Jean-Louis Gasset: «I don't want to see any drop in tension»

Is the result against Marseille important?
Yes, especially with all the difficulties that we had. Our state of mind during this match was important. If we had played this match a few months ago, we would have lost. To earn a point against this team that has almost won all the games in 2018 and in these conditions, that’s a very good thing.
 
What did you work on this week?
We tried to refine our ability to work as a team since we’re going to be getting Yann M’Vila and Rémy Cabella back. We also worked certain players physically in order to make sure that they’ll have more energy in the tank the next time they play, but also in order to maintain the team’s dynamic and their state of mind.
 
Is having so many players on the team an advantage?
There’s competition with players who are getting back to their peak level of physical performance like Hamouma and everyone wants to play. This provides me with an interesting arsenal, I can create different, offensive lines for different strategies.
 
In regards of Romain Hamouma, did his performance against OM surprise you?
When I came here, he was traumatised like many players. He was riddled with guilt for a certain number of reasons but he did what he had to in order to reassess himself and get back to his level of performance. I found he was improving during the training sessions, and when I gave him an opportunity to prove his worth, he seized it. What he did against Marseille it all well and good but that’s his minimum. He has to do better : score and make decisive passes in order to become once again the Romain Hamouma that terrified me when I was facing him with Paris Saint-Germain. But Romain is not the only one in this situation, there are four or five players who have to surpass what they are capable of.
 
Your coaching has proven to be bearing fruit after Robert Beric walked onto the field against OM...
I understand that players are disappointed to not be assigned to the starting line-up but I ask them to show me that they deserve their place on the team. This competition is bringing everyone back up to 100%. Until now, no one was there but progressively everyone on the team is becoming more powerful players. They’re getting to their peak levels of physical performance and when everyone is there, I will make the decisions regarding the starting line-up by taking into account who is performing the best.
 
After three positive results, is the drop in tension really a false sense of security?
No, the danger is that Angers plays more aggressively than us. I have a group of players that have good ball handling skills but there can’t be a drop in the tension because we’re not
yet out of our rough patch. Not at all. We can’t think like that, if we do we’ll quickly be facing hard times once again. We have 30 points with 13 matches still left to played, but we’ll be playing as an away team against a team that wants to earn three points as well. After January, during which we traveled a lot, this will be our first away game before playing Lyon once again on their home turf.
 
What type of match are you expecting against Angers?
We’re expecting a combat because we’re going to play against a team in real danger in the table who just lost 4-0 and who will play once again on their home turf. They had to have had a complicated week, but we know what that’s like. There’ll be aggression and a little bit of tension. We’ll have to play at out best level during this match and try to play like we did in Amiens where, technically, we delivered a very technical performance.