Lyon aim for more on Ligue 1 recovery mission

The appointment of Sage, initially on an interim basis in late November, has coincided with a vast improvement in results for Lyon, who have won nine of their past 11 matches in all competitions.

Rooted to the foot of the table when he made the step up from managing the club's academy, Lyon lost their first two games under Sage before embarking on a recovery - helped by significant investment in the January transfer window - that has pushed them up to 11th place.

Friday's trip to second-bottom Metz, who have taken one point from their past nine matches, provides another opportunity for Lyon to continue their resurgent run. But Sage is adamant his team must step up their level after a fortuitous 1-0 win over Nice last week to avoid being dragged back into a relegation battle.

"We've got to be more in control of our performances," said Sage. "There's lots of room to improve collectively, there's still a gap between our results and the way we play."

"We've been winning the past two weeks and we're still just three points ahead of the team in the relegation play-off spot," he continued. "We're not just fighting with Metz to stay up. Seeing the pace of other teams, it's possible that we'll need more than 35 points (to stay up), but we're going to keep this goal and try to reach it as quickly as we can."

The arrival of Sage has brought stability where there was once turmoil, which is the situation once more at Marseille following the exit of coach Gennaro Gattuso.

The Italian former World Cup winner left this week after less than five months in the job, with Marseille winless in six matches and eliminated from the French Cup, prompting Gattuso to say they had "hit rock bottom".

Jean-Louis Gasset was a curious choice of replacement.