Lorient finished 10th last season
Lorient achieved promotion to League 1 two years ago, and had no problems staying there over the last two seasons. They were one of the surprises last term, and ended the season in 10th place leaving some of the bigger clubs behind them. The club has been focusing on improving the youth system and results are starting to show, as more and more players are coming through the ranks. Coach Christian Gourcuff, master tactician, is one of the figures most responsible for the recent success. The other is captain Fabrice Abriel, who has been incredibly consistent, playing in 134 consecutive games in three seasons. He has been instrumental in midfield over the last seasons, but he will end this remarkable run when he serves a suspension at the beginning of the season.
Gourcuff kept big part of the squad
After two great seasons in Ligue 1, Lorient players became interesting for the bigger clubs, and coach Gourcuff had a lot of troubles to keep these players in the club. Sylvain Marchal, Jeremy Morel, Michael Ciani, Oscar Ewolo, Christophe Jallet, Fabrice Abriel and Rafik Saifi all stayed in the club and that is their biggest advantage this season. Lorient brought some new players, but only to build on the squad from last season. Le Lan, Buron, Amalfitano, Joinel and Gameiro are not too famous, but will add some quality to the squad. Recent signing Andre Ayew came from Marseille on loan deal, and together with Gameiro is expected to solve the problems in attack, which is the part of the team where they have the most problems. Not many players arrived during this transfer window and Gourcuff will not have too many problems in putting the team together.
In
Kevin Gameiro (Strasbourg)
Morgan Amalfitano (Sedan)
Arnaud Le Lan (Guingamp)
Andre Ayew (Marseille)
Alban Joinel (Carquefou)
Antoine Buron (Amiens)
Bertrand Robert (returned from loan at Ajaccio)
Out
Kemal Bourhani (Vannes)
Alain Cantareil (on loan at Ajaccio)
Yohan Hautcoeur (returned to St Etienne)
MehdiBenatia (returned to Marseille)
Leonardo Moura (returned to Fluminense)
Carl Medjani (Ajaccio)
Claude Dielna (Istres)
David M'Bodji (free)
Andre Ayew will help in attack
Coach Christien Gourcuff did a great job by keeping all key players in the team, and added some new ones to further improve the quality of the team. Defense and midfield were very good last year, and those areas did not require strengthening. Attack is where the team had most problems, and the club brought young but very talented players in Gameiro and Ayew. Ayew is young Ghanian forward, who already played for the national team, and he will bring a lot of good things to the team. He is also the son of legendary Ghanian player Abedi Pele. The team faces a difficult task of repeating last season performances, and again their goal will be to avoid relegation. Their big advantage over their rivals is that the squad is almost the same as last year. Bottom table finish is a reality, but Lorient will probably stay clear of relegation.
CL
CLQ
UEFA
RELEG