Comprehensive Guide To The Ligue 1 Orange

Ligue 1 (Première division or Division 1 until 2003, now called Ligue 1 Orange) is the top division of French and Monegasque football, one of two divisions making up the LFP, the other being Ligue 2. It has been an all-professional league since its inception in 1932 except for the 1943-44 season, during which the Vichy regime abolished professionalism. Since the end of World War II, the French first division has switched several times between an 18- and a 20- team format, the latter being in force today and having the preference of clubs in spite of a busier schedule for the players.

My Guide To All The Teams In The League

Auxerre.

Strengths: A brilliant young keeper in Remy Riou. Keep him at all cost. They also have Pedretti and Kalhenberg in midfield and they are very good. They also have great youngster in Vincent Acapandine, another one to keep.

Weaknesses: Their strikers are poor in Oliech, Dembele and Niculae. So they need a new one. Fast.

Bank Balance: £4.33

Transfer Budget: £1.07m

Wage Budget: £218k p/w

Bordeaux.

Strengths: A great strike force in Chamakh, Bellion and Cavenaghi. Power, pace and precision. A solid midfield 3 aswell with Ducasse, Diarra and Fernando. And not to mention Saivet, Saunier and Obertan who are certain to become brilliant.

Weaknesses: The keepers in the squad are exactly the best and bringing a new one wouldn't be a bad idea.

Bank Balance: £9.02m

Transfer Budget: £2.28m

Wage Budget: £259k p/w

Caen.

Strengths: Karl Svensson and Yoann Gouffran are the best players in the team, so keep them and build around them. Also Benoit Costil is very much a keeper for the future and will become special.

Weaknesses: 2 strikers. And to be honest they are not the best. Compan and Mazure. Bring in a couple of replacements.

Bank Balance: £5.08m

Transfer Budget: £1.16m

Wage Budget: £101k p/w

Le Mans.

Strengths: Romaric is the best player in the squad in my opinion and is versatile. He can play DM, AMLC and FC with abit of retraining.

Weaknesses: Samassa is the only decent striker in the squad and like many teams in the league, 1 or 2 new strikers are needed. See the reccomended players at the bottom.

Bank Balance: £4.33m

Transfer Budget: £1.05m

Wage Budget: £184k p/w

Lens.

Strengths: Nadir Belhadj, a former Lyon player, is a superb player with great pace and stamina and good crossing, he will get many assists. Kevin Monnet-Paquet is one for the future. Arune Dindane is a good player too, he plays upfront, should get goals.

Weaknesses: Not the best of keepers, so getting a new one wold be good.

Bank Balance: £7m

Transfer Budget: £1.93m

Wage Bugdet: £227k

Lille.

Strengths: Jean II Makoun. What a player, keep at all cost. Other good players in the squad include Fauverge (good TM), Mirallas, Bastos, Debuchy and Obraniak. Lille also have a lot have money to spend £19.39m to be exact.

Weaknesses: With all that money any problems that there is can be fixed, get a new striker as Patrick Kluivert is ageing.

Bank Balance: £7.64m

Transfer Budget: £19.39m

Wage Budget: £224k p/w

Lorient.

Strengths: A squad that dosen't really have any strengths to be honest. Benjamin Genton at CB will get goals if you use him correctly in the corner tactic.

Weaknesses: 1 out and out striker in the squad and he is on loan, Rafael Moura from Fluminense, so bring in a couple of permament strikers and maybe one on loan.

Bank Balance: £3.93m

Transfer Budget: £991k

Wage Budget: £141k p/w

Lyon.

Strengths: An excellent selection of midfielders most notably including, Hatem Ben Arfa, Kim Kallstrom, Mathieu Bodmer, Jeremy Toulalan, Kader Keita and Juninho Pernamubanco. You also have one of the youngest most talented strikers on the game, Karim Benzema, keep hold of this gem at all times. Sebastian Squillaci is very solid at the back too.

Weaknesses: Injuries are your main worry here, you start with your 1st choice GK out for 5 months and your 2nd choice Striker out for 2 months, added to that a defence that needs strengthening.

Bank Balance: £45.32m

Transfer Budget: £9.05m

Wage Budget: £539k p/w

Marseille.

Strengths: A very good attack in Cisse, Niang and Nasri. They will get goals. Also let Taiwo shoot from distance and enjoy! He has a rocket shot. Zubar is versatile player who becomes first team quality. Madanada (who joins on a permament deal in the 2nd season) becomes a wonderkid if played.

Weaknesses: Cisse is the only real out and out striker in the team. So get one more and you are sorted.

Bank Balance: £17.34m

Transfer Budget: £4.18m

Wage Budget: £317k

Metz.

Strengths: Another team with not alot of strengths. But have two solid centre backs in Pape Diop and Jeff Strasser.

Weaknesses: But they are both ageing at 32. So two new centre backs are needed. They will have to reasonbly good aswell.

Bank Balance: £3.81m

Transfer Budget: £1.03m

Wage Budget: £135k p/w

Monaco.

Strengths: A very good midfield consisting of Nene, Almiron, Bernardi and Menez. Jeremy Menez also has great potential and if you keep hold of him then you will have a very good player. Zola from the resevres is worthy of playing in that midfield if you trian him well.

Weaknesses: There is only one striker in the first team squad; Piquionne, who isn't good enough in my opinion. You can play Menez, Nene and Gakpe and play upfront but 2 new strikers are needed

Bank Balance: £8.77M

Transfer Budget: £2.15M

Wage Budget: £273K p/w

Nancy.

Strengths: A solid defence which includes players like Luiz, Puygrenier, Biancalani and Chretien. Also you have Issar Dia. He's doesn't look good at the start but has the ability to become a great player.

Weaknesses: They is no one in the squad who will set the league apart. A top notch player is needed, but with £1.29M available, that might be difficult.

Bank Balance: £5.42M

Transfer Budget: £1.29M

Wage Budget: £185k p/w

Nice.

Strengths: The best keeper in the game. Hugo Lloris. Will get you many points thanks to his brilliant saves. They also have some good players in Ederson (on loan from Lyon), Laslandes, Apam and Kone.

Weaknesses: They is only one good striker in the squad, Laslandes, and he is 35 so a good youg striker is needed.

Bank Balance: £4.95m

Transfer Budget: £1.16m

Wage Budget: £178k p/w

PSG.

Strengths: Excellent youth. Sakho, Sankhare, Chantome and N'Gog all guranteed to make the first team in the future. They also have Diane, Digard, Yepes and Rothen who are all good.

Weaknesses: We all know that Pauleta is a very good striker, but he retires after the first season. So getting a new striker before the start of the 2nd season.

Bank Balance: £11.83m

Transfer Budget: £3.01m

Wage Budget: £337k p/w

Rennes.

Strengths: Jimmy Briand and Slyvain Wiltord up front could be special and with Bruno Cheyrou in midfield providing ammunition, they will get goals. They also have a brilliant captain at the back. John Mensah. He's also not that bad at defending too

Weaknesses: There is no one in the team with great ability except Briand, so bringing in youth is important.

Bank Balance: £6.19m

Transfer Budget :£1.68m

Wage Budget: £203k p/w

Saint-Etienne.

Strengths: There is no doubt that on FM09 Bafetimbi Gomis will be great, but for now he is still a good striker and will score goals with the right tactics.. Also Freddy Guarin is good player and will get his fair share of goals. Janot in goal is good aswell, he does the job. Payet at left wing who could turn out great.

Weaknesses: Only 2 centre backs in the squad and you can certianly find better in the transfer market. Alot better!.

Bank Balance: £7.16m

Transfer Budget: £1.93m

Wage Budget: £229k p/w

Sochaux.

Strengths: Sebastien Grax and Lionel Mathis are the best players in the team, and if you can get them playing well together you will get goals.

Weaknesses: Keeping hold of the big name players like Grax and Mathis plus anyone who you sign, and losing them to big boys in the league would be hard.

Bank Balance: £7.64m

Transfer Budget: ££1.93m

Wage Budget: £210k p/w

Strasbourg.

Strengths: Habib Belliad is a solid defender and the defence should be built around him. Pascal Johansen is also a very good winger and with 19 for stamina, he doesn't tire easy.

Weaknesses: Another team with their only strikers being on loan. 3 of them. So you have to bring in 3 new strikers by the start of season two. Or loan some others.

Bank Balance: £2.74m

Transfer Budget: £689k

Wage Budget: £132k p/w

Toulouse.

Strengths: Gignac and Elmander upfront. Goals, Goals, Goals. They also have Jeremy Mathieu who has terrific stats and is terrific player. He is also very versatile being able to play at D/WBL, DM and MLC.

Weaknesses: A terrible back up keeper in , so when Riou gets injured you will leak goals. Bring in another keeper.

Bank Balance: £6.54m

Transfer Budget: ££1.72m

Wage Budget: ££208k p/w

Valenciennes.

Strengths: Steve Savidan. A bright light in a very dull team. He will get goals. Puyol is not bad either.

Weaknesses: Predicted to come last in the league, this is the probably the biggest challenge in the league. The whole squad needs improving with a limited amount of money.

Bank Balance: £4.57m

Transfer Budget: ££1.13m

Wage Budget: ££151k

Reccomended Players

Goalkeepers

Danut Coman

Bogdan Lobont

Defenders

Marvin Angulo

Christopher Samba

Christian Pander

Abdoua Razack Traore

Matias Cahais

Midfielders

Per Ciljan Skjelberd

Marek Sapara

Tranquilo Barnetta

Helder Barbosa

Lubos Kalouda

Luis Jimenez

Damien Escudero

Antonio Valencia

Adrien

Strikers

Mame Biram Diouf

Kwabena Agouda

Sebastien Grax

Steve Savidan

Artem Milevskiy

Franco Di Santo (loan)

Big thanks to purefun,liam_everton89 and HoPeY who helped with there opinions and improvements. Thanks Guys

this alot better then mine

Brilliant guide, very informative. I will be choosing a Ligue 1 club as soon as I get fed up of Harpenden Town.

Great thread. Should prove to be useful & informative in the future!

Wouldn't it be a good idea to make 1 of these for every league when we get FM09? Probably alot of players would be mentioned a couple of times in some threads. Or we could make them for the smaller leagues in FM09 like: France, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Russia, ...

There have been a few threads for leagues around, but not as good as this one. Would serve as a good format to start from!

Right I have started a game with Lille. Mainly due to the money.

Transfers In:

Mame Biram Diouf - Molde - £350k

Marvin Angulo - £110k

Thiago Neves - £5.75m

Dmytro Chygrynskyi - £8m

Ever Banega - Loan

Transfers Out:

No one

Formation:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">

Sylva

Angulo Chygrynskyi Plestan Tafforeau

Makoun Mavuba

Banega

<----Bastos Neves---->

Diouf </pre>

Very slow tempo with a short passing style.

Fixtures

V PSG, H, 1-1 (Diouf)

V Toulosue, A, 0-1

V Caen, H, 2-0, (Bastos, Diouf)

V Le Mans, A, 2-1 (Diouf 2)

V Marseille, H, 2-0 (Diouf, Bastos)

Currently 2nd in the league Great start tbh

great guide!!!

the french league is the only league i haven't managed in apart from joining lyon on a previous save, but that was in 2010 and not really the same

but this is really helpful and if i can find a team on here i'll post my progress

THANK YOU

Happy to help

Im currently in my 4th season with PSG, having finished 4th, 1st, 2nd. Im currently 2nd after 24 games and have reached the French Cup final twice, winning once, and have lost both the UEFA Cup and Champions League finals. For me the star performers already at the club have been Sankhare, Sakho, Landreau, Hoarau, Armand, Digard, Rothen and Clement. I've not really played Chantome much and N'gog has spent most seasons out on loan as I only play one striker (either Bianchi or Hoarau for the past 2 seasons.)

I have brought in alot of players but Buonanotte, Bianchi, Vidal, Gourcuff and Gouffran are probably the best. I also should mention Roberto Cuevas who I managed to get for £240,000, he scored over 20 goals in the season I played him, but he fell down the pecking order to Bianchi and Hoarau as I switched to 4-5-1.

Personally I have enjoyed far more success with a 4-5-1 formation, with a DMC, 2 CMs an AML/AMR and one tall striker. Im not entirely sure why but I didn't enjoy much consistency with 442, having particular problems in defence when I really shouldn't have with the players at my disposal. Those are a few of my thoughts on my experience so far with PSG anyway!

Brilliant thread

My Lille team is really starting to play football now. Watching Makoun, Banega and Mavuba in midfield tearing teams apart, it is wonderful.

Thiago Neves and Mame Biram Diouf are getting the goals aswell.

Diouf has 14 in 17 with 4 assists and 3 MoMs. Neves has 8 in 17 with 9 assists and 4 MoMs

great thread - good to see you posted it

Would love to have editing ability though, made a few mistakes

good read mate. didnt realise lille had so much money. that will be my next save.

Originally posted by dexta200:

good read mate. didnt realise lille had so much money. that will be my next save.

You can change to around £35m if you say you will win the league. I chose european qualification which gave me £25.5m. £19m is what the board give you originally.

wow thats wicked. i quite like benzerga quite often end up with him as my DM for lower league clubs. not had much of a look at the rest of the club though. Cabaye ive signed before and was good for me. and i currently have Hazard at leeds.

and other than those and makoun im blind onthe rest so would be a new challenge for me and trying to knock lyon off the top would be fun too! so its def going to be my next one after Leeds.

Nice guide, shame you messed up with the tags a? Haha

Very useful, good work jonahno6

Managed to sign Jeremy Mathieu for £6m in the Joker Window, he certianly help as I play with 2 DMs and 1 CM and 2 of them are on loan. (Mavuba and Banega)

Just wanted to say thanks alot for a fantastic guide

great work

who would have though Lille would have had so much money. Never started a career in france ebut this has made me want to.

Really really nice work mate. And I was wondering how Lille spent £10M for players

Very rarely play in the French leagues but I often raid them for players as the clubs have lower reps and some brilliant players who can be bought for decent prices. Currently have a first team in Spain with Armand of PSG, Mensah of Rennes, Madanada of Marseille, Makoun of Lille and Diarra of Bordeaux.

The reason Lille have alot of money is because they sold Bodmer and Keita for big money in the summer.

I justed look on Lille's infromation screen and found out that they are moving to a 50186 seat capacity stadium on 1.7.2010

Abosoulutly Fantastic

Originally posted by HoPeY:

Nice guide, shame you messed up with the tags a? Haha

Very useful, good work jonahno6

Yes a very good guide.

-----

And Hopey my name is done great.

Does anyone have a 'bogey-team' in Ligue One? Lyon doesn't count as they're just generally superior to the other teams . Personally I cannot stand RC Lens, they've dumped me out of cups and cost me the title on the final day before (Im PSG). I hate them with a passion!

I'm only in the first season, but Toulouse are the only team to get a double over me! Not even Lyon have done that.

Had lots of trouble with Rennes tbh.

AS - Nancy Lorraine

Beat Inter 6-1 in CL next game same squad get beat 2-0 lol.

Originally posted by jonahno6:

I'm only in the first season, but Toulouse are the only team to get a double over me! Not even Lyon have done that.

Toulouse can be tricky but I usually beat them. I've found I usually get 4 points against Lyon in a season, but they'll beat me in the cup games. I do well vs Marseille too, but Lens? maybe 1 point, or 3 if I win the home game. Rennes are a pain in the arse until Briand is sold, they let him go on August 31st in my 4th season and have crashed down the table because they didnt replace him!

Thinking about it, alot of teams play with two or three AMC's and I often struggle against these as my defensive playes don't always track them or mark them properly, i think Rennes play this way, cant remember what Lens favour though, other than utter annoyingness.

I've been ballsed up by the ACON, lost my star striker and star midfielder and my keeper.

Lol can you loan anybody in?

Almuni, Fabianski for GK

Can't think other postions, how much money you got?

922k left \o/

Will try for the keepers now

Lol tough with that much money, what area of midfield do you need sorting?

Striker will be harder to sort

Both Walcott and Almunia rejected my loan offers

This thread has encouraged me to start a French save, will start when I get bored with Harpenden, like DiscoStu.

Great thread

I'm defo starting with Lille after reading this thread. I will post updates.

Originally posted by jonahno6:

I've been ballsed up by the ACON, lost my star striker and star midfielder and my keeper.

What about that Wang Dalei bloke? you should only need a keeper for a month or so right? He seemed to have alright states when I looked at him, not going to first choice but he has arms and legs so he should do for a few games

Originally posted by Razzle_Dazzle_Dean_Gordon:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by jonahno6:

I've been ballsed up by the ACON, lost my star striker and star midfielder and my keeper.

What about that Wang Dalei bloke? you should only need a keeper for a month or so right? He seemed to have alright states when I looked at him, not going to first choice but he has arms and legs so he should do for a few games </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Everyone's returned now, but I'm looking for a back up keeper so will try for him in the summer. Thanks

Diouf scored a 25 yard curler on his return

This is pants man I lost my first match of the season in the first friendly of the season 2-1 with Diouf scoring a screamer

What's your tactic?

Kimz V1

If that dosen't work after a while, try my one at the top. Guranteed success

Is it on the Tactic forum?

Nope it's my own, no player intructions, just a slow tempo, with short passing and play quite narrow.

Oh and your most creative AMC as the playmaker

In my case, Thiago Neves

Ive had great success with one of the pre-set 4-3-3's, with a DMC, 2 MC's and wingers pushed forward. Ive changed personal instructions for runs etc. but mentality etc. is based on the team setting, I play short passing, slow tempo and wide at home, less attacking and a little narrower away most of the time and it seems to work. Ive only played with tall strikers so far, dont know hoe it would work with a pace-fiend.

Who would that be with my squad?

Who would be my Playmaker?

If you still have money I would reccomend buying a better one like Neves or Sapara. At the moment, probably Frau