Analysis: Three Tactical Takeaways from AS Monaco’s loss vs. Lyon
Although AS Monaco dominated huge portions of their match against Olympique Lyonnais, they frustratingly were made to pay for all their missed chances when Lyon bagged a late winner.
While the outcome didn’t accurately reflect the on-field action in a clash where ASM held the ascendancy in terms of expected goals, total shots, shots inside the box, possession and more, there were still many positives to be extracted from their performance.
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With this in mind, here’s three tactical takeaways from their game with OL.
Fofana excels with and without possession
The excellent body of work produced by Youssouf Fofana certainly deserves much praise, for he underlined what a class act he is. Combining power and finesse with his intelligent movement and tactical awareness, Fofana was a constant thorn in the side of Les Gones.
To start with his movement, and it was intriguing to see him start the match dropping into central defence to support Monaco’s efforts to build out from the back, which notably allowed Wilfried Singo to push high and wide. This, in turn, paved the way for Krepin Diatta to venture infield to cause some additional marking dilemmas for their foes.
Fofana was then clearly instructed to push on in the second half especially, where he essentially acted as a number 10 as ASM’s shape morphed into something resembling a 3-4-3 diamond or a 3-1-5-1, with Adi Hutter keen to use his skills higher up.
Impacting proceedings heavily with his positional nous and versatility, he enjoyed engaging in some neat interplay, embarking on some of his customary powerful trademark runs and also rotated smoothly with his fellow attackers.
It was particularly interesting to see the physically imposing midfielder often take up a role as his team’s most advanced midfielder – ahead of even nominal 10s in Takumi Minamino and Maghnes Akliouche.
By the numbers, the fact he had the second most touches inside box (5) of anyone afield (behind just Folarin Balogun on 6), completed the second most successful dribbles (4) of any player on both teams (behind only Diatta on 5), made 14 ball recoveries, embarked on six progressive runs, chimed in with five interceptions, unleashed four shots and won three aerial duels demonstrated his exceptional output.
Although he came close to scoring from both open play and set piece scenarios, another area where he flexed his muscles, his terrific, multifaceted body of work was a real highlight and yet again illustrated why the French international’s one of the elite operators in Ligue 1.
High press bears fruit
There were countless occasions in this fixture where Les Monegasques’ man oriented high pressing bore fruit. Doing an excellent job of forcing Lyon wide and then hemming them in, where they used the touchline as an extra defender, plus angled their harrying to shut off infield passing routes, they persistently nullified Lyon’s build-up while regularly regaining possession.
How the midfielders and defenders aggressively got touchtight when their markers were receiving back to goal was another key towards their success, for this ensured they struggled to enjoy any time to control passes or had much room to turn away.
Setting traps wisely to give their foes the perception a teammate was free before ramping up the pressure, and knowing when to leave their designated tracker to offer support, Mohamed Camara’s 53rd minute effort that struck the post was a terrific example of their effective pressing.
Interestingly, after this scare, it was obvious Lyon altered their approach to going long more often than not.
Creating a handful of solid opportunities from turning the ball over in ideal areas against a spread out Lyon, who were trying to construct offensive moves of their own, it was clear Hutter had prepared diligently on the training ground on their way to recovering the ball 42 times in the opposition half and making 21 high and 46 medium regains.
ASM do damage between the lines
The intelligent movement between the lines of Minamino and Akliouche (and at times Fofana too), was another key asset for the home side.
So aware of their surroundings and the positioning of their colleagues and their adversaries, the dynamic duo’s movement was on full show to occupy dangerous locations.
Picking up quickly if Balogun was pinning markers, the wide players were drawing the attention of foes and awake to ball watching opponents, it was impressive watching them pounce to link play and breathe life into attacks with their creative passing, shooting threat and dribbling wizardry.
Placing constant confusion in the minds of markers and always asking questions, how they interchanged and even dropped deep or wider on occasion compounded issues for the Lyon rearguard.
By getting within close proximity to one another, plus the likes of Balogun and Fofana, this gave ASM a terrific central presence to combine intricately in close and generate overloads in quality zones to enhance their danger.