Lille v Caen Betting Tips: Growing injury list can cost Bielsa’s men

After a couple of stagnant years, it’s fair to say that there was plenty of optimism floating around Lille at the start of the season. Under the guidance of Marco Bielsa, the man who has shaped some of today’s finest coaches, the club from the north of France were expected to thrive. Thrive is exactly what they did on match-day one when recording a comfortable 3-0 victory over Nantes; however, jubilation quickly turned to frustration as they were beaten 3-0 last time out by newly promoted Strasbourg.

With a keeper sent off and a number of players injured early doors, the match against Strasbourg is certainly one to forget for Lille, although bouncing back straight away could prove to be a tough task. With a growing injury list, Bielsa’s dream start is fast becoming rather complicated. A home match against a Caen side who beat the drop last season by just a single point might seem like the ideal opportunity to get things back on track, but, with a number of players out, regaining the winning thread won’t be easy.

Caen might have started the new campaign by recording back-to-back 1-0 losses, but they’ve certainly not played that badly and will be uplifted by the fact that Lille are missing several players here. Having seen the manner in which they capitulated against Strasbourg last weekend, albeit when down to ten, it’s see the visitors coming here and getting competitive. With this in mind, backing ‘Caen Win/Draw Double Chance’ makes plenty of sense.

Montpellier away wasn’t exactly the easiest of opening day fixtures for Caen, but they performed reasonably well and were perhaps unlucky to lose 1-0. In truth, it was a match that could’ve gone either way and a draw certainly wouldn’t have been an unfair result. Much of the same can be said about their match against St Etienne last time out. Again, on balance, a draw would’ve been perfectly fair based on chances created; however, the woodwork prevented the Normandy side from taking a share of the spoils. Consecutive losses is of course a poor way to start the season and so confidence probably won’t be sky-high right now but, as mentioned above, Lille’s current injury predicament certainly gives the visitors reason to believe here.

Prior to last week’s embarrassing defeat in Strasbourg, Lille were already without the services of Mendyl, Bautheac, Soumaoro and Enyeama through injury. Both Malcuit and Mendes joined that list having gone off during last week’s loss, while first-choice keeper Maignan is also absent after receiving a red-card. Such an absentee list is definitely a concern for Bielsa, even if he does still have a number of decent players to call upon.

Much the case on the Riviera this weekend, where Guingamp have the chance to play a struggling Nice, this is a good opportunity for Caen. Facing Lille when they are clearly not at full strength presents the visitors with the chance to obtain their first decent result of the season. After two performances where they probably didn’t quite deserve to walk away empty-handed, the visitors look a decent bet to get a favourable result against a Lille side who’re both coming off the back of a damaging defeat and without several first-team regulars.

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