Jean-Louis Gasset: "Danger will be everywhere"

Against Troyes you made substitutions once again that paid off. Is this the proof that you also are feeling confident?

I have an intuition when it comes to matches. Against Troyes, I may have not made the right choice at the beginning of the match but the team seemed serene to me so I subbed in players to score. Players must feel that their coach has confidence in them. We have a staff, we train to make sure things run smoothly. It’s up to the players to seize the opportunities that present themselves. Everyone contributes and after we win we remember that everyone contributed to this overall success. Against Troyes, we shouldn’t have worried or gotten excited. We should have just reassured the players. By doing so, we had a great second half, I was even thinking that we would score more goals.

Can this confidence work against ASSE?

You have to manage the difficult moments. Right now, I find that we’re having more and more of them. Our second half against Troyes is an example of a difficult moment that we managed, I saw a crazy, joyful team. The worst thing to do would be to restrain them. Not long ago, we were a bottom-of-the-barrel team and today, no one knows what could happen. We could win the next four matches or our undefeated streak could end in Montpellier. We just want to push our limits.

In what state of mind are you with two days to go before your match against your former club?

A very, very particular one. It’s the first time that I’ll arrive at the stadium when the boss won’t be there. He casts a large shadow on La Mosson...My father was Louis Nicollin’s best friend and because of that the Academy bears the name Bernard Gasset, my father. They were like brothers, Louis Nicollin was my uncle, in a way. But Football is Football. We’re competitors, we want to win matches. But if the environment makes we feel at home, Montpellier will be difficult to beat. Paris, Monaco, Marseille and Lyon didn’t win there and they have one of the very best defensive lines. But we’re going to try...

Do you work to maintain a motivated ASSE at the end of this season because Montpellier took things easy after they maintained their Ligue 1 status last season?

With Montpellier, we relaxed but this was due to Hilton’s injury more than anything else. He leads the defense and the team as a whole and we recognized his importance at that moment.

Does Loïc Perrin possess the same qualities as Hilton?

Loïc is a great player. He got back to his best level of performance and practically played all the matches since January. If he needs 15 days of rest to get back on his feet for the 3 last matches, we’ll let him rest.

Rémy Cabella spoke of a trick that you would have up your sleeve in regards of this match against Montpellier...

Rémy think that I know what will happen during each match. I simply try to imagine how the match will unfold by using my experience and my knowledge of the context of the match. Montpellier will be playing on their home turf and know that they need to win to have one last chance of qualifying for the Europa League. I think that they’ll give it their all and demonstrate their desire to win. The tribute to Nicollin will give them additional motivation. There’ll be impact, they’ll try to make us play their game. We’ll have to respond to all that.

What are the other strong qualities of MHSC in your opinion?

Even if they’re missing Aguilar and Roussillon, their two players that rock the sides of the field, they have a lot of strikers. Sio and Camara in the center, but several others on the sides. These are players with potential, danger will be everywhere, especially in dead ball situations.

What are your ambitions in regards of the score?

We’re going to play to win! In any case, with one point, we don’t advance. We’ll have to be careful not to fall victim to their counter attacks.

Has the possibility of a Europa League qualification changed your discourse?

My discourse hasn’t changed a lot. After our recovery, we became ambitious and since the other teams ahead of us in the rankings aren’t advancing, we remind ourselves that there are still four matches to play and twelve points to take. Because what is the limit of this team? I don’t know if we have one.

What do you think of the closure of the kop sud stand announced by the LFP for the match against the Girondins, in one week.

It’s a huge handicap! We always say that the public is the 12th man, against Troyes we felt like we were playing with eleven and a half players. For me, Football is a celebration. There’s still two matches to be played in the Cauldron, they could have been two huge celebrations...I don’t like this situation one bit. For the players, it changes everything to go on the offensive while looking at their fans, to see all these people rush down the stands to celebrate a goal. That’s the beauty of our work. I don’t know who has to make the effort but this penalizes us. We like to play in our pressure cooker. Against Paris, it was magical...