With what feeling do you come away from this first defeat in thirteen L1 matches?
We are frustrated, disappointed, obviously. You never get used to losing. When you haven’t lost in a long time, the desire to remain undefeated continues. I especially remember the result. Over the whole match, we at least deserved to leave with a draw and a parity score. In the first half, we really lacked technical accuracy to cause more problems for Lens. We misused certain situations. We were inside, we couldn’t deliver the football that we are capable of. In the second half, it was much better. The entrants brought. And we had three or four favorable situations that we did not materialize. At the end, we couldn’t change the match. The luck factor came into play. We are out of position on a touchline, which is rare (Lens goal). The ball comes back to a Lensois. The story of the match did not go in our favor.
Why did you start Le Douaron and Mounié?
Because we imagined that the Lensois were going to be very present in the intensity. In the first part of the match, they weren’t so good. We wanted to break their pressing. We imagined that they were going to jump the lines, exploit the second balls. We wanted to be able to exist in this register of play. Jerem (Le Douaron) and Steve (Mounié) offer more guarantees in this perspective when we extend more. It’s true that the first period was not our best. But not just because of them. I saw a lot of their teammates making an effort but lacking rhythm and not enough intensity. We managed to be on par with Lens in what is their strength. But in the use of the ball, we were narrow. Sometimes it’s not a great night.
You made changes very early…
We said to ourselves that in the second part of the match, things would open up a little more. We had players capable of making the difference. The changes were made earlier because we thought they could help us turn the match around. It almost did it. I am satisfied with the overall content but not with the consistency throughout the match.
Is this a stopping point?
We have had five defeats this season. Five matches where we didn’t necessarily deserve to lose. Regarding the content, it’s a source of pride to have proposed things to Bollaert, or it’s never easy. I don’t think this will affect our momentum. We put Lens in difficulty. It is a cruel defeat but it must not stop us. »