Jean-Louis Gasset : "I have a team of competitors"

Could this 35th match of Ligue 1 Conforama be the turning point of the season?

With the direct confrontation between Lyon and Lille, this weekend is maybe going to be a bit more important than the others but we’re the unknown quantity. We’ll have to do our job first before thinking about other teams’ results. Playing before or after our competitors must not have any negative impact. Our fate is in our own hands. After Lille, I said that we were capable of realizing an undefeated streak and of finishing the season undefeated.

Your players have heard your message.

I have a team of competitors. My players are used to finishing their season well. The four matches that are coming are difficult but we’ll play each one to win. Without forgetting that, as soon as we lose concentration, a match can go the wrong way, we saw that against Toulouse. We were capable of beginning the match well and, suddenly, of losing easy balls that could have revitalized the match. If Stéphane Ruffier hadn’t stopped the penalty kick, what would have happened? That’s concentration, not relaxing. I don’t wanted to see my players show off so sometimes I redirect them. This week I felt they were very good at the training session. They worked well during the week, they even wanted to train more.

What is your judgement of Rémy Cabella’s current performance?

He’s in exceptional form and I hope that he’ll continue to be so. He’s capable of playing as part of a team, making many passes, he plays to make people hurt. He passes the rights balls and Wahbi Khazri and him understand each other very well. It was the right moment for those two to finally play together. 

How do you make your choise between Rémy Cabella, Wahbi Khazri and Robert Beric?

That depends on the game plan that I make, on our adversary and on the current shape of my players. At the moment, the choices to make are less evident due to the injuries and the suspensions. That happens when we work with a small group. Even the youths are tiring at the end of this season. But, it’s a privilege for me to be able to count on different skill sets.

Is the Monaco team that you faced in the first leg of the championship the same today?

Monaco did a lot of recruiting during the break and they had good results in February. We saw them come back very quickly and rise in the rankings and we thought that they were going to get through this but at the moment they’re not doing as well. They’re maybe lacking confidence, but Monaco can count all the same on Radamel Falcao and Kamil Glik. They’re great players.