To say that this has been a challenging season for Olympique Lyonnais would be an understatement. After narrowly missing out on European football under Laurent Blanc last season, financial constraints saw the club forced to sell key players like attacker Bradley Barcola and defender Castello Lukeba, with few incomings of notes.

Flash-forward two months into the season and the veteran Blanc was gone, with former Lyon defender Fabio Grosso, so impressive in leading Frosinone to the Serie B title last season his replacement. A new manager bounce was nowhere to be found, though, and Grosso was dismissed after just nine matches in charge, his side having scored just six goals, winning but a single match.

Knowing that relegation was still a strong possibility but also wary of the financial constraints place on the club by the DNCG, Lyon turned to Pierre Sage, an unassuming presence who had recently returned to the club after a stint as Habib Beye’s assistant at second division side Red Star.

Born not far from Lyon in the small town of Lons-se-Saunier, Sage played football at amateur level  before working with regional clubs such as Bourg-en-Bresse and Sedan, first as a scout and then as a manager, eventually ending up in charge, albeit briefly of Chambery. While he had initially worked with senior players, an opportunity to work with Lyon’s youth teams proved intriguing, and he worked with Les Gones’ youth teams before joining former Newcastle and Marseille player Beye.

Following a year-and-a-half in the capital, he returned to Lyon to head up the academy, where he was impressed by a young generation of players, but his move to the bench was met with some trepidation. He had great success working with players at lower level and youngsters to be sure, but in players like Dejan Lovren and Corentin Tolisso, he had a squad with experience, players who had reached the peak of the game.

Things started slowly for Sage, but his driving style of play was immediately well-received by the squad, far more so than Blanc’s cautious approach or Grosso’s uncertainty. Said defender Duje Caleta-Car after the team’s win over Toulouse to close 2023, averring that Sage’s interim tag should be removed. “Now we are a team and we are going to have a happy vacation,” said the Croatian defender. “The coach deserves to stay with us after these three victories and the very good atmosphere he has created.”

More wins have followed in the new year, and even if there have been bumps such as an ugly home loss to Le Havre, the team have now won six of eight, and Sage has been trusted to oversee a squad that has been heavily restructured over the January window.

That a relatively inexperienced manager would be given the opportunity to lead such an expensively-assembled side is somewhat of a surprise, but Sage’s experience in improving his sides’ positional play is something that is key in his value. Said his former boss Beye, “I was helped with a lot by Pierre Sage – I needed someone who had mastered that approach so I could put in place my methodology.”

Sage himself also underscored ahead of Sunday’s crucial win over Marseille, that in playing a more modern, aggressive style of football, he would get his squad on board quite readily, making a Jürgen Klopp-like musical analogy pre-match as he reflected on the team’s improvement after the interval against Rennes in their previous match, a 3-2 defeat.

“I told them to stop playing cello and start playing electric guitar. We must increase the necessary level of intensity in the game. Everything that we did not see in the first half and which appeared occasionally in the second half. With the players we have, we cannot afford this kind of performance. We will quickly put the cello in its bag and play a more aggressive game, with more intensity.”

Now that Sage has his squad ‘playing the right tune,’ having moved out of the relegation places with that result, another challenge awaits in the form of tomorrow’s Coupe de France encounter with LOSC Lille, and the man nicknamed ‘The Wise Stone’ (a transliteration of his last and given names) will have his side more than up for it.

His counterpart, Paulo Fonseca, is another principled individual when it comes to his management philosophy, having proved himself a canny operator in keeping Les Dogues in good form despite player sales and long-term absences. Coming in to the match on a five-game unbeaten run in the new year, the visitors are in fearsome form and will be eager to boost their confidence ahead of the weekend’s league match against leaders Paris Saint-Germain, making this one of the most anticipated matchups of the Round of 16.

Predicted lineups:

Lyon (3-4-1-2): Lopes; Mata, O’Brien, Caleta-Car; Kumbedi, Caqueret, Tolisso (or Matic), Tagliafico; Cherki, Lacazette, Orban

Lille (4-2-3-1): Chevalier; Santos, Yoro, Alexsandro, Gudmundsson (or Ismaily); André, Bentaleb; Zhegrova, Gomes (or Yazici), Haraldsson; David