Vicens debuts at Lille with a Lyon side that took 13 of its 17 points at home

Carlos Vicens takes over a Lyon team that has been very good at home and poor everywhere else. The former Manchester City assistant was named coach on Monday, and his first game is away at Lille on Nov. 21, the kind of trip Lyon have not handled this season: 13 of their 17 Ligue 1 points have come at the Groupama Stadium.

Lyon announced that the 43-year-old Spaniard signed an 18-month deal running untill June 30, 2028. That is short for a new head coach, and sporting director Matthieu Louis-Jean explained that there is more to it.

"He has a contract of a year and a half, but I can add that he has an option for an extra year," Louis-Jean said, as quoted by Olympique-et-Lyonnais.com. "For us, it was also important to protect ourselves in the long term." Asked what it would take for the deal to run to June 2029, he answered: "A European qualification."

In practice, Vicens gets the rest of this season and next to show he can take Lyon back to Europe, and only then does the club commit beyond 2028.

Paulo Fonseca's exit came suddenly. Lyon confirmed on Nov. 4 that he was leaving for Sporting, and the club said it regretted the departure "particularly given its timing midway through the season." According to Lyonfoot, Sporting paid Lyon a €5 million fee. Assistant Jorge Maciel covered the interim, a draw with Real Sociedad in the Europa League and a loss at Brest, and he will stay on as Vicens's assistant.

The table does not look bad. Lyon are fifth in Ligue 1, three points off the podium and five behind leaders Paris Saint-Germain. In the Europa League league phase they are 13th with seven points, level with eighth-placed Beşiktaş, the last automatic spot for the round of 16.

The split is the issue. Lyon won 2-0 at Toulouse on opening day and were unbeaten through five league games, but since then they have lost all three league trips, at Lens, PSG and Brest. Lyonfoot counts 12 league goals at home and only three away, and all three of those came after halftime.

Vicens was out of work for less than three weeks. Braga dismissed him on Oct. 20 after a third straight defeat, with the team eighth in Portugal, after 76 games in charge. His first season there was much better: fourth in the league, a League Cup final and a run to the Europa League semifinals, which no Portuguese club had reached in 12 years.

Before Braga he spent eight years at Manchester City, first in the academy from 2017 and then, from 2021, four seasons on Pep Guardiola's first-team staff, where his work included set pieces. He brings four staff members with him.

"Happy and proud to be joining Lyon," Vicens wrote on X after the announcement. "Starting today, I'll be getting to work with as much enthusiasm and ambition as possible. Can't wait to experience my first match with our supporters."

That first home game comes five days after Lille, against Lillestrøm in the Europa League, and three of Lyon's last four league-phase games are at home. The schedule gives him the stadium where his team has been strong. The trip to Lille will show whether two weeks of training during the international break have done anything about the problem away from it.