Ghislain Printant : "Disappointing and frustrating"

What was your first reaction after this match?

I was extremely disappointed. Disappointed because I asked for concentration and rigour. So, when, after a minute, you’ve fallen behind…during that play, we could have cleared out the ball several times. We committed a new error comparable to what we’ve done since the beginning of the season. It’s disappointing and frustrating. It hurts. To have to always try to even the score is difficult.

How you can remedy this defensive weakness?

We make individual errors every match. One time it’s one player, the next it’s another player. It’s up to me to give my players their confidence back, free them from the doubts they could have. And, especially, to re-establish balance. We have to have a better performing defense if we want to win matches. We have opportunities to score but our defense is too frail.

What was your plan to thwart La Gantoise?

I wanted to keep their two strikers away from the goal zone with two players on the wings who could go after their lateral players. Mathieu Debuchy and Miguel Trauco did this rather well. This first goal scored very early made it so that we stretched our lines a bit thin. We then reimplemented our plan. Evening the score was positive for the team. But letting goals in due to these types of errors was upsetting. Overall, our goalie wasn’t too busy but letting in three goals makes it difficult to win.

You seem very disappointed by this match.

I’m disappointed for our fans, disappointed for the club, disappointed for the players. But, it’s obvious that the results aren’t in our favour. But, my staff and I have to find good words and remedies to quickly halt this downward spiral and make it so we once again find victory. We’ll have to converse with the players, make it so we lead them to what we wish to do by being honest, sincere, but also by their side in the difficult moments.

ulté.