Ghislain Printant : "The Cauldron can help a lot our players "

Did the opening match against Dijon make you certain of some things?

It did confirm some things for me. I saw thirty very coherent minutes of game play and a few offensive affinities that allowed us to score two goals. The more training sessions we do and the more matches we play, the more the team will improve. Right now, after a week of individualized work, I hope that the team will play at a higher athletic level.

Did the team progress this season?

The team certainly maintained its identity, knew how to face its adversary on the field and take points in a difficult situation. We must not lose sight of the extremely difficult schedule that we have. Knowing that the team wasn’t ready physically, I find that the team showed the qualities while playing that herald good things. I hope that we’ll be close to our optimal performance between now and the end of the month but it’s the competition that will allow all our players to feel better physically.

What is your opinion of the recruits’ first performance?

I was pleasantly surprised. I was thinking they would be struggling more because it’s not easy wearing the ASSE jersey. But Miguel Trauco, for example, immediately came into his own. Others were timider in the first period before getting their head in the game. The relationship between the recruits will ensure that they can only improve over the course of the matches. I am very happy that today there is competition, and the players are happy about this too. It’s fortunate to have almost two potential starting players for a position.

In what state of mind are you before your first match in the Cauldron?

I’m not thinking about it so much, I’m concentrated on our match. I’ll maybe at times experience some flashbacks, but I’m focused on the good game that we have to play against Brest. We know that we won’t be able to count on a full stadium, which will put us at a disadvantage when we know that importance that the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium can have. The Cauldron can make the Stéphanois take flight and put pressure on our adversary.

What type of match are you expecting against Brest?

I know Olivier (Dall’Oglio) well, he likes to make his teams play hard. He reinforced his team and, like many teams that have reached Ligue 1, this one is ready for the beginning of this championship. It’s going to be a tricky match against this team that wants to confirm its status from the beginning of the championship. Brest was undefeated during the preparation period and played a good match last weekend. They’re going to come to make things difficult for us, but we’ll be on our home turf, in the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium, in our stadium. We know that our fans expect much, it really pleases us to see so many people at all of the training sessions. They’re like us, they want us to have the best track record possible.