is going to take some work.
The strength of the team is the forwards, they have blistering pace and can get in behind with the right pass. The are currently on loan on the wings, we need to either buy them out or replace them with other wingers.
The weakness to the team is the centre of defence, there are so many options, but none of them seem to be better than the others. We can use different defenders against different forms of forwards, or look to cut loose the weaker ones.
The opportunity with this squad is the youngsters, there are a few with high potential. What we need to do is as per the objectives is build around the youth facilities.
The threat to the squad is that the squad is rather thin in some places. If this keeps this way then the squad will struggle with injuries and suspensions. This will create burden in the team, so we need to invest in the depth.
Start a game with Lyon today! Comment below on the guide or how you get on, drop us a like if you want.
