Why Paqueta is excelling with Lyon and why Milan should have no regrets

Former AC Milan midfielder Lucas Paqueta is excelling with Lyon in League 1 but the Rossoneri should have no regrets of selling him.

Lucas Paqueta left AC Milan with his head down, in silence, without making any impact. The €20 million offer from Lyon in the last days of the summer transfer window was seen as a sigh of relief by everyone: the club, the fans and probably himself. At Lyon, however, it’s a whole different story. Paqueta arrived in France amid general skepticism but he immediately imposed himself on the pitch and in a few months became one of the most important players of Ligue 1. The Brazilian has scored 6 goals and provided 3 assists in 27 games, enchanting with his technique.

Calciomercato.com analyzes that one of the reasons why Paqueta was unable to demonstrate his full potential in Serie A was certainly the difficulty his coaches had in finding him the proper tactical position. Pioli and before him Giampaolo and Gattuso had deployed the 23-year-old in all the midfield roles but the Brazilian always seemed unsuitable.

Too insubstantial to play as central midfielder, too little incisive to play as attacking midfielder, too snappy to play on the wings. Instead, Lyon coach Rudi Garcia succeeded, transforming him into the all-rounder who Lucas seemed destined to become after his first appearances with Milan.

In Rudi Garcia’s 4-3-3 formation, Lucas Paqueta plays on the right side of a very attacking midfield completed by Thiago Mendes and Houssem Aouar. The Lyon coach has created a very compact midfield with Lucas very attentive in the defensive phase, high ball recovery, setting (at flank of Mendes) and insertions without the ball.

The other fundamental ingredient for the explosion of Paqueta, which instead had enormously affected him at Milan, is certainly the environment he found in France. The Lyon fans are not used to winning as much as those of Milan, the press is not as demanding as in Italy and the expectations placed on him were not as high as those he had after arrived from Flamengo for a record 38 million euros transfer fee. No one expected the “new Kaka”.

Furthermore, the French league is not tactically suffocating like Serie A and the technical level is also lower. Finally, a huge part in his easy adaption to League 1 has played the presence of Juninho Pernambucano, legendary Brazilian midfielder and current sporting director of Lyon, who for him is a sort of mentor.

Lucas Paqueta, after about a month of adaptation, rose to prominence and earned a starting sport in Garcia’s formation when, on November 10, his entry from the bench completely changed the attitude and the game of the team, resulting decisive for the derby victory against Saint Etienne. The former Flamengo cemented his role a month later with a great performance in Lyon’s stunning win against PSG.

This spring Paqueta has literally exploded and, in the last two league games, has scored two goals and assisted one. The 23-year-old also decided the Europa League match against Red Star in Europa League. Nevertheless, the Brazilian cannot be a regret for AC Milan. The technical, tactical and environmental conditions of the Italian championship were not suitable to his style of play. It simply had to go like this.

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