Only 11th, nine lengths behind Marseille (3rd), with seven opponents to overcome, Olympique Lyonnais is lagging behind in its ambitions to qualify for the Champions League, and ASSE is still five points behind Bordeaux. and Lorient, who are fighting for the place of barrage (18th).
In addition, the Greens, on a series of six defeats in a row and therefore strongly threatened with relegation, show a worrying goal difference.
Uncomfortable situation for Bosz
Even if Bosz seems calm about his personal situation in Lyon, the Dutchman (58) knows he is in the hot seat.
“I appreciate the confidence of the leaders and I am very well at the club. But I know that I have to win matches. Normally, I would have been fired in relation to the results, being 13th (at the break) in a club which wants to play the Champions League, honestly, “he admitted in an interview with the daily Le Progrès de Lyon, January 14.
With a draw (1-1) against Paris SG then the narrow victory (1-0) obtained on Sunday in Troyes, he has already passed two pitfalls.
But Bosz could not survive a poor performance in the derby, because winning against Saint-Etienne is imperative, both for the image and for the classification, where OL are treading water.
Thereafter, the obstacles look more complicated with, in order, matches against Monaco, Nice, Lens and Lille, and a late meeting against Marseille, on February 1 or 10.
This will bring Lyon to a crossroads at the end of February, a deadline set by President Jean-Michel Aulas in a sort of disguised ultimatum.
“Peter Bosz is tough. But there are no results to match. We said + we continue + until the end of February to see what happens but in my mind, we are not going to put ourselves in danger (…) We will not be stupid, ”said the leader in a broadcast interview on Europe 1 on January 13, confident “that he always thought of Laurent Blanc, a boy with incomparable experience”.
Coué method for Dupraz
Winning is also the leitmotif of Dupraz (59), who replaced Claude Puel on December 14 on the bench of the Greens.
For the time being, apart from two rounds of the Coupe de France crossed against clubs of N2 (4th div.), he is still in the rhetoric and the Coué method to take off and persuade his players that the maintenance is possible while all the statistics already send ASSE to Ligue 2.
“If we had taken six points in the last two games (in Ligue 1), it would have been said that it is easy to maintain. It’s difficult and that’s why it’s going to be a feat, ”he hammered in the daily Le Progrès this week.
He also referred to his “recovery” with Toulouse (2016) but also the snatch maintenance with Evian-Thonon-Gaillard with a last match, ax, won (3-0) at Sochaux to save himself in 2014.
“For the time being, we have a one in two chance of maintaining ourselves. We are masters of our destiny. We have a mini-championship of four to five teams considered irretrievable by some, not by me, ”he insists.
It is certain that a victory in Lyon would probably be a founding act for the Greens who had snatched a draw in extremis in the first leg (1-1) and who have won only twice this season in Ligue 1.
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