After Rennes-Lyon- “From half-time, we could already be at 0-4 …”: Genesio’s anti-OL plan worked miracles

In five weeks, Roazhon Park has seen PSG and Lyon leave with their heads down and their suitcase full as regards the players of President Jean-Michel Aulas. Two victories which obviously owe nothing to chance and which come to mark an already very solid start to the season of a Stade Rennais, now fifth in Ligue 1, one point behind the Nice-Marseille duo and two behind the runners-up of PSG, the Racing Club of Lens. All with the fourth attack and the second defense of the elite. Especially with one of the best performances of a team since the start of the season this Sunday evening against OL.

“Congratulations to Rennes, 4-1 it’s deserved. From half-time, we could already be at 0-4. If we only had 0-1, it’s because we were lucky, it’s not because we defended well. “Peter Bosz, coach of Olympique Lyonnais, saw the same thing as the others: without an Anthony Lopes of the very big nights, his players could have, and perhaps should have, returned to the locker room with a much larger outlay It’s quite simple: at the break Rennes had struck their opponent 12 times against zero.The final total (25 against 6) is hardly less impressive and testifies to Rennes’ ultra domination.

“We were bad tonight, continued Bosz at a press conference. Collectively. With the ball, without the ball. It was not the Lyon that I saw this last month“. On the Rennes side, we obviously appreciated.”It’s a magical evening, we said we had to attack this match as if we were playing PSG“, recalled Adrien Truffert, author of a double.

“We had a big game, a good start. We put them under pressure as the coach had requested. We continued to press them. We were rewarded. This victory is deserved“, insisted Hamari Traoré, also a scorer, at the microphone of Prime Video. Pressure, intensity and crazy rhythm are the Breton ingredients since the start of the season. For Bosz, the evening’s result is not the consequence of any battle tactic won by his counterpart, Bruno Genesio: “It has nothing to do with the tactics, the strategy, we were very bad. They sprinted more, played ball a lot better, lost a lot less balls than we did. We knew it was a big game, that Rennes was a competitor to Europe. I have no explanation. I tried, but I wasn’t in it either“.

Listening to Rennes, however, we say to ourselves that the former Lyon technician had reserved a dirty trick for his former friends. Adept at 4-4-2 since the start of the season, he opted for a 4-3-3 this Sunday. He explained it to Prime Video: “It was both an anti-OL plan and a feeling over the training week. It was also to be able to integrate Lovro Majer who had made a very good match against Mura (in the Europa League Conference Thursday). In this system, he is more comfortable because he has the ability to make the last pass, to bring us technical serenity. And we wanted to be stronger in the middle against this team which is very, very strong in this area of ​​play.. “

The OL community has for once taken the water

Assessment, Thiago Mendes, Bruno Guimaraes and Maxence Caqueret took to the water in the first period. By putting Lucas Paqueta back in the thick of the game after the break, Bosz hoped to turn the tide. Alas, Traore’s second goal hit the head of his team. “At the start of the second half, we started to move back, I went to see Flavien Tait to tell him to move on, that the others would follow us“, told the latter to Amazon. It was after this little discussion that he found himself in the surface to pierce Lopes.

This Rennes never wants to back down. “It’s been a while since we imposed a pressing and a higher pace on the teams we face, confirms Genesio who has ruled out any idea of ​​personal revenge. Sometimes it’s better done like tonight. It is a desire that we have to impose our game, to try to win the balls as high as possible. Sometimes the good teams manage to get the ball out well anyway. Lyon had more trouble technically. “

“We have playing principles that we have not respected. When we don’t respect them or no longer, we take goals“, more simply regrets Léo Dubois the captain of the OL. This match was finally the confirmation that this Lyon is not yet a” finished “team. The margin which separates it from Rennes much more advanced in its collective construction even with weaker individuals is obviously weaker than that seen this Sunday, but this match is as much a warning as it is a great message of hope for the supporters of Stade Rennais.