DERBY!!! St. Etienne vs. Lyon

[Inara]

St. Etienne look pretty strong this year, and they'll be after our blood thanks to Piquionne's outrageous comments. Unfortunately, we're going into the game with Fabio Grosso suspended (thanks to his red card last April, which makes no sense fyi).

With Francois Clerc out, and with Massimo Oddo's status up in the air, it looks like Puel will have to start Thimothee Kolodziecjzak on the left or Lamine Gassama on the right, neither of whom have yet to make their professional debut (or even turn 18). That, or Jean-Alain Boumsong will play as a fullback, with Anthony Reveillere playing on the left or right.

Yikes. No matter how you look at it, Lyon are going to get ass raped on their flanks by ASSE, who don't exactly have a crappy team.

[Joffrey]

St Etienne look strong this year, BUT they missed their starting season.
And I think that's one more reason to be very cagey, they (for sure) will want to win this game, especially against their ennemy.
And that's a looooong time St Etienne didn't loose at Geoffroy Guichard, something like 6 months.

That promise us a strong and fighting game.

[Nikola]

St. Etienne have a pretty strong forward line and we will do very good if we don't concede any goals. Their defense, on the other hand, doesen't look very good at the moment and I think we could easily score against them. Key to victory, I believe, is to play good defensively and try to capitalise on their mistakes. With so many problems at the full-back positions, that certainly won't be an easy task. Just hope that Lloris will be at his best, the derby match isn't a very nice place to concede your first goal!

[Inara]

I'm kind of excited to see the reaction Piquionne will get. Even Caizzo wants his blood.

Anyway, I consider this derby the real start to Lyon's season. Everything before now, even the league games, have been like practice so far. With today's Champions League draw, the team has to buckle down and get serious. No more messing around.

[corey]

It will be interesting to see what Puel does with the fullbacks. Personally I say play Gassama at right back and Revieller at left. Timo is still to young for this type of game, he needs some CFA games first. Gassama has atleast played for the CFA team. Id also prefer we use Boumsong alongside Cris, and put Bodmer in the midfield with Kallstrom and Le Toule. Ederson and Govou can be our wingers. People under estimate Ederson s(or Kallstrom for that matter) ability to play on the left. Makoun will be hard to over look, but if he plays Kallstrom on the left, Makoun slots in with Toulalan and Bodmer. But that wont happen unfortunately....

[Joffrey]

Defense seems to be the weakest point of each team, in this game.
Maybe we'll see a lot of goals ?

[John]

Corey: I'd go with Kallstrom at left back and Makoun tracking back to help him. And I second your point that Boumsong must play instead of Bodmer. If Rev plays on the right, the left side will be too weak with Bodmer on the left side of central defense. I'd like to see a 4-5-1:
----------------Lloris-----------------------
Reveillere--Cris---Boumsong--Kallstrom
---Bodmer----Toulalan----Makoun------
Govou------------------------------Ederson
------------------Benzema------------------

[Inara]

Latest word is that Cris might be injured with a hurt knee (a recurrent problem). Mensah is also still out. In that case, he will have to sit out the derby. So that means Bodmer and Boumsong, with Reveillere and Gassama/TK/Kallstrom on the wings.

Wow, that backline is to die for.