Olympique Lyonnais is going through a difficult period after being defeated in the Rh么ne Derby and eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Europa League in a historic match. Tensions are starting to rise in the locker room, notably between coach Paulo Fonseca and some senior players such as Alexandre Lacazette and Corentin Tolisso. The latter would be dissatisfied with the choices made by Fonseca, which would tend to give more responsibility to younger elements.
In addition to these two historical players, there is also an emerging conflict between Nemanja Matic and Paulo Fonseca, as well as his staff. The choice to titularize Paul Akouokou rather than Matic was not well received by the latter. The relations between the various parties would seem to be execrable, to the point that the difficulties encountered by Fonseca in managing the strong ego in a changing room resurfaced in the media.
Olympique Lyonnais, currently 6th with 51 points, competes with Olympique de Marseille (2nd, 55 pts), AS Monaco (3rd, 54 pts), LOSC (4th, 53 pts), OGC Nice (5th, 51 pts) and RC Strasbourg (7th, 51 pts) for a podium place. The difficulties encountered by OL could therefore have an impact on the podium race, as evidenced by their defeat in the Rh么ne Derby which allowed the Dogues and the Aiglons to reposition themselves in this suspense struggle.