The Expert: Monaco magic stalls as Valbuena comeback continues

After a spectacular few months, Monaco’s reputation has begun to precede them. Having scored 53 goals in their first 17 Ligue 1 matches of the season - and having qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League with a degree of comfort after beating Tottenham twice - Leonardo Jardim’s side have transformed their reputation from that of spoilers to shooting stars.  

Suggested as capable of upsetting Manchester City in the last 16 when European competition gets underway again, they were certainly expected to be too strong for Lyon - the side that beat them to second spot last season - in Sunday night’s last big match of French football’s calendar year. Even Lyon’s president Jean-Michel Aulas said in the days leading up to the match that he feared his team might get “a spanking”.  

If those words were a ploy to inspire his players, then they might just have worked. Lyon’s 3-1 victory in the Principality was, by some distance, their most complete performance of the season. Coach Bruno Genesio had paid Monaco the respect of switching to a 4-2-3-1 to stem their attacking flow and it worked, even though his plans were partially derailed when Maxime Gonalons, his captain and chief defensive midfielder, pulled up injured in the warm-up. 

Nabil Fekir was drafted into the side in Gonalons’ stead, slotting into a role just behind Alexandre Lacazette while Corentin Tolisso moved back next to Lucas Tousart in front of the defence. With Tolisso having made a surprisingly quick recovery from a hamstring injury that was assumed likely to have kept him out for a few weeks, a deeper post was probably better for him. 

Their defensive shape was excellent, as Monaco dominated possession (56%) but managed only 13 shots, with just four on target. Usually a side that sees so much of the ball - 54.7% on average, the third-highest of any team in the league - it was an evening on which Genesio’s team showed their versatility, as well as a level of attacking punch which has been lacking throughout most of their campaign so far, stymying their ambitions. The 19-year-old Tousart, starting just a sixth game in Ligue 1, played a big part, making four tackles, five clearances and landing 87.5% of his passes. 

Monaco’s frustration was clear. Their vice-president Vadim Vasilyev spoke afterwards of his belief that the refereeing had “favoured Lyon”, with Aulas rather melodramatically threatening to sue later. The home team were unhappy at Benjamin Mendy’s first-half red card - which undoubtedly handicapped Monaco - and Ruddy Buquet’s award of a second half penalty to the visitors, which Lacazette subsequently saw saved by Danijel Subasic. In fact, it was hard to argue with either, with Mendy taking an inexplicably wild off-the-ball kick at Jérémy Morel, and Fabinho sliding through Lacazette from behind as he prepared to shoot, getting a bit of the ball after getting most of the man. 

So really, it could have been much worse for Les Monégasques. The melée that followed Buquet pointing to the spot seemingly distracted him from giving a second yellow card to Fabinho, and Subasic escaped punishment for shoving Mathieu Valbuena. Kamil Glik did the same and was only booked. It was unusual to a side that have played so expressively and with maturity far beyond their years lose their cool, but the unexpected sturdiness of Lyon had perhaps taken them by surprise.  

It made for a thrilling match and on French television, where Canal Plus viewers get the chance to rate the spectacle on a Sunday night, they voted it 17.1 out of a possible 20, the season’s highest mark for any fixture this season. It had been so even before tempers were frayed, with Lyon enterprising when in possession; they eventually manufactured 10 shots on target out of 17 overall from their 44% of the ball, with Rachid Ghezzal’s tidy finish from Valbuena’s pass giving the visitors the lead when it was still 11-a-side. 

Ghezzal, once again finding his best form, was pivotal, later creating the second goal for Valbuena, and he had six shots overall. Yet it’s France midfielder Valbuena who is sparking Lyon’s return to form, surprisingly so after a nightmare year on and off the pitch, which led to him missing Euro 2016 and looked set to precipitate his exit from Parc OL. He was always involved here, as he often is at his best, taking 52 touches. Only the well-used full-backs Rafael and Morel, and the tempo-setting Tolisso, managed more. 

Valbuena is key for Genesio in that he gives his coach flexibility. Despite craving a central position, he works well cutting in on the left in either a 4-3-3 formation or this 4-2-3-1. Were Genesio to return to a 4-4-2 to get the very best from the renewed Lacazette-Fekir partnership, he might still thrive out there, in a facsimile of the role Carlo Ancelotti created for Javier Pastore in his own version of that system at Paris Saint-Germain. What’s clear is the former Marseille man feels implicated again, playing five key passes here. In terms of sheer numbers, he is surfing the crest of a wave, having now scored five times in his last six matches in all competitions.  

It’s enough to give Jardim nightmares, seven months after Lyon capped their demolition of a 10-point gap between themselves and Monaco to wallop them 6-1 in the penultimate game of last season and pip them to the second Champions League place. There is, however, no need to panic just yet. What will encourage the coach is that his team never threw in the towel here, pulling a goal back through the excellent Tiemoué Bakayoko even when two goals and a man down.  

This was a rare example this season of his first-choice XI falling short, so there should be no overreactions or recriminations. Monaco bounced back strongly from their last two league defeats, at Nice and Toulouse, and there’s no reason that they can’t do that again. With just a four-point gap to Nice, they’re still title contenders too. What this reminded everyone is that Ligue 1 is not a two, or ever a three-horse race just yet.