French Soccer League Predictions and Discussion Thread (Ligue 1)

[wiss19]

There are many factors that play a role in bringing a team to become a champion, but financial strength plays a big role among all the other factors. Some clubs that have star players in the team, sometimes have to let them go, because the club financial condition requires them to do so. This cycle often happens, and Mbappe transfer from AS Monaco to PSG is one example.

With financial strength, PSG can also cut down the time to build an ideal team, PSG is also able to unite them all in one transfer window. That is what makes the competition in Ligue 1 never balanced, but this season, I see a slight improvement. Marseille and AS Monaco have at least made the competition in the Champions League zone even fiercer than the previous season.

Now finances are key for success any club because having quality players must without them no club can go through for top spots in any league while in France we have after good investment Marseille and Monaco improving their performance which helping them for challenging PSG.

After this clubs needed good depth in players which is only possible if they have good coach without this it's also not possible to win trophies while playing together give them good chance of understanding and having experience. PSG have no good depth and good experience which always creates problems, but now things are taking changes and management keeping faith in Luis Enrique who is doing things which will help them in long run for success

[pusaka]

The first match for matchday 17 will be held today, it is a match between Nantes & AS Monaco. Briefly, we can find out which team is the favorite in this match. That is AS Monaco where they also have a clear objective to eliminate Marseille in second place in the Ligue 1 standings.

Talking about the Ligue 1 standings, PSG's points gap is too big with Marseille & AS Monaco, in your opinion, is there a big possibility that PSG will fail to win the Ligue 1 title this season?

Monaco football team played match against Nantes football team and that was two sided match because both teams played well in this match and match was ended with draw.  Both teams did 2,2 goals in this match and no team could ahead in this match and Abline was the first person who did first goal of this match and he gave good start to his team and he did goal at 12 minutes of the match and after his goal, one more player from Nantes football team did goal goal and now he did goal at 47 minutes of the match and after this one player from Monaco football team took step for his team and he did goal at 52 minutes of the match and he gave power to the players of his team and after that team got confidence and one more player did goal in this match.

This is actually quite a disappointing result for Monaco, because they missed an opportunity where on paper they were more favored to win, but they couldn't get the win. This is also a bad result for them in the last 5 matches, yes because they could only get 1 win from those 5 matches, 2 draws and 2 losses. And even they were quite lucky because they could still get 1 point after they had to be 2 goals behind first. That was also quite surprising for me, because I actually hoped they could win. But indeed in a football match, we can't predict accurately and that's what happened in this match.

[Fiatless]

I agree with you, Messi has contributed with Goals and Assists to lead PSG to win the title in the domestic competition, but he was unable to carry PSG to win the UCL trophy because they are still unable to compete with other top clubs. At that time, PSG front line was filled with the world's best players, Messi, Neymar and Mbappe, while in other positions PSG also had classy players, so all players had the same responsibility. Psychological problems can affect his performance, but as a professional player he has done his best for the team he plays for.

Messi was not the player he used to be when he left Barcelona for PSG. Would I saw that he failed to gain his rhythm because he was used to the pattern of play of his former club? Barca had some of the best players that helped the Argentine shine in Spain.

A tree cannot make a forest, therefore saying that he didn't contribute much to the club is unfair. He did all he could because they won League One but failed to make an impact in the UCL. The failure of the reign of the super attacking duo of Mbappe, Neymar, and Messi was challenged by their inability to put aside personal ambition for the club's glory.

[Odohu]

That's Where you can see the inefficiency in the Players that they are famous for. Some say it was the coach's fault , that it's impossible for players like These to not reach the final of a UCL and not win it. I don't Know , but they're partly right. It could be that the strategy was never adequate, but it was also a lack of discipline on the part of the sheikh. When he saw that he didn't win anything, he changed coaches, but he didn't. One mistake led to another and so on and they went down. One thing that can't be forgotten is that they were the sole and undisputed Leaders of Ligue 1, but that's all.

Wrong bro, PSG never got to the Champions League finals with the squad of Messi, Neymar and Mbappe. In fact PSG with this trio got knocked out in Round 16 twice in two consecutive years. The season that PSG got to the Champions League finals was in 2020 when they played and lost to Bayern Munchen 1-0 it was only Neymar and Mbappe that was in that squad and not Messi, the season Messi joined they were knocked out in round 16 as well as the next season

True, while Messi himself joined PSG in the 2021 season and ended it in 2023 which means that during these two season Messi did not contribute anything to PSG in the UCL competition, Messi did play well for PSG but that was only in Ligue 1 in his last season, namely 2022/23.
Only Neymar and Mbappe are the best players for PSG, Messi is just player with an expensive price and high salary but is not dominant player for PSG success, now they are all just memories for PSG so that in the future maybe PSG will give birth to young potential that can make them stronger again.

If it is possible for Lionel Messi, he will just delete his record of going to PSG from his football career because he practically achieved nothing in France apart from winning those local trophies which PSG usually win with or without him. When he joined the team, I was actually thinking it was the right time for PSG to win the Champions League trophy as they hard the best trio in the world as at that time. A combination of Neymar, Messi and Mbappe out to comfortably bring the UCL title home but it turned out that was one of the worst moment of the club as they did not near even the final before they were disgraced out of the competition.

[Palakka]

talking about UCL, when Messi, Neymar and Mbappe failed to bring PSG champions, then what kind of player are we expected can to bring PSG championsip?

That's Where you can see the inefficiency in the Players that they are famous for. Some say it was the coach's fault , that it's impossible for players like These to not reach the final of a UCL and not win it. I don't Know , but they're partly right. It could be that the strategy was never adequate, but it was also a lack of discipline on the part of the sheikh. When he saw that he didn't win anything, he changed coaches, but he didn't. One mistake led to another and so on and they went down. One thing that can't be forgotten is that they were the sole and undisputed Leaders of Ligue 1, but that's all.

At the moment we actually don't know what other problems PSG has besides Mentality, because so far I think PSG management has done many ways to be able to bring the team to the UCL championship, but indeed in this case I think what you said is true, the change of coach that continues to them every 2 years certainly makes the coach have minimal time and difficulty in managing the team, so I think management might need to consider giving a contract to the coach for the long term at this time.

Wrong bro, PSG never got to the Champions League finals with the squad of Messi, Neymar and Mbappe. In fact PSG with this trio got knocked out in Round 16 twice in two consecutive years. The season that PSG got to the Champions League finals was in 2020 when they played and lost to Bayern Munchen 1-0 it was only Neymar and Mbappe that was in that squad and not Messi, the season Messi joined they were knocked out in round 16 as well as the next season

What you said is true, but still at that time PSG have a lot of stars players in the squad and even 90% of football fans at that time saw that PSG would be able to get their first UCL trophy, but unfortunately they still failed to get it, public confidence in them is getting bigger after messi joined, but in fact PSG performance in the UCL has decreased because they were only able to reach the round of 16, so doesn't this show that messi is a failed recruitment from PSG if we talk about the UCL?

[Velvet78]

It is really happening!    PSG is about to sign Kvara officially.

This would be a mega signing for them honestly. Undoubtedly the best one in the recent years at the same time. I thought there would be other top teams also to have an intention to sign him. Like Liverpool. But maybe they didn't want him because of having Diaz. Anyways, this kind of steps should be taken by PSG to increase their chance for bigger achievements such as a Champions League trophy. Napoli did the right thing by selling him because he also didn't intend to stay longer just as Osimhen.

[karabiber]

It is really happening!    PSG is about to sign Kvara officially.

This would be a mega signing for them honestly. Undoubtedly the best one in the recent years at the same time. I thought there would be other top teams also to have an intention to sign him. Like Liverpool. But maybe they didn't want him because of having Diaz. Anyways, this kind of steps should be taken by PSG to increase their chance for bigger achievements such as a Champions League trophy. Napoli did the right thing by selling him because he also didn't intend to stay longer just as Osimhen.

Choosing Kvaratskhelia over Osimhen is a bad move for PSG. I don't want to say anything about his talent, but he is not a good fit for PSG. I think Osimhen would have contributed much more to PSG. Manchester United or Chelsea would have been more beneficial for Kvaratskhelia. He could have proved himself in the EPL but he chose Ligue 1, perhaps for the money. Kvaratskhelia is a footballer with great talent but I think he lacks stability and he is not mentally strong. He should definitely go to the EPL. Because he could prove himself there and eliminate the stability problem.

[junder]

It is really happening!    PSG is about to sign Kvara officially.

This would be a mega signing for them honestly. Undoubtedly the best one in the recent years at the same time. I thought there would be other top teams also to have an intention to sign him. Like Liverpool. But maybe they didn't want him because of having Diaz. Anyways, this kind of steps should be taken by PSG to increase their chance for bigger achievements such as a Champions League trophy. Napoli did the right thing by selling him because he also didn't intend to stay longer just as Osimhen.

Congratulations Luis Enrique for getting additional new ammunition, congratulations also to PSG who were able to bring in a player of Kvara class. I don't want to comment on why he chose PSG over other big clubs and vice versa why it had to be him and not Osimhen who was PSG choice.
The point is this choice is the best according to them, and I believe Enrique has prepared a plan for the player, anyway, hopefully Kvara can help improve the quality of PSG game especially in European competitions.

[bangjoe]

The Brest vs Lyon match will start soon. Lyon are struggling with financial crises off the field. But they are getting good results on the field. When I look at the statistics, I see that they have 7 wins, 3 draws and 1 defeat in their last 11 league matches. They lost only to Paris Saint Germain. They beat Montpellier 1-0 in their last league game. On the other hand, Brest have 3 defeats and 2 wins in their last 5 league games. In their 16 league games this season they have 6 wins, 9 defeats and 1 draw. I think this match is unlikely to end in a draw according to these statistics. I think Lyon will win this match. But I will not bet on this match.

Brest played well enough that Lyon had a hard time making a meaningful move to get a goal, we saw how enthusiastic Brest players were in the first half and in the 8th minute made a goal that could not be blocked by Lyon players, Mahdi Camara and Ludovic managed to make goals for Brest to get a further lead in the first half and Lyon could only make one goal in the last minute of the first half, and the sad thing here is that Brest chose to do a full defensive strategy to maintain its victory so that Lyon's troops had a hard time making opportunities to produce additional goals and this match was won by Brest with a score of 2-1.

Statistics are important but the ball is still round, victory can roll to any team that has a better strategy.

[Asiska02]

True, while Messi himself joined PSG in the 2021 season and ended it in 2023 which means that during these two season Messi did not contribute anything to PSG in the UCL competition, Messi did play well for PSG but that was only in Ligue 1 in his last season, namely 2022/23.
Only Neymar and Mbappe are the best players for PSG, Messi is just player with an expensive price and high salary but is not dominant player for PSG success, now they are all just memories for PSG so that in the future maybe PSG will give birth to young potential that can make them stronger again.

Mbappe and Neymar spent longer time in PSG than Messi did, so you won’t expect their performance and contributions to the team to be the same, there will definitely be some difference between them. What baffles me the more was that the three of them once played in the champions league altogether for PSG and they still didn’t make it far in the champions league and had to be be eliminated earlier than expected which suppose to be unusual.

PSG have been battling for the champions league trophy for a long time as far as I know and the signing of this big players and having them the same time in one team was suppose to give them the bigger hope of winning the trophy, but they still failed just like every other season. This is to show that, it’s not by the number of players you have in your team, but by how you can use them to produce good results for the team.

[hahay]

The score at half time was 1-1, but I am still quite confident that Marseille will win this away game. Because at least, Marseille is the team that has the best results for away games so far this season in Ligue 1 and thus, maybe in the second half Marseille will succeed in scoring their second goal. Although it may only be a narrow win, but it is still an important result  for Marseille to strengthen its position in second place in the standings. Although indeed, basically Rennes is also not a weak team but, considering that at this moment Rennes is only in the middle zone of the standings, with a trend that is not good enough like that it will give Marseille a good chance to beat Rennes in this match.

[Hyphen(-)]

The score at half time was 1-1, but I am still quite confident that Marseille will win this away game. Because at least, Marseille is the team that has the best results for away games so far this season in Ligue 1 and thus, maybe in the second half Marseille will succeed in scoring their second goal. Although it may only be a narrow win, but it is still an important result  for Marseille to strengthen its position in second place in the standings. Although indeed, basically Rennes is also not a weak team but, considering that at this moment Rennes is only in the middle zone of the standings, with a trend that is not good enough like that it will give Marseille a good chance to beat Rennes in this match.

Olympic Marseille is doing well ell in the League1 this season, they are  about to keep their record of the best away team this season in the League1, and today they are already winning 2-1 away from home after being down by one goal.
Kudos to all the players for putting more effort towards securing the three points so that the they can pressure PSG in the title race since Monaco is not doing the right thing despite having good players and young talented players.

Marseille is now very close to PSG with just four points clear, I think it’s time for PSG and other teams to perform well because this is the time for teams like Monaco and so on to bring am .

[Weawant]

It is really happening!    PSG is about to sign Kvara officially.

This would be a mega signing for them honestly. Undoubtedly the best one in the recent years at the same time. I thought there would be other top teams also to have an intention to sign him. Like Liverpool. But maybe they didn't want him because of having Diaz. Anyways, this kind of steps should be taken by PSG to increase their chance for bigger achievements such as a Champions League trophy. Napoli did the right thing by selling him because he also didn't intend to stay longer just as Osimhen.

In as much as this sounds really good and I'm loving this for them, at same time, I'm hoping Enrique is and will be able to manage him to attaining that top notch potential that will make him useful enough to attract more trophies to PSG and maybe helping to actualize the champions league dream some day. It's a mega signing as said by many but this isn't the first mega signing PSG has had before now so what matters most to me about this is the yielding result and productivity they will be getting from this.

[len01]

It is really happening!    PSG is about to sign Kvara officially.

This would be a mega signing for them honestly. Undoubtedly the best one in the recent years at the same time. I thought there would be other top teams also to have an intention to sign him. Like Liverpool. But maybe they didn't want him because of having Diaz. Anyways, this kind of steps should be taken by PSG to increase their chance for bigger achievements such as a Champions League trophy. Napoli did the right thing by selling him because he also didn't intend to stay longer just as Osimhen.

It's really great news but it looks a bit strange for Napoli. 
Initially I thought that Conte would keep Kvaratskhelia but it turned out that Napoli actually sold him to PSG who needed the player more and were tempted by the large amount.
The player's move to PSG will be highly anticipated news for sure. But for me Enrique must stick with his usual strategy of not relying too much on one player even though Kvaratskhelia can be very reliable but PSG needs solid teamwork.
Hopefully PSG will not end up the same as when PSG was still with several star players before.

[Akbarkoe]

The Brest vs Lyon match will start soon. Lyon are struggling with financial crises off the field. But they are getting good results on the field. When I look at the statistics, I see that they have 7 wins, 3 draws and 1 defeat in their last 11 league matches. They lost only to Paris Saint Germain. They beat Montpellier 1-0 in their last league game. On the other hand, Brest have 3 defeats and 2 wins in their last 5 league games. In their 16 league games this season they have 6 wins, 9 defeats and 1 draw. I think this match is unlikely to end in a draw according to these statistics. I think Lyon will win this match. But I will not bet on this match.

Brest played quite well in this match, so they were able to bring home three full points from Lyon. Actually, Brest only showed a little ball possession in this match, but they were able to take advantage of every opportunity they got well. Through goals scored by Camara in the 8th minute and Ajurque's goal in the 25th minute, they were able to take the lead with a score of 2-0 over Lyon, before finally before the first half really ended, Veretout managed to score one goal against Brest, which made the first half end with a score of 2-1.

And regarding the second half, in that half there were no goals scored at all, even though Lyon had made several attacks towards Brest to be able to equalize, but the results were nil, Brest's defense was quite solid, so the score did not change at all until the referee blew the long whistle.

[EarnOnVictor]

PSG can claim the French Ligue title much early before the season comes to an end. I doubt there is any team team that can stop them from winning the French Ligue title. Both Marseille and Monaco has been in form form this season but I don't think they can compete with PSG for the title.

That's what makes this league not so interesting because PSG can claim the title much earlier before the season ends so the league competition is not so competitive. It is difficult for any team to break PSG's dominance and that is not at all the competition that football lovers expect. To be a competitor for PSG in the fight for the title, it takes a balanced player strength and that is not possessed by Marseille or Monaco so it is difficult for both of them to compete with PSG.

You have a point, I just don't like it when there are no competitions in football leagues. This season too, we all know the winner already when we still have months to the end of the season, it shouldn't always be like that, fierce competition keenly competed is always interesting. Still, I absolve PSG from any wrongdoing but rather commend them for holding that top position for too many years while others look on. It's now a wake-up challenge to other clubs in the league, they can buy players and change coaches. PSG doesn't have two heads so they should be ready to break the jinx like what is happening in Serie A.

I'm not sure yet but maybe the solution for having more competitions in the French League is to have a more rich owner for the other teams as they have than in PSG. Since they have good a rich team in PSG they can have much better and more expensive players and coaches which makes PSG a much better team than other teams.
That's why even if PSG is not in the good for many other teams like Marseille and Monaco try hard they still can't have a fair competition with PSG.
Recently we saw rumors about Marseille and maybe the Arabs are interested in buying this team and hiring some superstar players for them but this team but until that time I don't think if we can see any competitions in the French League.

Yes, you get the point, no matter how, let them fix it, the competition there is a mess right now. You can see it even on the current table, the gaps are often too much and who knows if it will be worse in the next one month with PSG taking an insane lead as usual. But Marseille and Monaco are trying their best at the moment, hope they can maintain the feat. The solution is indeed a better investment in clubs in the league and securing good coaching management. I hope the lesser clubs can be bid by the rich Arab guys who can buy big players, that might be the beginning of the needed competition.

[W Jr.]

It is really happening!    PSG is about to sign Kvara officially.

This would be a mega signing for them honestly. Undoubtedly the best one in the recent years at the same time. I thought there would be other top teams also to have an intention to sign him. Like Liverpool. But maybe they didn't want him because of having Diaz. Anyways, this kind of steps should be taken by PSG to increase their chance for bigger achievements such as a Champions League trophy. Napoli did the right thing by selling him because he also didn't intend to stay longer just as Osimhen.

I don't think there's any player that would have secured them a position at playing  and winning the game today regardless of who they have at their disposal to play for them. Yesterday, Rennes played against Marseille and Marseille still won them 2-1. Although the game was against PSG but still PSG were very brilliant in the game. Psg last game was against Monaco and regardless of how PSH played Monaco's still tried their best and the game was a very interesting one. PSG are always the favourite to win in all competitions regardless of who's playing against them.

Once again, we saw that there is a really big difference between Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco. Although Monaco is one of the effective teams in the French league, Paris Saint-Germain played a completely dominant game in the match they played. I thought Monaco had a chance in the final, but when we look at the game and statistics, Paris Saint-Germain managed to take the match on its own. They also managed to win the final with the goal they scored in extra time. Now it is time for the French league match. Today they will face Saint Etienne. Of course, I think they will win the match. It is very difficult to find a team that can pass them in the French League. Also, if they transfer the Georgian player, they will become much stronger.

[ajanwalker]

It is really happening!    PSG is about to sign Kvara officially.

This would be a mega signing for them honestly. Undoubtedly the best one in the recent years at the same time. I thought there would be other top teams also to have an intention to sign him. Like Liverpool. But maybe they didn't want him because of having Diaz. Anyways, this kind of steps should be taken by PSG to increase their chance for bigger achievements such as a Champions League trophy. Napoli did the right thing by selling him because he also didn't intend to stay longer just as Osimhen.

It's really great news but it looks a bit strange for Napoli. 
Initially I thought that Conte would keep Kvaratskhelia but it turned out that Napoli actually sold him to PSG who needed the player more and were tempted by the large amount.
The player's move to PSG will be highly anticipated news for sure. But for me Enrique must stick with his usual strategy of not relying too much on one player even though Kvaratskhelia can be very reliable but PSG needs solid teamwork.
Hopefully PSG will not end up the same as when PSG was still with several star players before.

It is still not a transfer that has happened but I think (if it happens) it would be a wrong transfer. PSG already has Barcola and Dembele, what would they do by buying Kvara?
These are players with the same characteristics and there are already 2 players with those characteristics in the team. Kvara is a young player, if PSG wants to polish him and sell him for a higher price like Mbappe after some time, then it can happen, but Napoli would not sell such a player cheaply anyway.
Why would Napoli ruin the chemistry of the team by selling a player while they are heading towards the championship? It is not a transfer that will happen in the mid-season transfer period, I think it will happen at the end of the year.

[Pjcr7]

It is still not a transfer that has happened but I think (if it happens) it would be a wrong transfer. PSG already has Barcola and Dembele, what would they do by buying Kvara?
These are players with the same characteristics and there are already 2 players with those characteristics in the team. Kvara is a young player, if PSG wants to polish him and sell him for a higher price like Mbappe after some time, then it can happen, but Napoli would not sell such a player cheaply anyway.
Why would Napoli ruin the chemistry of the team by selling a player while they are heading towards the championship? It is not a transfer that will happen in the mid-season transfer period, I think it will happen at the end of the year.

The transfer will happen sooner or later, because from the information gathered he has already reached an agreement with PSG and his salary will be 4 or 5 times his current salary at Napoli. PSG is not a team that can polish any player, they always buy ready made players for exorbitant fees, PSG and Manchester City are the reason why transfer market of today is like this, buying players with big money. Besides PSG didn't sell Mbappe for a penny, he Mbappe was a free agent and Real Madrid got him for free.

[Velvet78]

Choosing Kvaratskhelia over Osimhen is a bad move for PSG. I don't want to say anything about his talent, but he is not a good fit for PSG. I think Osimhen would have contributed much more to PSG. Manchester United or Chelsea would have been more beneficial for Kvaratskhelia. He could have proved himself in the EPL but he chose Ligue 1, perhaps for the money. Kvaratskhelia is a footballer with great talent but I think he lacks stability and he is not mentally strong. He should definitely go to the EPL. Because he could prove himself there and eliminate the stability problem.

I don't know yet about whether they preferred Kvara over Osimhen. Who knows, maybe they are still interested in signing a striker as well and Osimhen is still their target... 

I also agree with your comment on Kvara. If I were in his place I would prioritize the Premier League. But it looks like he didn't get any offer from there. And obviously he didn't want to stay longer while having the opportunity.


Monaco are out of form recently. This was their 3rd point loss in a row and they are risking top 3 by doing this. On the other hand Marseille are doing quite good. That was a deserved win over Rennes. Rabiot - Greenwood duo did a good work.

Rabiot is top earner in the squad but he performs nicely. But Greenwood deserves special attention.    11 goals, 4 assists in the league so far, very impressive! Signing him for only 26 million euros was genius move.