Garde concerned by slow Lyon start

Lyon manager Remi Garde admitted his side’s start to the new Ligue 1 campaign has been “worrying”.

The French outfit have already lost three of their seven top-flight matches this term, the latest of which was a disappointing 2-1 defeat away to Ajaccio on Wednesday.

That loss was particularly difficult to take for the eighth-placed Lyon, as Ajaccio had failed to register a Ligue 1 victory to that point.

Losses against Evian and Reims have also blighted their domestic campaign, while the club were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League play-offs after losing 4-0 on aggregate to Real Sociedad of Spain.

Their poor start mean Saturday’s encounter with Lille, who sit fourth, could already be season defining, and Garde has demanded that his players deal with the pressure of the fixture.

“Is this worrying? Yes when you look against who we lost to, no disrespect to those teams,” Garde said.

“There is still a lot of work to be done at this level. I hope the players realise.

“If we win (against Lille) we can catch up. This is an important game. We have our backs to the wall because the league is important.

“The squad is young and they need to actually see the work in training paying off.”