2023-05-20 12:14:34
With Alexandre Lacazette, Kylian Mbappé, Jonathan David and Habib Diallo, Ligue 1 already has four players with 20 or more goals. A figure that might still climb by the end of the season. Unheard of in the 21st century in the championship.
Rayan Cherki summed it up quite well on Friday: “I think it’s going to be a war until the end of the championship. It’s going to be very beautiful to see!” After Lyon’s victory once morest Monaco (3-1), the young OL midfielder was asked regarding one of the challenges of this end of the season, namely the fight for the title of top scorer, which directly concerns his captain Alexandre Lacazette. “Of course, he knows that I will do everything for him to win even if Kylian is my friend,” he confided with a smile. With 26 goals each on the clock, while waiting for Auxerre-PSG on Sunday, Lacazette and Mbappé are fighting a hell of a battle in the final sprint of the championship. A duel reminiscent of the one that opposed Mbappé to Wissam Ben Yedder last year.
Closely followed by the Monegasque, the Parisian had waited for the last day to fold the case by taking advantage of the reception of FC Metz to stick a hat-trick. He had completed the exercise with 28 achievements, ahead of Ben Yedder (25), therefore, but also Martin Terrier (21) and Moussa Dembélé (21).
Density is even more important this season. For the first time in the 21st century, we might even find five or more players with at least 20 goals. They are four for the moment to have reached this total, with Lille’s Jonathan David (21) and Strasbourg’s Habib Diallo (20) in addition to the Mbappé-Lacazette duo, but Lensois Loïs Openda (19), Rémois Folarin Balogun (19) and the Monegasque Ben Yedder (18) are not so far from it. Same thing for Montpellier’s Elye Wahi (17) and Nice’s Terem Moffi (17).
France is doing better than its European neighbors
Let’s not forget Lionel Messi either. If he starts from a little further with his 15 goals, the Parisian number 30 still has three games ahead of him to take up the challenge. Unlike previous years, the 2022-2023 Ligue 1 vintage is full of pyrotechnicians at all levels. At the top of the bill, of course, but also at the bottom of the rankings with Diallo or in the soft underbelly with the examples Balogun and Wahi.
So how to explain this phenomenon when there were only one or two to slam 20 or more goals in Ligue 1 not so long ago? Admittedly, there were four of them to have achieved such a performance in 2016-2017 with Edinson Cavani (35 goals), Lacazette (28), Radamel Falcao (21) and Bafétimbi Gomis (20). But there were only two in 2014-2015 (Lacazette and André-Pierre Gignac), in 2015-2016 (Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Lacazette) or in 2018-2019 (Nicolas Pépé and Mbappé).
Worse, only Zlatan had managed to score more than 20 goals in 2013 and 2014. A decade later, the situation has changed a lot. Because the game is now more open? Because more coaches advocate an attacking mindset? Because the clubs always manage to attract more young nuggets? Probably a bit of all of that.
“There is a concentration of talent that we had not had for years, noted recently with 20 Minutes the former Toulouse coach Alain Casanova. Many teams have an attacking game plan and they often rely on a goalscorer who makes the difference, whereas a few years ago they relied more on three or four players. , to make our European neighbors jealous. On the Premier League side, they are only three with 20 goals or more: Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Ivan Toney. This figure drops to two in Serie A (Victor Osimhen and Lautaro Martinez), once morest only one in La Liga (Robert Lewandowski).The Bundesliga is an even worse student, with its top scorer, Niclas Füllkrug, having “only” 16 goals.
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