Football Season Guide

Lille secured Champions League football this season by finishing unexpectedly well in Ligue 1. Bruno Genesio brilliantly guided LOSC to 3rd, although they went through several poor periods in the season, including a sequence when they won only 1 game in 10 across all competitions. The squad was stretched and suffered particularly from a couple of serious injuries. Unlike many Ligue 1 sides, Lille have managed to retain the vast majority of their important players. Indeed, Thomas Meunier and Aissa Mandi are the only regular first-team figures to depart. Davide Ancelotti has replaced Genesio as head coach, but there has been little in the way of signings for the Italian so far. Tanguy Nianzou has arrived from Sevilla to support the defence while the only major signing has been left winger Basar Onal. Uncertainty continues to dog some important players coming into this season. Ayyoub Bouaddi and Mathias Fernandez-Pardo are both linked with moves away and could yet depart, albeit the club are in a strong negotiating position for both. Lille’s biggest talents come in the creative areas of the side. They have numerous promising dangerous players, such as Ethan Mbappe, Hakon Haraldsson and Matias Fernandez-Pardo, who might yet be sold. While these players can be erratic, there is such depth here that makes them dangerous. Lille have scored plenty of goals in pre-season, but the squad is clearly still to settle down. An injury-prone squad troubled Lille last season, with many of their best players succumbing to serious injury issues. Hamza Igamane, for example, started superbly but suffered serious injury while Mbappe barely played. They also look light in midfield quality should Ayyoub Bouaddi be sold – as seems likely at the time of writing.