Jean-Louis Gasset ne lâchera pas mais reconnaît que la situation est compliquée. MAXPPP – JEAN MICHEL MART
The Montpellier coach seemed resigned in a press conference after the defeat and his players' performance against Angers (1-3), Sunday January 12.
Did you take a big blow to the head tonight? ?
Yes, a big blow. I had hope, even if I knew it was difficult. The Lyon match had still been good, even if we didn't bring back any points in content. Today, there was a first half where we were afraid. And there, it's serious.
In an important match like this, it's very serious to refuse to play, to not be confident instead of giving your all. There's a bit of the start of the second half where we felt a little rebellion. And then, as all the teams ranked badly, the red card, the other red card, the winning goal at the last minute, it's the chalice to the dregs.
How do you explain this feverishness of the first half? ?
Players without confidence. It's hard to explain, the lack of confidence. When we arrived, we played the match against Toulouse, it was a bit the same. People were pressing us, scaring us and we could see that people were panicking. And there, when you don't have confidence in football, it's very hard. It's very hard to play well, it's very hard to score, everything becomes difficult.
What was your speech in the locker room?
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000To take responsibility. To take responsibility as a man. You have to talk, you have to say that you're disappointed, you have to face reality. The mission was very difficult, today, it's mission impossible. There's half a championship left. There are a lot of points at stake, but we lost in Le Havre, we lost in Saint-Étienne and we lost at home against Angers. So, it will take a small miracle.
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What can you rely on to try to remobilize the players ?
On pride. Pride, because it's not Montpellier, it's not this state of mind, it's not La Paillade, to play like that, timidly, with curled up feet. We're playing the survival match… We did it a little in the second half, we had a little burst, but it's not enough.
We saw the supporters disappointed, angry, what message do you want to send them? ?
They're suffering, disappointed, that's normal. They're suffering, like us. There's not much to say, I told them before the match, it's an important match, it's a crucial match, they did their job. In the first half, they encouraged, but they saw a timid team, they saw a team without confidence, they did not understand. They are right.
You sometimes feel abandoned by some key players, I'm thinking of the captain today, Jordan Ferri who gets a red card, it reminds me of Téji Savanier's against Toulouse ?
It adds even more pain to the pain. It's people's malaise, it's normal. When a season starts like that, I told the players, you've played 8 games with a coach, you've taken 4 points, we're changing coaches, we've played 9 games, we've taken 5 points, we're where we need to be. We tried to put some things back together but we didn't succeed. So I said, we're missing a half-championship, we're professionals, we're going to play the matches as best we can.
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For you, there's no question of letting go of the bar, you're still going all out ?
If I had thought about it when I was asked, maybe I wouldn't have come, because I could see that the pain was still pretty deep. But if I had been watching TV today, I would have thought that I had chickened out. And with regard to the people who have left, to whom I owe a lot, I would rather suffer by being with them than suffer by being outside.