Losc is slowly slipping towards crisis. Although the season has just started, the Dogues have just suffered a third defeat in a row in all competitions and are showing a worrying face before the return of the Champions League on Tuesday against Sporting Portugal (9 p.m.). Air-conditioned by a quick goal from Mathieu Cafaro, Bruno Genesio’s players did not offer enough to try to get a result at Geoffroy-Guichard. Enough to make Olivier Létang lose his temper, furious at the final whistle.
“There are several things. Tonight, this match is shameful. I am ashamed of what we offered tonight,” admitted the Lille president in the mixed zone. “I am not going to talk to you from a technical or tactical point of view. I am going to talk to you about the commitment. I forgot the first thing: to congratulate Saint-Etienne. Because they were committed with their quality. Their victory is deserved, I even think that we could have conceded a second goal at one point. I am happy for this club, it is a legendary club in France.”
>> Relive Saint-Etienne-Lille (1-0)
Explanations planned internally
With the absence of several players, particularly in midfield (Bentaleb, Haraldsson, Mukau, Ethan Mbappé), Losc tried to react after the break, without being sharp in the final move. Opportunities that the team could regret later in the season.
“What I saw today is shameful. You can’t be a great team when you lose three games in a row,” continued Olivier Létang. “Everyone was warned about this. Two years ago, we missed the Europa League by one point. In May, we missed the Champions League by one point. Today, we lost three points that we will never get back. I am the president of a club whose DNA is to win, always. When I see tonight, is there anyone here who can tell me that the players wanted to win? Did they show it on the pitch? I can’t accept it. We’ll explain it among ourselves, but I can’t condone or trivialize attitudes like that. It’s unacceptable behavior.”
“I don’t care about the Champions League”
“I don’t care about the Champions League. What interests me are matches that we have to win. If some people have their minds set on the Champions League, we won’t play it. Our daily bread is the championship and if we want to play in European competitions, we have to perform well in the championship. If we are in the Champions League, it’s because we performed well in the championship. It is impossible to perform well by delivering such performances with such attitudes,” he insisted.
For his part, Bruno Genesio has also started to sound the alarm after the “first big underperformance of the season.” “It’s up to us to question ourselves. We can’t go back. We can focus on Sporting on Tuesday,” the coach whispered. With another state of mind to reverse a slope that is starting to become slippery.
- RMC Sport
