Aurélien Tchouaméni, Gaëtan Laborde, Benjamin Bourigeaud, Seko Fofana, Ludovic Blas or Mattéo Guendouzi may have been wondering since Tuesday evening why they are not among the nominees for the UNFP trophy for the best player of the season in Ligue 1. If the winner announced Kylian Mbappé, but also Martin Terrier and Wissam Ben Yedder (21 goals each), and even Dimitri Payet, the driving force behind OM’s second place, can hardly be disputed in this list, the presence of Lucas Paqueta is more surprising.
First of all because OL are struggling in 7th place in the standings, far from their podium ambitions. But also because the Brazilian international has been down for four months, with only 2 goals scored in Ligue 1. If his total since the start of the season (8 goals and 5 assists in 34 games) remains precious, the former Milanese had started on much higher bases last summer. Its activity and its influence in the Lyon game have clearly dropped in 2022, and this observation is not unrelated to OL’s difficulties in securing a European place.