Jean-Louis Gasset: “We tried, we pushed, we gave it a go”

How do you judge the performance of your team?

I’m not disappointed by their state of mind. During the second half, I find that our team was a lot more intelligent in the game. We corrected certain things, notably passing on the wings. We tried, we pushed, we gave it a go but we didn’t find the key to breaking through the defense gathered against us.

Do you feel hurt by the decisions made by the referee?

We say that these decisions benefit different teams throughout a season. This afternoon, all the decisions made were unfavourable for us. These things happen, but we have much progress to make in our organisation. We knew that before the match. We still have to work a lot.

What do you wish to improve?

We don’t have the fluidity we want because certain players aren’t yet at their peak level of physical performance but we need time in order to develop the complicity and the instincts we need. We have good players but we need to make them work together and since our Mercato finished Friday evening, we haven’t had the time to develop these instincts. From time to time, matches are won due to small details and today they weren’t in our favour.

Will the break allow you to work on these instincts?

It will certainly allow us to focus on the physical component of our game because we’ll be missing Wahbi Khazri and Ole Selnaes, who will re-join their respective National teams, as well as all our International youths.

After four matches what is your opinion of the use of the Video assistant referee (VAR)?

The only time that the referee sees the screen is to deny us a goal. I think that with certain plays, like Robert Beric’s, we can go look at the screen. That’s going to be a debate, we’ll have to discuss that because when I saw Angers SCO’s match yesterday, I told myself that every team must be refereed the same way.

Do you think that your adversaries want to face your team more after your club’s Mercato?

When you take on good players and when people tell you you’re the favourite team, opposing teams adapt, that’s normal. Amiens didn’t play as well as they normally do with three defensive midfielders to counter us. Today, we have a great team on paper but paper doesn’t score any goals and doesn’t take any points. Despite everything, we’re the only ones to remain undefeated against Paris SG. You have to remain positive.