Ligue 1 2015/2016: Your Guide to the Season Ahead
Ligue 1 2015/2016: Your Guide to the Season Ahead Get French Football News A Note from the Editor: Explosive: not a word commonly associated with French football’s top flight in the 21st century. However, the 2014/15 campaign lived up to the aforementioned tag in some style, with Alexandre Lacazette-led surprise package Olympique Lyonnais taking PSG to the final pair of matches for the Ligue 1 top spot, not to mention Marcelo Bielsa’s revolutionary attempts at a magnificent, but unsustainable title charge with Marseille which fell to pieces come the turn of the calendar year. The introduction of so many new faces sitting on the end of substitute benches (or in some cases on top of ice boxes) across France injected a certain amount of unpredictability into Ligue 1’s 2014/15 edition which saw the league make positive strides, at least with regards to the entertainment factor. Leonardo Jardim, Hubert Fournier, Ghislain Printant and Willy Sagnol, to name a few, have all, in very short spaces of time, revolutionized their respective clubs’ reputations, for better or for worse. With such a vast array of tactical approaches, 2014/15 was the season during which Ligue 1 truly became the most ferociously volatile division in Europe. SC Bastia and Guingamp felled PSG, Lyon were dismantled by Nice at home and Marseille were embarrassed by Lorient. The lack of pan-club consistency made for frustrating viewing for hardcore fans, but enthralled the neutrals. As if 10 months of action-packed league football was not enough, French football has a way of making headlines, even during the off season.
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