Peter Bosz says he was somewhat worried in the first weeks at Olympique Lyon. The trainer had a rough start in France, but seems to be getting things on track lately. Bosz argues in conversation with The Telegraph that ‘trainers with qualities’ should be given the time, because this benefits the stability in a team.
Olympique Lyon currently occupies tenth place in Ligue 1, with thirteen points from nine matches. “If I’m being very honest, we’ve said to each other here: maybe this will be the first time that we won’t succeed. Okay, it took a while at Ajax, but at Leverkusen it went very quickly and we started very well at Dortmund. Here I was really afraid that it would not work. I have completely lost that fear,” says Bosz. In his view, the arrival of Jérôme Boateng – who came over on a free transfer from Bayern Munich – has changed his selection.
Bosz says he notices the confidence of chairman Jean-Michel Aulas, who brought him to Lyon to play attacking football. Initially, his group of players could not show the intensity necessary for his way of playing, which costs a lot of energy. “I firmly believe in my way of playing football. I want us to immediately grab opponents by the throat. Remaining defense and ‘standing well’ are nice terms, but much more important is: how do you do that? I am constantly working on that balance. I sometimes hear that I don’t have a plan B, while we can actually do a lot of conversions that we already think about in advance.”
“You know, if a coach has qualities, then let him work for a club for a while. In my opinion, a team needs that stability to grow. You see that at Manchester City, at Liverpool and now also at Ajax,” emphasizes Bosz. His contract with Olympique Lyon will continue until mid-2023. “It may well be that after this I say: it has been great. I don’t commit to anything. But you must not forget that I hardly see my children and grandchildren.”
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