LOSC Lille are a shadow of their former self

LOSC Lille surprised everyone last season as they went toe-to-toe with the Paris Saint-Germain for the Ligue 1 title and eventually managed to pip them to it.

Nevertheless, this season has been anything but what we saw last campaign. They barely managed to offer resilience to their title defense and it was well over within the first ten games of the season.

The club's demise was well on the cards after Christophe Galtier's departure as their head coach. The club now finds itself outside the top ten following a heavy 5-1 defeat to PSG.

Failed transfer business

For a club looking to mount a title defense, Lille needed to have added depth to their squad to compete both in France and in Europe.

Boubakary Soumare, who was instrumental in making Les Dougues' defense the least leakiest, departed for Leicester City. Soumare enjoyed a tremendous season under Galtier where he paired up with French international Benjamin Andre.

Goalkeeper Maik Maignan, who just like Soumare guided their backline throughout the campaign, made a stunning move to AC Milan.

The club failed to replace any of these star players in the summer.

The winter transfer market has not brought many dividends either as they could only manage to rope in just one player - winger Edon Zhegrova from FC Basel. He joined as a back-up for Timothy Weah.

Conservative management at Lille

The new man in charge is none other than Jocelyn François Gourvennec. Gourvennec has created a reputation in France as a master in avoiding relegation for lower-tier clubs.

His hiring in the first place raised plenty of eyebrows at the time given his relative inexperience of managing the clubs in the upper-echelons of French football.

No wonder they went from Galtier's attacking modern football to a traditional set-up that often employs Jonathan David as the target man. The maneuver itself has cost Lille several games as David is more of a playmaker than a proper number nine.

It is only in recent weeks that Gourvennac has paired him with new signing Hatem Ben Arfa, who is undoubtedly past his prime, to strengthen the scoring prospects.

Expectation from the rest of the season

Lille are well out of contention for European qualification. Their defeat to PSG was their second in two weeks after their loss to Brest. They are out of the French Cup as well.

Interestingly, they find themselves through to Round 16 of the Champions League. However, their chances of progression are quite slim given their scheduled tie against Chelsea.

Not only is the club struggling for form but they themselves seem unsure of their true expectations from the season.