Jean-Louis Gasset: "We defended very well"

What feeling does this victory against Guingamp leave you with?

I am very happy because, during the first half of the season, there were matches in which we played better but for which we only took one point, or even none. Today, we had some difficult moments but we took three points. We were criticized until then for not being efficient as an away team. This time, we scored a goal with two or three openings and we defended well. For a team not quite ready physically, we won our Cup match and we imposed ourselves in this somewhat complicated encounter.

What do you think of the match as a whole?

In the first half, we dominated but after the break, we didn’t manage to get the ball out of our side of the field for 30 minutes or we lost the ball too easily. By regaining some technical flexibility in the last quarter of an hour, we made two or three openings to score. That would have allowed us to be able to score a second goal but before that, they hit the post and Stéphane Ruffier did a great save. We had to defend well and have a bit of success.

How do you explain this efficiency that you’ve regained as an away team?

Taking a point against Lyon and Nice, it was really the minimum that we could obtain in light of the matches we’ve had. In a season, we say that that balances out so it might be this evening (Saturday), and unfortunately for Guingamp, things have begun to balance out. But we’re still lagging behind.

What is your opinion about Gabriel Silva and Romain Hamouma coming back?

We’re going to play 5 matches in 14 days and we can’t let them weigh us down. It’s for this reason that I brought out Gabriel Silva. Silva and Romain Hamouma were unavailable for eight weeks. Tomorrow, we’ll get (Neven) Subotic and (Mathieu) Debuchy back. We structure our day-to-day team line-up with the schema that corresponds the best to the condition of our players. Regardless of the game system, it’s vivacity and the state of mind that count. When I see Kévin Monnet-Paquet capable of playing right full-back, wing-back and right winger I tell myself that we’re lucky. It’s good to have players capable of adapting to every game system.