Football Season Guide

Lorient are now firmly established as a Ligue 1 club, but in the last two seasons they have struggled to fight against relegation and another campaign is forecast this time around. Head coach Sylvain Ripoll was only just able to steer his side away from the bottom three last term and over the summer he saw key player Raphael Guerreiro depart for Borussia Dortmund amidst a superb display at Euro 2016, at which he was arguably the standout left-back. There was a large windfall from that sale, yet Guerreiro, who was most effective for Lorient when he played on the left wing, has not been replaced in that area. Instead, Sylvain Marveaux has arrived from Newcastle. Injury prone, his signing is something of a risk, particularly as Lorient play on a synthetic surface. Otherwise the squad is not dramatically altered. In goal they are well covered, even beyond starting keeper Benjamin Lecomte, while there is good cover in the defence now that Lindsay Rose has been re-signed from Lyon, where he had a difficult time. Defensive midfielder Cafu has been added from Vitoria Guimaraes but should not necessarily be expected to start on a regular basis. Currently there is a lack of depth in the heart of the midfield, in which Ripoll typically favours two defensively minded players, allowing the wingers to get forward and concentrate on attacking. Lorient are overloaded with left-sided players out wide, particularly after releasing Yann Jouffre in the summer. They also only have three recognised attacking players, though all are capable of scoring goals. Majeed Waris, Benjamin Moukandjo and Benjamin Jeannot all contributed significantly last term, combining for 31 goals evenly distributed between them. Ripoll therefore has plenty of firepower at his command – more so than any of the other sides likely to be scrapping around the lower reaches of the table.