Paul Rouget, Media365: published on Sunday December 22, 2024 at 9:22 a.m.
Interim coach of the Greens while awaiting the debut of Eirik Horneland, Laurent Huard hopes that the 32nd final of the Coupe de France against Marseille will end better than his first two experiences on the Saint-Etienne bench.
Presented to the press on Friday, Eirik Horneland, successor on the Saint-Etienne bench of Olivier Dall'Oglio, dismissed from his duties after the third consecutive defeat of the Greens, and the 10th of the season, last week in Toulouse (1-2) , will not coach his new club on Sunday afternoon (2:45 p.m.) against OM, in the 32nd finals of the Coupe de France. The Norwegian technician will start after the break, and it is once again Laurent Huard, the director of the training center, who will act as interim manager, for the third time. Hoping for a better outcome than the first two…
In January 2021, it was in Strasbourg that he had to replace Claude Puel, affected by the Covid-19 virus, like ten of his players. And if the Stéphanois had not been unworthy, they had lost at Meinau (0-1). The same score as during Huard's second interim period, in December 2023. This time, it was after the dismissal of the current coach, Laurent Batlles, and before Dall'Oglio took office, that he had to play firefighter on duty in the 8th round of the Coupe de France against Nîmes. With therefore a new defeat at the end, and criticism due to the youth of its starting eleven, which had an average age of 21 years.
“We know that the step is high”
“The context will be different from that of Nîmes last season, replied Huard at a press conference. We were clearly in something else, the focus was not on Nîmes but on the following match in the championship against Bordeaux With hindsight, this match undoubtedly started something for coach Dall'Oglio, to the detriment of this famous Coupe de France match against Nîmes.”
And the former midfielder then explained that, for this third interim, he first “wanted to give benchmarks, belief and positive energy to have the bit of confidence that the players need. Because the group does not want to relive the same match, nor the same result as in the last match against OM. It's up to us to find the best way to annoy this team, even if we know that the march is high. , we want to cross it.” Greens who lost against the Marseillais two weeks ago in this same Chaudron where they intend to offer a first success to the director of the training center.
