Lorient were perhaps the greatest disappointment in Ligue 2 this season as they came up short of the playoffs on goal difference. Mickael Landreau’s men were simply too inconsistent over the course of the campaign, with their Achilles heel largely offensive.
Although Pierre-Yves Hamel and Alexis Claude-Maurice both enjoyed strong individual seasons, scoring 19 and 14 in the league respectively, they were almost entirely reliant on this pair, and the latter in particular.
Hamel needed players to give him the ball in dangerous situations in order to thrive, but there was a lack of imagination in the midfield and certainly a lack of quality when it came to providing a decisive pass at a key moment. Claude-Maurice was the only one to perform consistently well, although Jimmy Cabot had a decent campaign, too.
In too many games this season, Lorient dominated possession but were unable to find a successful route to goal.
Landreau was at fault, too, as he was unable to solve this problem, which hampered the club from the beginning of the campaign. Perhaps a steady flow of wins until the beginning of November lulled him into the impression that a strong defensive unit and a hit-or-miss attack would be enough.
Lorient did not strengthen their squad significantly in January and suffered for the rest of the campaign, largely as injury problems bit.
Players who would have been important on paper, like Jonathan Delaplace and Jonathan Martins Pereira, missed huge portions of the campaign, while the defence was ravaged in the closing weeks of the campaign, with a number of injury problems crippling the effectiveness of Lorient’s strongest area. Indeed, midfielder Maxime Etuin was being used as a right-back at the end of the campaign and was being readily exposed.
Even in goal, there was not enough assurance, although 21-year-old Illan Meslier will improve after a mixed bag.
Lorient feel they should be a Ligue 1 side and acted quickly to part company with Landreau. Nevertheless, they face a battle to win the fans back over and they will have to work well over the summer.
