French Ligue 1 season is cancelled- what happens next?

The French Ligue 1 season has been ended by French Prime Minister Edouard Phillippe.

The announcement means an immediate end to the season due to the Coronavirus pandemic, however the story doesn’t end there. The problem now for the French Football Federation is what to do next? There seems to be three choices which would be to declare the season null and void, to end the league as how it stands now or to count wins only and revise the table.

As far as winning the league there was only going to be one winner this season in PSG. The club are 12 points clear and with a game in hand over 2nd place with 11 games to play. It’s obvious that they were never going to get caught and the club will feel harshly done by if they are not awarded the league title.

Marseille could be left frustrated if the season is null and void. The club have had their best season in  years at last showing good consistency and are in 2nd place with 56 points and 6 points clear of 3rd. Indeed they are 7 points clear of not playing in the Champions League next season and they did look almost assured of being part of Europe’s elite club for the season after, now that is in the balance.

Rennes had won 15 games this season to put them in 3rd place and as it stands they would be entered into the qualifying stages for the Champions League. Though in 4th place is Lille who are just 1 point behind Rennes and they would feel very hard done by considering they had 10 games to make up 1 point.

Historical club Reims were in search of a long over due return to Europe too as they looked on course for a Europa League finish.

As for relegation Toulouse would certainly benefit with a null and void decision given that they have amassed only 13 points this season and are 10 points behind 19th placed Amiens- they were certainties to go down. Amiens were struggling too on 23 points and had fallen 7 points behind from safety.

The tricky part of the league if is declared by current standings is that Nimes are in 18th place with 27 points. Finishing here isn’t relegation but usually means a play-off with the team finishing in 3rd place in Ligue 2. So when would that play-off game take place?

Over the next few days there are many things to discuss, and what would be the fairest option should be put on the table. Also it is worth noting that Ligue 2 has also been stopped, simply put there will be no professional football in France until September.

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Toulouse are down and out but did VAR make the right decision?

Picture this if you will, down in bottom place of Ligue 1 and 14 points from safety, lost 18 games this season and conceded 51 goals. Nothing is going right for Toulouse and that was underlined at the weekend when playing at home they lost to Nice 2-0.

But there would be a couple of controversial moments during the game that certainly affected it for a club who prepared for this one. They had known that Nice do not have the best away record and that they have been a club when needed to win or expected to win against a bottom three side have done a great job in the past of messing it up. Toulouse knew they would be the outsiders- although curiously the bookmakers had matched up the sides with the same price and chance of winning. There was something in the air.

Toulouse look doomed in Ligue 1, but before the weekend, they looked doomed but had a small chance, a win here would have created a buzz missing in the club, and with no wins in the last four months, it was something that they needed. But the game was over before it had really got going after Nice took a 12th minute lead through Pierre Lees Melou. The balance was still there though and Toulouse were not about to give up. But fifteen minutes later the towel was thrown in with the help of VAR.

Toulouse defender Ruben Gabrielsen was adjudged to have made a professional foul but it did look 50/50 as both him and striker grappled for position. A straight red just seemed harsh in the circumstances but that’s what happened and when you are the bottom club, 1-0 down and now have 10 men in under 30 minutes it is literally game over. The home support voiced their frustrations but there was nothing they could do about it.

In the second half Toulouse had another player sent off, and this time VAR got it right. Steven Moreira kicked out but the referee only saw that as a yellow card until VAR intervened and changed it to a red card, and it was fully deserved. The icing on the cake ended with Toulouse missing a penalty to make it 1-1 and then Nice going down the other end to get their 2nd in a game that finished 2-0 to the away side.

Toulouse will look back at what looked like a controversial sending off, and one wonders unless a player is being very violent or comes in with a ‘leg breaking’ tackle if they need to be more lenient so early in games. After all having 11 players play 10 it just seems to end the contest before it has really got started, and no one wants that.

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Ligue 1 Player of the Weekend: Gaetan Charbonnier

It’s very possible you haven’t heard much about the Ligue 1 player of the weekend Gaetan Charbonnier. The striker was in impressive form as his club Brest destroyed bottom of the table Toulouse this past weekend by 5 goals to 2.

Charbonnier who is 31 has been in spectacular form since joining Brest. When the team played Toulouse in their last game it was seen as a tough game given that this was an away match and even though Toulouse have been very poor this season this was supposed to be quite a test for Brest who themselves had fallen down the table into the bottom half and hadn’t won for the last 3 games.

Charbonnier went on to score 2 goals in the game and assist in the fifth and final goal. Indeed it was his goals number 2 and 3 which ended up settling the game in his teams favour. His 2nd goal was the pick of the bunch. A great build up play between players and then a direct cross led to Charbonnier turning brightly and slotting home, the goal was like a pin ball strike and it killed the game off for Toulouse.

It hasn’t been an easy season for the striker who despite starting 17 games has only scored 3 goals this season, with 2 coming just last weekend. Though he has assisted in a further five goals.

The Brest striker is valued at 5m and earned 10 points this weekend beating off competition from PSG’s star striker Neymar and he has a total of 15 points so far. He has been booked 3 times and so far has no red cards to his name. Charbonnier will be hoping that the game against Toulouse opens up more opportunities for him in front of goal, and whilst he has had a poor first half of the season by his standards, the second half could be completely different. He is certainly great value at 5m if his form was to change after his man of the match performance.

Last season Charbonnier scored 27 goals, his best tally in Ligue 1 football and that is why this season has felt underwhelming. His best days are with Brest no doubt where he has become a prolific scorer but at this time his career will be remembered for playing well over 100 games with Stade Reims.

It could be worth adding Charbonnier to your team. Brest will have the objective to move back up the table and try to finish in the top half of the table after scoring 5 goals in one game, Brest and Charbonnier are pointing in the right direction.

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Sacking season in Ligue 1 as Jardim and Kombouare lose their jobs

The Ligue 1 season wasn’t showing many managerial changes so far but we have had two very recent ones.

The major one was Monaco sacking Leonardo Jardim. You’ve read that right. The club sacked him last year as got Thierry Henry as their coach and that was a stuff of nightmares before Jardim was brought back to the club. He was able to steer Monaco clear of relegation last season which they looked like they would be heading for.

This season Monaco had vastly improved and are sitting in 7th place. This is a near miracle when we compare how poor the side have been for the past few seasons. Form has also been good with 3 wins in their last four games and unbeaten in the league since the end of November. Indeed the club are just 3 points from a top 4 position. They also knocked out Reims 2-1 at the weekend in the French Cup.

Jardim’s sacking seems odd when the club were in good fortunes and one suspects that he has either had a falling out with the board or players. Maybe we won’t know the full extent of what happened for some time. Monaco have wasted very little time and already have Jardim’s successor in Roberto Moreno the former Spanish coach, whose first game in the dugout will be away to PSG, ouch!

Also sacked is Antoine Kombouare from Toulouse. This news came as no shock given that the club are bottom of the league. They are 5 points from safety and have lost 13 of their 19 games so far this season. The club had many problems in defence which was underlined by conceding 39 goals this season alone.

To add more misery to the clubs fortunes they managed to lose 10 games in a row which is a record for them. At the weekend as if to rub salt in the wounds the club were knocked out of the French Cup. What made it worse was that they lost to a non league side.

Toulouse will now be looking for their third manager this season alone, in a campaign where relegation to Ligue 2 looks destined.

The two sackings close together bring the sack race in Ligue 1 to four this season after Sylvinho was given his marching orders from Lyon and Ghislain Printant was sacked from Saint Etienne. We could well count on a few more sackings in the next few weeks as owners look at the current positions in the league and look towards their options.

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Ligue 1 Round Up: PSG roar on as Lyon’s bus is attacked in Marseille

The 13th week in Ligue 1 saw champions PSG reinstate their 8 point advantage at the top of the standings.

PSG were impressive away to Brest who had not lost at home this season and they came out 2-1 winners at a tough ground. Angel Di Maria opened the scoring and the impressive Mauro Icardi grabbed the winner. Icardi has been one of the most important signings made up PSG coach Thomas Tuchel as the club have repeatedly had injuries to their famed front three. This game was no different as both Neymar and Kylian Mbappe were missing, but it was another 3 points for the club in the end.

Marseille have roared into 2nd place mostly because other clubs keep dropping points but they have won 3 of their last four games. At the weekend the club played a grudge match against Lyon, and these two famous rivals served up a treat which Marseille won 2-1. That stopped Lyon’s revival under new coach Rudi Garcia. Although Lyon’s team bus was attacked before the game and the club would have been shaken by that. One is reminded of when the same thing happened to Manchester City’s bus when they took on Liverpool in the Champions League.

Whilst the result leaves Lyon in 14th place with 16 points they are just six points behind 2nd placed Marseille, and there is a lot still to play for in the league.

Angers could have remained 2nd but slipped up to Reims and could only draw 0-0. They also ended the game with 10 men and the club have only won 1 game from their past five. One of the best form teams at the moment is Saint Etienne who have picked up 13 points from their last available 15. The club gained their 6th victory of the season when they beat Nantes 3-2 away from home. As for Nantes who were 2nd just a few weeks ago they are going through their worst form of the season and have now dropped to 9th place after losing 4 games in a row.

The bottom of the league remains tight. Nimes are last with 11 points and yet one win would take them into safety, but those wins will have to start coming soon. The club lost to Strasbourg 4-1. The worst form side of the league Toulouse are in 19th after losing 3-0 at Montpellier and Dijon remain in 18th after a close 1-0 defeat at the hands of Monaco.

Ligue 1 football resumes from the weekend of 22nd November where PSG will be at home against 5th place Lille. Marseille will take on Toulouse and be favourites to win that game. Can PSG’s 8 point lead be caught up? Probably not but that is the question on every French football fans’ mind. Only time will tell.

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Top Ligue 1 Midfielders in 2018/19: Remi Oudin

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In Reims, Remi Oudin is known as a superstar, the one golden light in the club who from his position planted in attacking midfield gave Reims the hope of European football for a long time. That he is a local only adds to the lure and respect the fans give him.

Reims did not start the season well, but rarely lost instead they kept piling up draws, but by winter they had established themselves and flirted with the top 5 positions. A Europa League place or dare we say it a Champions League one still felt realistic even in February. Had they made it to the Champions League that would have been emotional enough given that this famous and historic team are linked to the beginnings of the European Cup. In the end the club ran out of steam and energy and so did Oudin.

However it’s worth congratulating both player and club, we have to remember that they finished in the top 10 after being promoted as champions of Ligue 2 last season.

As for Oudin he finished the season in the European Fantasy League rankings in 4th place for midfielders, 29th for midfielders in major leagues and 82nd for overall performance including every player. That’s not bad going for a player that was plying his trade in Ligue 2 last season.

Oudin finished with 70 points just 4 behind Wahbi Khazri of Saint Etienne and he started 32 games for Reims. He was impressive in front of goal too scoring 10 times and also assisted in another four goals. He didn’t see red all season and was booked just 4 times.

The player started the season by earning 6 points from his first two games as Reims kept two clean sheets in their victories over both Nice and Lyon, in the latter game he also provided the assist for the winner.

His best game of the season came on October 28th when Reims played Rennes away from home and won a normally tough fixture 2-0. Oudin was the definite hero of the day scoring both goals and getting extra points for a clean sheet. The only sour note was losing points for being booked but he still earned 9 points that day.

If any criticism could be pointed at Oudin it’s that he lacked consistency throughout the season and would appear brilliant in one match and average in the next, however in the month of February he was certainly one of the best in form players in Ligue 1.

In the 3 games that took place he earned 18 points as Reims had victories over Rennes and Montpellier and drew against Toulouse and Oudin scored against Rennes again. He also scored a brace against Montpellier.

Oudin finished the season quietly though earning a points total of 3 points from his last seven games as Reims came to the conclusion that their European hopes had faded for this season.

Oudin is currently valued at 10m and he proved this season why- it will be interesting to see what the 22 year old will produce next season and also interesting to see how long on this form Reims will be able to keep their man.

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Ligue 1 Player of the Weekend: Florian Thauvin

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It was the penultimate league game of the season in Ligue 1 this past weekend and the player of the weekend goes to Marseille midfielder Florian Thauvin.

Marseille were playing Toulouse away from home and losing the game 1-0 when Thauvin set up Morgan Sanson to equalise just three minutes later. But the influential player would save the best until last.

Marseille were winning a thrilling and very open game 3-2 in the final stages when Toulouse had a chance to try and equalise and that is when Thauvin showed his best qualities. He made it 4-2 in the 90th minute which effectively at that point killed the game after Clinton N’Jie had assisted him crossing from the left and on first look it seemed that Toulouse had scored an own goal but Thauvin got the credit. Around 60 seconds later Thauvin put the icing on the cake, again a pass from N’Jie and this time the World Cup winner sent a fantastic shot from his right boot sailing into the Toulouse net. Now it was 5-2.

Marseille celebrated well and embraced Thauvin even if the club have come up short this season and won’t be playing European football. This kind of result is what the club needed after a start stop last few weeks and on top of that Mario Balotelli who has started so well for the club since his move in January was injured for this game.

It has been a great week for Thauvin who has also been called up to the France national squad for their next three games.

As for his overall stats. well Thauvin added another 2 goals at the weekend which means he has 15 this season. It hasn’t been a great 2019 for Thauvin in terms of scoring goals. He has netted only 4 times this year, and 2 of those came in this game. But he showed hunger the whole game in trying to score and it just shows a football game is never really over until the final whistle.

In the Ligue 1 fantasy rankings Thauvin is 4th overall as the best player in the league and for his position he is 2nd behind PSG’s Angel Di Maria, just 7 points separates the players. Thauvin has 89 points and with a good game at home against Montpellier who could well surpass Di Maria in the table rankings. Scoring 15 goals this season and also assisting in a further 8 just underlines that the player has had a successful personal season once again.

However with no European football to play for next season one wonders if Thauvin will want a move away from the club, all will be revealed in the summer.

Thauvin is available to purchase here if you want him in your team for the final round of Ligue 1 games this weekend.

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Ligue 1 Player of the Weekend: Robert Beric

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Only one player in Ligue 1 was able to earn 8 points this weekend and he did it in style and Ligue 1 player of the weekend goes to Saint Etienne’s Robert Beric.

Beric was on hand last weekend to score both of Saint Etienne’s goals as they beat Toulouse 2-0. He was the difference between the two teams and he has been on great form in the past few months.

When we consider that Beric has only started 9 games this season then his statistics are fantastic for the club. He has scored 10 goals and assisted another 7 times and has become known as the super sub for a club who are chasing a Champions League place.

Beric’s form has meant that Saint Etienne have 59 points and are just 3 points behind Lyon for 3rd place.

At the weekend Beric opened the scoring after just 2 minutes when he was teed up by Pierre-Yves Polomat to give the club the best possible start. After that there was only one team in the game and then Beric added a 2nd goal on the 10th minute after a great assist by the inform Whabi Khazri. The only disappointment for the club and for Beric is that with the majority of the game still to play they didn’t add more goals and Beric was not able to get his hat-trick.

Jean Louis Gasset the Saint Etienne coach said of the game at the weekend, “We started really well. We needed to get the ball wide, put the pressure on and try to score a goal or two – and that’s what we did. After that it was more difficult as Toulouse changed their system and put more impact into midfield. We defended well. We’re on a run of five wins and a draw and in the last three games we have not conceded a goal. Even if there was a penalty, we have an extraordinary goalkeeper and (Stephane) Ruffier was great today.”

In the Ligue 1 Fantasy football rankings Beric is in 18th place considering just the strikers. He hasn’t played many games and started just 9, so that is why he has just 30 points. But his stats are fantastic as mentioned above and when we combine his goals and assists tally he ends up with a final figure of 17.

Beric is worth 7m if you want to add him to your team which could be a good idea given that Saint Etienne are arguably in their best form of the season as they try and put the pressure on Lyon and nab that 3rd place.

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PSG will win the league but the owners and fans crave for more

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PSG chalked up their 26th win of the Ligue 1 season from 29 games to reach the 80 point mark at the weekend after beating Toulouse 1-0. They need just 4 points from their next 8 games to confirm their 7th league title in 8 years and of course it is just a matter of time before they do it. But let’s be honest since November it has been when not if when referring to PSG’s league title.

Thomas Tuchel has had a walk in the park, or so that is what many people will tell you. On reflection this has been an easy league title win, but does such a term truly exist? PSG have had to work incredibly hard for their results, something a passing fan of football would not see. Yes they have had some easy victories and fantastic results but there have also been battles which they have got themselves into winning games by one goal margins like 2-1 or 1-0, that could have easily have gone the other way. PSG have by far been the best team in the league but they have also had to work for it.

Take for example how they exited the Coupe de la Ligue, in Paris against the then bottom team Guingamp. Nobody could have seen that result coming, and before anyone thinks that France’s 2nd cup competition is not taken seriously by PSG look at the past five winners- all won by PSG. No complacency was the key in that defeat and the word should be used as a positive to all of the mega rich clubs out there. The reason these teams do not lose is down to not having complacency, otherwise as a general rule they would sweep up every game and competition they enter.

So PSG will win the league and the streets of Paris will cheer on their heroes, and yet there is the white elephant on the Champs Elysees the very same one that has stood there shrugging its shoulders and downing its trunk- where is that Champions League trophy?

Owners and fans will be delighted with another dominant Ligue 1 win and Thomas Tuchel’s job is safe for this season. But it was beyond disappointing for PSG to get knocked out this season against Manchester United when they were in total control of the match. And it has been the same year in year out for the club, sure fire victories snatched away by Barcelona and Real Madrid line the memories.

PSG have been called bottlers in the Champions League that is wrong and cruel on every level. But they do need to step up and realise that a knock out round is rarely ever decided in one leg. Repeated disappointments in Europe mean that whilst victory in Ligue 1 should be celebrated it may actually be quite muted by the owners of the club until Europe if ever comes calling.

Circus at Monaco continues as Jardim is back after Henry sacking

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105 days after being sacked from Monaco, Leonardo Jardim is back as coach after Thierry Henry was suspended and then sacked as head coach after a dismal three months in charge.

Nobody expected that Monaco would go back to Jardim though, and perhaps nobody believed that Jardim would be willing to go back after being unjustly sacked the first time but that is what has happened.

It has been a circus season for Monaco, the 2017 champions who are 19th in the league table, the result not down to coaches but down to constantly selling their best players, and that is why it is a surprise that Jardim is back. Let’s remember whilst Jardim is ten times the coach of Henry he was still struggling with the club this season.

Perhaps Jardim has been promised that his best players will stay and that the tactic of selling half the team come each summer will stop. Evidently it hasn’t got the club anywhere and they may well still end up in Ligue 2. Perhaps the players were informed too and they voted to have Jardim back, if this is the case then we should expect to see an upturn in the clubs fortunes. One wonders what new signing and established international Cesc Fabregas thinks of it all- has he jumped ship from the Premier League too soon?

And what of Henry? Where does he go from here? One remembers Gary Neville’s poor stint at Valencia which seemingly finished him as a coach and it could be that Henry returns to punditry. Having said that he seems like a determined person and the Monaco job could have been a case of taking such a project too soon in his career. Henry won just 4 games from the 20 he was in charge of.

For Jardim the work must start immediately. His side lost at the weekend to Dijon 2-0 however he wasn’t in the dug out and his first game back will be the home match against Toulouse next Saturday.

The month of February looks like a tough one for Monaco with tricky fixtures against the likes of Montpellier and Lyon, so this will be no easy ride for Jardim. However despite how poor the club have been this season they are still only 3 points from safety and if the club were to get a winning run together they could still finish in midtable.

Jardim’s job is simple and that is to keep the club up, one senses, he will do just that.