#floss regularly and you too can be smug leaving the dentist

[redwineconversation]

Lyon - Olympique de Marseille Preseason Postgame Thoughts

You know when you go to the dentist and you're like, this is going to suck, but you know you have to go anyway, so then you're in the chair with a drill in your mouth and you're questioning every life choice you made that lead you to this moment?

That's a little bit what watching this game was like, except I've had dentist appointments more enjoyable (probably because I've never had braces or a cavity, but we can talk about dental hygiene another time).

Anyway, let's recap an experience that somehow was more painful than a trip to the dentist.

My feelings about Sonia Bompastor's youth academy experiment are well documented at this point, and they haven't changed. There's just such a massive gulf between the youth leagues and the professional league, and the transition is brutal. Not every player who shines in the youth leagues will make it as a professional player and not every player who becomes professional will have the same statistics and profile as a pro as they did in the youth league.

You can't compare the two, which is why it puts me on such a back foot when we have academy players integrate the pro group without sending them out on loan first. It's just such a huge step. and as I said, there's a gulf in talent that shouldn't be ignored.

Out of all the academy players who were on the field today, I would say maybe on Maelvine Mendy and Alice Marques were the only ones who deserve to train with the pro group. The others had no business being there. I don't care what potential an academy player shows in training or with the youth leagues, the differences are too great between academy and pro, and Lyon should have too many aspirations to be treated as a stepping stone. That's what you have mid-tier teams for.

We are - and by that I mean I am - in for a very, very long season if Melvine Malard does not get shipped off in loan this season. Extending her to 2026 was one of Bompastor's biggest mistakes. She has suffered such a drop in confidence that she can't control a game while playing with youth players and can't score against a D2 team.

If anything, it just shows that the 2021-2022 season was an exception, and she was being propped up by better players and better playmakers. When both of those were taking away from her, she was exposed for what she is.

Therefore I fully anticipate Bompastor starting her every game this season because she "showed promise in training".

Laura Benkarth made her first appearance for Lyon, and there was some good, some bad. I'd rather have a player like her on my team sheet than not, and as this was her first game with Lyon I'm willing to give her a little bit of slack. She made some really good saves, especially on the penalty, and was a little bit hung out to dry by Lyon's statuesque defense on two of the goals. So it's a little hard to really get a read on her for how she will do in a game with proper defenders in front of her, but for now, at least I wasn't recoiling in horror.

Marozsan still runs at the speed of a drunk lumberjack and played with maybe 20 percent interest, which is kind of on par with most of her performances last season, so at least she was being consistent. That being said, even a player of Marozsan's calibre would struggle to make something happen with the players around her, so I can't really rip into her for that. I was a little surprised when Ines Benyahia took the penalty instead of Marozsan, because Marozsan is a player even I would trust for penalties, but Benyahia scored so I guess faith is relative.

On the topic of Benyahia - I think it's vital she goes out on loan. If I am desperate for Malard to go out on loan because I want her to stop handicapping my team, I think Benyahia would benefit from regular game time, because it would increase her game sharpness and maybe overall fitness as well. She has talent but it's not going to do her any good unless she can have a proper go at things, and due to her position and - hopefully - Lyon's ambitions, it's just not something she is going to get at Lyon.

The final score was 3-3, which doesn't really tell us anything except that the academy players won't win you games, which everyone other than Bompastor knew already.