Jean-Louis Gasset: “Some reflexes to fine-tune”

What is your analysis of the match (0-0)?

It was a tight match against a team that you don’t come across a lot and that established itself as having one of the best three defensive lines in the championship last season. We know why. They’re a difficult team to outmanoeuvre. During our plays, we may have brought the ball too far in the last thirty metres. But the state of the field did not allow us to play with one touch. That’s the regret that I have concerning our clear opening to score, because we didn’t have many more of them. We didn’t provide our opponents with many openings either, so the final score was 0-0. We’re working to dominate the middle but the offensive players have, I find, been slow to follow Loïs (Diony). In our system, we were a bit hard-pressed because the field prevented us from playing with one touch.

Do you have any particular fear of counter-attacks from Montpellier?

They’ve taken on strikers who love counter-attacks. We have to perfect our game style so that we don’t fall victim to such counter-attacks. And, in regards of perfecting our game style, we could have, or should have, had a few more openings to score. That’s what’s a little bit unsettling. We’ll have to work on our offensive game. In Strasbourg, we played with ten players for an hour and 15 minutes with the temperature being 30 degrees, with (Rémy) Cabella who had arrived two days before. The international break will allow us to fine-tune our reflexes so that we’re more effective.

We’ve sometimes seen a three-defender system from the Verts, with a very active Yann M’Vila taking possession of the ball.

Players manage sometimes to outmanoeuvre Yann, so you have to change up the defensive line sometimes. This time, it was Mathieu Debuchy who was on the right wing. There were three players to push back the ball. Using this strategy, we succeeded in doing just so during the entire match because we had mastered this technique. The problem occurred in the last thirty metres towards our opponent’s net and at the finish.

Are you already focused on the match next Sunday against Amiens (Sunday, 3pm)?

We won on our home turf and tied twice as an away team. In Strasbourg, we faced difficult conditions. Today (Saturday), it was against a defensive line that was very difficult to outmanoeuvre. Of course, we’ll have to justify the point taken this evening with a victory against Amiens.