Pros Jeudi 09 Août 2018 à 15h59

Jean-Louis Gasset : "Maintain the same momentum"

Before the official kick-off of the season, the Stéphanois coach highlights the state of mind that has pushed his team forward since the beginning of the calendar year.

Is the goal for the first match to maintain the same momentum that you had last season?

The players have the same state of mind. The training in Le Touquet allowed us to combine work and cheerfulness. You have to be motivated in order to preserve this state of mind. To maintain this momentum and the same determination that we had when fighting to get out of our rut this past season. I’m working with great professional players and they know that this will be the speech that I give before the kick-off, this Saturday.


How do you reinforce the must-win mentality of a team?

You have to have players that have it. (Mathieu) Debuchy has it because he has won where he has played. (Neven) Subotic and (Yann) M’Vila have it as well. (Wahbi) Khazri can’t bear to lose it. They must represent this mentality.


Are you happily surprised by Loïs Diony, who scored 5 goals during friendly matches?

Surprised? No. I was the first to believe it. A player must feel that he has the confidence of both the team and the coach. Loïs works hard, he knows that he has had a bad season but that happens in a career. He has the chance to write a new story. He just finished a great period of preparation, his buddies are completely behind him. Wahbi (Khazri) attracts attention so that will leave him a bit quiet. I sincerely think that if his confidence gets boosted, he could happily surprise us this season.


Have the young players from the ASSE Academy satisfied you with their performance during the pre-season training?

ASSE has to train young players and launch them. That’s why I want to have 15 confirmed players and to make the young players work with the pros in order to know who has what it takes to be one of the Verts starting players. (Stefan) Bajic is a boy with talent, (William) Saliba is a good defender but he’s 17 years old. (Mahdi) Camara delivered a very encouraging performance against Nice. There are many youths and good players even if certain among them don’t have a single CFA match under their belt. But, working everyday with the (Loïc) Perrin or the (Neven) Subotics greatly advances their training. Like for (Mahdi) Camara with (Yann) M’Vila or (Bilal) Benkhedim with (Wahbi) Khazri.


Is a coach always wary before the first match of the championship?

We’re sure of certain things, but we can’t exactly know where we stand. We’re certain of some things based on last season: our block tactic, our defense, our work and our state of mind. Right now, we have to add a bit of madness to our offensives in order to score. A team’s offensive game is the most difficult thing to develop in Football.


What is your opinion of Guingamp?

It’s a team that has remained undefeated during their preparation and that has scored a lot, (Nolan) Roux and (Yannis) Salibur come to mind. The team’s cohesion is strong because they haven’t changed their team a lot. We’ll be on an equal playing field in that respect.

The Cauldron will unfortunately not be able to make use of its two kops this Saturday...

When I remember the match against Lille, it was extraordinary. At times, the stadium shook! We are certainly penalized because we’ll have half as many people there as we do usually. I hope that those who are there will cheer for those who should have been there.



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Ensemble, faisons de notre club une source d'engagement, à domicile et à l'extérieur,
car un club de football engagé est un club plus fort !

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