ASSE won with a score of 3-1 this Saturday against Stade de Reims. A valuable success which allows Eirik Horneland to achieve his first success on the Saint-Etienne bench. During this meeting, several players distinguished themselves on the field. But, at the moment of kick-off, Mathieu Cafaro crossed a symbolic bar!
Since the start of the season, Mathieu Cafaro has occupied a starting place in the ASSE starting 11. Under the orders of Olivier Dall'Oglio, the winger played 13 matches. The only three he missed (Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse) were due to suspensions.
A mixed first part of the season with ASSE
Although widely used, the 27-year-old is experiencing a checkered first half of the season. Author of a magnificent goal against Lille in a Stade Geoffroy-Guichard which saw the return of his Kop Nord, suspended from the first day, he has never repeated such a performance. Today, Mathieu Cafaro has only one goal and no assists.
Present on October 24 at a press conference, before the match against Angers, he confided:
“I feel good physically, I'm playing a lot of matches. But I've only been decisive once, that's not enough for me. I hear and I would like to be more decisive for the team. My positioning? On the left or on the right, that's no problem. I've already played on both sides in other clubs. This season, there is more competition in the squad, but that's it. Ligue 1, I have already experienced this in the past and It's something that I like. It pushes us to perform better This season, in Ligue 1, it's different from last season: we have less of the ball, fewer situations than last season. “Adapt. Personally, I'm missing statistics. I'll just have to be more efficient.”
Horneland's confidence in Mathieu Cafaro?
Mathieu Cafaro experienced his first tenure under the orders of Eirik Horneland. During the first half, he lacked clarity several times in the last gesture, despite the fact that he had several opportunities to open the scoring. Aligned on the left side, he did not hesitate to come and lend a hand on the right side and even in the center. The first effects of Horneland's game? The winger managed to achieve a total success rate of 85% in his passes.
Before the meeting, Mathieu Cafaro spoke about his relationship with his new coach on DAZN: “It's very square in how a day works. We're often together. These are things that change compared to last year and the start of the season. We had to adapt, we quickly made the change and now it's up to us to respond on the ground.”
“The training, there are a lot of demands in the work. He (the coach) is on the lookout for every detail. He talks to us a lot and gives us a lot of tactical advice. As I said, we will try to implement them in the best possible way”
100 matches in Ligue 1
It's now official: Mathieu Cafaro has played 100 matches in Ligue 1. During this period, he scored 13 goals and provided 7 assists. The ASSE player played 82 matches in Ligue 1 under the colors of Reims, 4 with Toulouse (his first Ligue 1 match on September 10, 2016, against Bastia) and 14 with ASSE.
