French Soccer League Predictions and Discussion Thread (Ligue 1)

[Juse14]

Marseille suffered their first defeat in the league against Strasbourg, one of the in-form teams in the league and one that has no problem scoring goals. Thus, they took a step back in the race. In a match with plenty of positions for both teams, Strasbourg won with Moreira's goal.
Nantes drew 2-2 with Saint Etienne at home. Etienne, who suffered a heavy defeat against Nice last week, managed to draw against Nantes despite being 2-0 down.

Though comprehensible, the loss to Strasbourg justified its position based on the run of form thanks to the opponents. But if Marseille wants to keep itself in the title race, it has to do better with its form in the subsequent games.

On the contrary, Nantes must feel disappointed about failing to maintain their two-goal lead over Saint Etienne. It ended up being a draw game, which granted Nantes one point, but to let the opponents tie after such a breakthrough lead probably means some certain problems with attention and focus-consistency. Hence Nantes is supposed to enhance its defense, especially while carrying a match, if they do not want to lose points that matter.

..............

For a goalkeeper that's contracted with Paris Saint Germaine till the summer of 2026, I think it's too early to panic about a contract extension. The Italian goalkeeper wasn't absent in PSG's recent games because of the contract extension saga but because he's currently receiving treatment from an injury that's sidelined him for over a week now. There's a report that Gianluigi Donnarumma will feature for the French champions when they play against Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League this week

You’re right. There shouldn’t be any panic over Gianluigi Donnarumma extending his contract with Paris Saint-Germain, given that his current deal runs until 2026. His recent absences were not for a contract saga but because of an injury.

[bitgolden]

In the photo we can see all the players who were called up for the game against Arsenal, and Dembélé was not called up. This shows how angry the PSG coach is with him and this is the worst path for Dembélé, because the coach will decide not to put Dembélé to play and Dembélé will be forced to leave PSG, and will probably go to some small team. He is destroying his career, I hope he fixes this. before it's too late. Because it's hard for a coach to exclude a player on purpose, but if the PSG coach did it, then it's because the PSG coach is disappointed with Dembélé's bad behavior and is already thinking about removing him from the team. Coaches hardly ever go back on their word in these scenarios.

I am not surprised even just a bit. It's clear that Dembele is a player who barely contributes anything and he is acting as if he is  a star. They already lost one player who was an actual star but did acted like one too so they had problems with ego already, they can't handle another one where this time it's also a talentless player as well.

I think it's clear that we are going to see Dembele eventually dropped by them all together as well, sold to some other team for very small amount of money. Not like PSG is lacking wingers, they can find another one, or even if they want to they could just go buy another one, they have the money for it.

Dembele shouldn't be really bothered with, dude is just a headache and I think he doesn't worth it at all. The reality is that he has done too many mistakes that costed them games, and that alone is something that would be good enough reason, but the way he is doing bad things to just promote himself, is even worse than that.

[hahay]

I didn't think Strasbourg would really be able to play strongly and well in the home match against Marseille, so Strasbourg's victory even though it was only a score of 1-0 still surprised me. How could it not be, Marseille is in an unbeaten trend and also, the head to head between Strasbourg v Marseille looks quite balanced. Thus, I think a draw can still happen but  Strasbourg can really play well, and the statistics in this match also show that Strasbourg is a strong team that cannot be underestimated at all. With results like this, even though I think I have made a safe choice, I still lost the bet.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Defeating Rennes 3:1 at home I think was a good preparatory performance for Paris Saint Germaine who'll travel to London in the midweek to face English Premier League club Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League competition. Like you rightly said, Arsenal is a very strong team that's very capable of beating any of the top teams in Europe but I believe that Luis Enrique has all it takes to fight them.

Paris Saint Germaine have dominated the French league for far too long and must extend their dominance to Europe now before they can be considered as an European heavyweight. A win for the French champions at the Emirates will help improve the mentality and confidence of PSG but I strongly doubt they'll be able to beat Mikel Arteta's men.

Arsenal v Paris Saint-Germain: Dembele left at home by Enrique
France winger was substituted late in Friday night's win.

Source: https://www.goal.com/en-in/lists/psg-star-ousmane-dembele-dropped-champions-league-arsenal-bust-up-manager-luis-enrique/blt65d5917554295630#csb99fc22d80a51b82

This is just incredible, when PSG had a good squad, they did not have a good coach. And now when they have a good coach, the coach is not being able to bring in really good results because he does not have the quality of squad that Christophe Galtier had, lol

I think Luis Enrique is still bringing in good results, results which are much more consistent. The last match against Rennes was good for PSG. Even though I understand that Spanish tactician Luis Enrique is trying different things and it is working out for him and the club, I don’t think this is actually going to work out when they are going to play in the Champions League. if we talk about the French league, then I think Enrique is right and he will be able to win the league title without too much of a problem even though he does not have the superstars that PSG had a few seasons ago. Not having Mbappé is going to be the biggest problem for PSG when they are going to play in the Champions League. The strikers that PSG has right now are only good for the French league, not the Champions League. Now relation with Dembele seems not good to the coach, their performance will drop significantly next match against Arsenal I think.

[bitgolden]

Marseille somehow can't beat Strasbourg away for a couple of years and the streak still continues.    But I must also admit that it wasn't a lucky win. They played even better than Marseille mostly.

Now Marseille got 3 points behind PSG and Monaco. But no problem, it is very beginning. Besides probably many people are keenly waiting for the games among top 3 in later weeks of the season.  

Don't you think the Ligue 1 is more fun this year? These trio are making it more competitive. If things go like this until the end it will be the most thrilling season in many years. Because you know how much boring PSG domination has been...

I feel like 3 points is nothing and can be covered if it was an equal fight, but PSG is much better and I think the only one Marseille is chasing right now is Monaco.

We are not going to see Monaco end up playing better than PSG, and we are not going to see them do fine, we are going to end up with a lot of trouble and Monaco will eventually lose points and that means that Marseille has already used their chances and they can't lose any more points until Monaco loses points.

They will have to go on a winning streak if they have to, and I don't care how long it takes for Monaco to lose points, it could be next week, it could be 5 weeks later, all of the games from now until then should be won by Marseille so that they can keep fighting for the second spot. If they lose again, or even draw, before Monaco loses any points, that's not going to be ok and we are going to end up with a lot of troubles for them, it's just not going to be acceptable at all.