Jean-Louis Gasset : "It's our mental state that makes the difference"

In what state of mind are you?

I feel both vengeful and frustrated by our defeat in Marseille. I have the feeling that we didn’t play this match, that we gave it to them. We at least tried against Paris and Lyon, sometimes clumsily. Even while playing with three or four strikers in the second half, we didn’t make openings to score to make them doubt themselves.

How do you explain this?

This happens to us once or twice a year. I have to save that after having taken 10 out of a possible 12 points, Marseille is confident, Balotelli brought the clarity that the team has been missing and the fans came back to the stadium. We suffered all of that, that’s where my frustration comes from.

What did you say to your players?

Sometimes, I make the regime a bit stricter, but you have to know what you want in life. I simply asked them what their ambition was because our state of mind against Marseille was awful. We have to pull ourselves back and recover our good state of mind, we’ve already done so in the past. I’ve already seen some improvement at the training session this week. 

What is your opinion of LOSC?

It’s a team that isn’t here by accident. They average 2 points every match, that’s what you need to do in order to qualify for the Champions League. It’s a very, very good team. It’s a complete team. In addition to their offensive quartet, they have a defense managed by an experienced player and a good goalie. We should play feeling liberated in order to play a real cup match and play with a bit of chaos in order to make them doubt themselves.

What’s your watchword?

Even if there’ll still be 30 points to take after Lille, this match is the last one against a team better ranked than us. We have to renew ourselves with victory and not have any regrets at the end of the match. We know the match that we must play, we’ve already done it. We have put ourselves in the zone once again because it’s when push comes to shove that we see who the good players are. I’m confident. This week, I saw a team working harder. In order to hope for a favourable outcome, we’ll need to attack and defend together.

In your opinion, can ASSE prevail against Lille?

Beating Lille would be an incredible feat. It’s a team that has stood up to the great teams in the championship and that has had great success against the others. For our state of mind, this match is important. We’ll have to be on point, then there will be 10 matches but if we succeed, we’ll create hope. If we’re able to win 6 matches, we’ll reach the 60-point mark which will allow us to be where we should be for the European Cup. Because even if we feel like a well-oiled machine right now, we’ve been between 4th and 6th place since the beginning of the championship.