Topic: French Soccer League Predictions and Discussion Thread (Ligue 1) - page 377. (Read 194664 times)

If we think about it carefully, this could happen and considering that they are not able to compete with other teams, it is very likely that they will not be able to improve their existing results. Their performance always weakens in every match and when they can't grasp this well then the results will just slip away. For Lorient, maybe they still have great enthusiasm to be able to do their best and have proven that they can escape from the red zone, but indeed if they have difficulty winning again then they might go down again.

PSG could think like that but still both are very important for PSG and I think Ligue 1 is the main thing they can get before finally working in the Champions League. Indeed, so far they have no problems in Ligue 1, they just need to win a few more times before ending their title this season.

If you look at Clermont Foot's remaining matches, it seems that they will have difficulty getting out of the relegation zone because they have had several tough matches and of course they will lose points in these matches. This season, Clermont Foot experienced a significant decline in performance compared to last season, even though if you look at this club, last season they were actually able to make a surprise by finishing in eighth place.

This season they are at the bottom of the standings because they failed to compete with other teams. In week 26, they could be said to be the club with the worst performance and the team most threatened with relegation. So far they are bottom with 20 points. Thus, they have to fight hard to win the remaining matches and hope that the team above them loses, but looking at the remaining matches, Clermont Foot has a small chance of escaping the relegation zone.

There is nothing wrong if indeed a big club like PSG expects something more especially when spending a lot of money to make their squad better then it is not wrong to expect better results especially in big competitions because their purpose of investing is for that.
But we need to realize that things like the big league Champions League are not as easy as imagined because even if a big club like PSG in ligue 1 it will look the same when compared to several other clubs in the Champions League because in the end this is not just one 2 big clubs but almost the average club in the Champions League is a big club so no matter how hard PSG tries to make their squad as luxurious as anything in the end it will be comparable to several other big clubs that make the player factor alone not enough to make a club triumph in the Champions League.

There must be several other factors that support the situation to be better like the coach factor and it could be that experience also determines a mentality because in the end when the benchmark is only the player alone until whenever the Champions League cannot be overtaken by PSG.

I agree about that. Marseille are a part of the Europa League as well. They have a new manager after getting bad results for a long time with Gattuso. There is a good improvement in their results in general so far too.

Their schedule is also challenging indeed and I'm curious about how the season will end for them in the Ligue 1. They also have a chance for a Champions League spot now but their chance is mathematically lower. The loss against Rennes created an extra difficulty for them last week. There are 8 weeks left and 3 teams ahead to deal with (Lille, Nice, Lens) for the Champions League goal. Do you believe Marseille can make it? 

Clermont seem to be difficulty keeping up with the performance of clubs in league one this season, other clubs may have improved a lot so that Clermont is lagging behind in improving their game, chasing 6 points from clubs above them is not an easy thing and this season only leaves Only 8 matches where there is not much time and in those 8 matches Clermont still faces some tough matches, namely against PSG, Lens, Lyon and Monaco. We all know that these clubs are not just ordinary clubs, they are elite clubs in League 1 so beating them is not It's easy for Clermont. I think Clermont's chance of securing its position in Liga 1 is very unlikely.

A similar thing happened to Metz in the 2021/22 season, he was relegated and last season he was no longer competing in league 1, but this season he is back in league 1, but there has been no significant improvement for Metz, currently he is still struggling to secure his position in league 1 and he is right above Clermont with a difference of 3 points in 17th place if he does not improve and perform surprisingly in the remaining matches this season it is possible that he will be relegated again, it is a shame for Metz that his performance in league 1 over the last 3 seasons has been very bad.

I always like it when a good coach goes back to their team. He was good there, he did fine and I am guessing that they are expecting the same again from him, which he will probably provide as well. This doesn't mean that they are going to end up with anything major, but it's clear that they are going to do better at least.

Keeping the same manager for years makes no sense, if you see bad results, even if it is within 10 games, you fire them. I know it is quite unusual at this point of the season because we are getting pretty close to end, but I also understand that they feared what might happen if they kept him, so firing and getting Kombouare is a lot better idea and will benefit them, I am expecting better results now.

Actually Clermont Foot still has bigger chance for staying in Ligue 1 next season behind on the bottom position standings awhile, but Ligue 1 have regulation with two bottom standings teams will relegated to Ligue 2 and has opportunity as the third bottom standings has second chance trough playoff relegation. Clermont Foot remaining six points left from Lorient and Ligue 1 has 8 matches left.

But Clermont have to face many difficult teams on their matches left for upcoming match against PSG, then has Lens, AS Monaco and Lyon will be most difficult team for defeating.  Get more time to recovery with international break out I think Clermont has opportunity get one points against PSG with inconsistency performance in domestic league currently.

But in fact, this season is the third season for Clermont to play in Ligue 1, and in the first season Clermont played in Ligue 1 also that Clermont only finished right above the relegation zone. But indeed, last season was a good season for Clermont because Clermont managed to finish in the top 10 but unfortunately, in this season or in this third season Clermont experienced a decline in performance and was very threatened with relegation. Although indeed, Clermont so far only has 20 points and is 6 points different from Lorient, which is right above the relegation zone. Despite only having a gap of 6 points like that, I am personally not sure about Clermont being able to rise to overtake the four teams above them. Because of course, teams like Metz, Nantes and also Lorient will same try good and well of course to stay in Ligue 1.

A club that has large finances and continues to spend a lot of money to bring in star players with great skills will ultimately experience losses because if the goal is to win big titles such as the Champions League, it should not need to be too ambitious and continuously pressure players to continue to stay at PSG. and putting pressure on winning the champions league title, while the burden you say will ultimately reduce the quality of the players' performance and their enthusiasm will decrease.
Like the case of Kylian Mbappe last season, in the end it seemed as if Mbappe performed really well, but we don't know whether he had given all his skills and caused a big loss to PSG when he had to leave for free when his contract had finished.

There are still several other risks such as losses that do not get anything from the initial goal, in the end the money that has been spent does not get any return and maybe I have to agree with you that developing the talent of young players from academics would be better or for example bringing in 1 star players and several players others from young academic players.
In this way PSG will not lose too much.

The Leagues are rounding up And every clubs in battle for UCL spots must now maintain comsistency while fighting for the spot else they’ll be overthrown by their oppositions. This is what’s happening in almost every league at this point. For the Ligue 1, in next season’s expanded Ucl, we’ll have the top 3 teams going through and the 4th going through a round of qualification. Most of these teams are trying to avoid finishing 4th but one thing must finish in that spot.

 PSG are very secured as Brest draw to Lile made the gap between Psg and Brest who sits 2nd widen to about 12 points after 6-2 win for PSg over the weekend. Now the points between the 2nd to 5th position seems real close and now consistency must come in this final 10-12 games. Monaco have a huge experience on this kind of game and they are going to be having some easier fixtures as compared to Brest and Lile. Yes but that doesn’t mean some upset can’t happen. It’s football and the underdogs proves to be the spoilers most times so Moanco must be beware and make sure they’re getting all 3 points match in and out so that they can remain safe.

 Lille too are also on the run and I don’t see them giving up any time soon especially as their player is about 6 goals behind Mbappe in the league’s goal scoring chart. This goes to show how solid their attacking prowess is and it shouldn’t be underrated at all at any point. I would love to see how this league fight ends but I have my predictions already. I think Brest who have been without a win in the last 2 matches could finish 3rd and Monaco climbing up to 2nd, leaving Lile in 4th as I don’t think Nice and Lens will be able to go past Lile talk more of Brest and Monaco.

I can assume that they will be relegated from League 1 and the transformation will not happen. They are worse than their competitors in literally everything (only Lorient conceded more goals, but scored much more).
As for the upcoming games, I think in the game with PSG their chances are quite real - PSG has already secured the title and now they have decisive games in the Champions League, they just don’t care about Ligue 1 now.

The shortcuts made by PSG certainly make them a strong team in a very short time, and certainly it is not difficult for them to continue to be able to get many star players with the power of money they currently have, but of course PSG must be prepared for risks that are also detrimental to their finances if if the star players they buy now are not able to meet the expectations charged in achieving the championship target,  For now, what PSG is doing I don't think is entirely wrong, because will be difficult for a team to develop only by relying on the talents of academy players, yes maybe at least PSG must also be brave to orbit their young players into the current main squad in order to at least reduce their expenses.

Leverkusen in the Bundesliga are currently able to surprise many people with their achievements, but I think using Leverkusen as an example to compare PSG is certainly not realistic guys, because we all know how long it took Leverkusen to make history like now, and I think PSG will not want to wait that long to be able to make their team strong not only in Ligue 1 but of course the big teams of the Europa League so far become their benchmark for development.

I love his pattern of coaching because during his time on Nantes wining was very easy for Nantes and with his good coaching skills he was able to build the club very well but after he left things became very bad for Nantes because they are not use to there current coach and even his coaching pattern is not working for the club because if it does they wouldn't have been on the relegation zone they are now, so like you said having Antoine Kombouaré back to the team will actually improve the performance of Nantes and possibly bring them out of the relegation zone because they still have the opportunity to improve on the table if they put more efforts.

Paulo Fonseca was feel dissapoint because last season he was failed to bringing Lille to finish at champion league spots so that's why this season he was targetting Lille should be able to finish at top 3 and it is very possible to do so because the difference points between Lille and Monaco is not too far but indeed during this season Lille performance a bit not consistent although until week 26 Lille only lost 5 times but they got 10 draw and these records too makes Lille as the team with the most draw this season in Ligue 1 so it cannot be says impressive because basically Lille was losing plenty of points from their previous matches

About their chances at Conference League i think advances to the quarterfinal is very impressive achievement but unfortunately Lille upcoming opponent is Aston Villa one of the strongest candidate on that competition and my prediction about this match is Lille journey on Conference League possibly will be stopped because Aston Villa is too strong for them moreover just like i said before Unai Emery has been makes Aston Villa performance is very consistent in all competitions and about Lille schedules indeed they will facing tight schedules because besides playing at Conference League for quarterfinal matches against Aston Villa in Ligue 1 Lille also will facing several strong teams just like Lens, Marseille and Monaco

This has always been my concern for PSG they don't seem to  look like such a team thst is willing to be patient enough to want to build a team for the scratch and probably get to the point they become so formidable they will be able to be very productive even outside the Ligue 1 but they rather choose to keep focusing on starts with the mind that that's the way to helping them been able to achieve the kind of results they want to get.

If they are willing to build a team using young stars and talents such as the likes of coman and nkunku who were all gotten from their academy, they will be able to get a team thst will give them the kind of results they Desire even if it's going to take sometimes, but in the end it will be worth the wait and it will be even cost effective for them, just like Leverkusen now who's doing so well already and they are getting these results with their own players they did nurtured and not buying stars alone, it's even much better a team is able to build a star and get him to give the team the kind of performance they desire to get and later sell him off at a huge price which will now be another source of income to the team.

The Ligue 1 has always been the only place where PSGs dominance has been felt the most, they can possibly become a better team outside this small league where it seems their prowess is the most if only they are willing to probably risk a whole season to fixing the team and getting the team to produce the desired results and subsequent they would have a reliable team they can actually depend on the getting the kind of results they wanted all along.

PSG is comfortable enough to win Ligue 1 and qualify for the Champions League because they have collected a lot of points and it is very difficult for challengers to catch up on their points. Brest, Monaco, Lille and Nice still have the opportunity to catch up with each other to qualify for the Champions League and the competition is still quite tight for these four clubs. The remaining matches will determine who will top the points and those who are eliminated will lose their place in qualifying for the Champions League.

Brest and Monaco have a much bigger chance because their potential to qualify is much greater. Both of them just need to play consistently in the remaining matches so that they will get tickets to the Champions League. Lille and Nice can chase each other to qualify for the European league and both will compete with each other.

Nantes decided to bring back Antoine Kombouaré to the club, again.
Well, actually, this time, Antoine Kombouaré will have bigger and harder challenge in this club.
For, as much as possible, he must encourage Nantes to leave the relegation zone. Actually, there is still a tie because the number of points between Nantes and the club above is not too far apart. But unfortunately, in their first match with their new coach, Nantes had to play against a top club, Nice. And this will certainly not be easy and full of challenges for Nantes. So, it may not be as quick as the club would hope.


Surprisingly, it is.
I also just realized that last season Clermont performed quite well, that is, for a middle class club, they have done quite well.
But this season, there is no other word than bad. Yes, their achievements were really bad, so they ended up in the lowest position.
See the difference here:

French League 2022/2023


vs French League 2023/2024


source: Google

I tried to find out last season's standings where Clermont finished in 8th place in the standings and what we see this season is far from what they did last season. Currently Clermont is slumping at the bottom of the standings and is at risk of being relegated. The reason is that from 26 matches they only collected 4 wins, 8 draws and 14 defeats. Obviously that's not a good result and is very chaotic for the season.

Now Clermont need at least 6 points to get away from the relegation zone and they have to get it before it's all over. But of course it's not easy because Metz and Nantes will always shadow them. In the next two matches, Clermont will face Toulouse and PSG, of course it won't be easy, especially against PSG, they will definitely lose. But at least Clermont should win against Toulouse later and that will be a turning point for them with the remaining games currently available.

If we only talk about team that also compete in other leagues, Marseille is also still part of the European League and Marseille will have quarter-final match, and this is difficult match because they will meet Benfica.
So it not just LOSC that has other matches for this season so there is no reason for anyone to try to maintain their position during this season even though LOSC is in the process of maintaining their ability to still have UCL ticket next season.
It just that LOSC must try to increase its points tally and minimize losses to be able to catch 3rd place or runner-up, Monaco and Brest can still be chased if LOSC really has stability and much more consistent performance.

If LOSC is eliminated from the Conference League, it is very likely that LOSC can maintain it and do their best because they will focus on Ligue 1 during this season, which only has few matches left.
We see what they will do and how they fight to get points from each match that will be played.

I don't know Coman. but I know Nkunku was from the academy of PSG and this player came from PSG when he was a very young player. But unfortunately, PSG doesn't pay attention to the younger talents they have, instead, they pay too much money for the players like Mbappe and other superstars, so they have to force them to stay in the team. I think the management system in PSG is wrong and they are the main problem because if they try to use the younger player they had before like Nkunku, they can have a much better performance than this.
That's what other teams do, they try to hire or raise the younger players instead of buying expensive players, which can be a much better and cheaper way for them to have players like Mbappe on the team.