Brest – Stade Rennais / Stéphan: “We must continue to believe in ourselves, despite perhaps ambient pessimism”
Before the trip to Brest, Julien Stéphan was at a press conference. Excerpts.
International truces: We would prefer to have our group, especially when it has changed so much. We don’t have strong enough benchmarks together. We would like to but last week we had 7 players available. We do it differently. It also allows us to see young people, who come to complement. We’re not going to complain, that’s how it is. We will have a session tomorrow, we have to take advantage of it.
Gouiri: It is performance that dictates choices. There is nothing written upstream, in advance, it is the terrain which always determines the choices we can have.
Transition game: We don’t have a transition game. We had 60% possession against Monaco. This is our 4th match in this system and tomorrow we will attack our 5th. I don’t think we can determine today whether it’s a transition or possession team. The Lyon match, perhaps our best since the start of the season, we excelled in the transition phases. And Amine was the starter. The players we have must be able to express themselves in possession or transition football. We work a lot to develop the team’s style. The first 3 matches played in this system were not sufficiently satisfactory in terms of holding the ball. The Monaco match brought us progress in this regard, in several areas. We still have a lot to develop, we realize that. Against Monaco, we finished at 60-40, with a lot more shots for us, crosses, balls in the area, more criteria which lead us to think that we are also capable of playing in this register. Afterwards, everything depends on the dynamics of the match, home or away, and the characteristics of the opponent determine the rest.
High pressing from the team, but few chances created: After 3-4 matches, I’m a little more measured on these things. We are also the 2nd team to underperform in terms of points taken, we are at -4 points. After 3-4 matches, it seems a little early to be able to determine things. We look at them, we rely on them, it gives us areas of work. But on Big Chances (= chances to score), we don’t create enough, that’s clear. Of course this is an area of work for us.
Risk-free team: Too defensive? No. We cannot say that we are a team that recovers the ball the highest and say that we are a defensive team. It’s not logical. When we press high, it’s not to be defensive. It is to try to weigh on the adversary and prevent him from expressing himself. We are not a defensive team, but a team that has not managed to put everything together to… We are also one of the rare teams in the championship that has scored in every game since the start of the season. I hope it continues. There are 4: Strasbourg, Monaco and Paris. More us.
More goals conceded than xG suffered: We are part of the top 3 teams who limit entries in our last 30 meters. On the other hand, these teams create situations to score. We need to resolve this in terms of aggression. The second goal conceded against Monaco is quite significant in this regard.
Rennes not where it should be in the rankings today: Yes, today. We’ll see in 10 or 20 matches. If we are in the culture of the moment, we are not where we hoped to be. But we are where we should be in relation to what we have done, even if we are short of points compared to those hoped for. If we don’t have them, there’s a reason. You have to analyze them carefully and continue to develop. There has been a sufficiently strong pressure for several months that exists, well developed and well created. There is the pressure we put on ourselves every day to develop, improve, and improve the accounting situation.
Discussions with Arnaud Pouille: As in every situation like this, there is a relationship to initiate, establish, discover each other. When you are a coach, it is always better to explain what you are doing, what you want to do, rather than having someone else explain it for you. Yes, (he felt) listened to. But I listened to it too, it was a dialogue. In these situations, we share, we exchange, we discover each other.
Heavy climate around him: Around the club, for a year, I have found yes. Not just around me, around the club. It had an impact on me, I told you that when I came. It was quite dark, pessimistic, yes. There were certainly reasons. Afterwards, around me, it lasted for a few months, I got used to it. Already since the end of last season. It took a month of difficulty that had swept away 3 incredible months before. No one remembers those 3 months, ever. We’re just talking about the last month, but not the 3 months before, the 11 victories in 15 matches. It is never considered, written down. It’s the way of presenting things. We move forward, we work, we develop and we remain very united, united. In these moments, it is necessary. We must continue to believe in ourselves, despite perhaps an ambient pessimism, which we can understand by certain results, but we must continue to believe in what we do, it is very important, and continue to believe in our players and push them in this direction.
Block of 4 matches determining its future: If it is, it is. But I’m not going to change my attitude, my behavior, for that. I know my job, the rules, lots of things. I read a lot of things, I hear a lot of things, but we remain focused with the staff and the players on the work, the development, the competition and the desire to progress of a group which continues to discover itself.
Time for the team to have a solid foundation: I have no idea but I think a streak of two positive consecutive games could really spark something. One won’t necessarily be enough, two can start to generate something important in terms of confidence. When we manage to maintain confidence in the players, what is decisive is the victories. We must maintain it as much as possible because when we are in a difficult situation, it is the central element against which we must fight. When there is no more trust, it becomes very difficult.
Brest : The special thing is that we have one day to prepare it by recovering more than half of the squad. The other is that we are going to play a very strong team in direct play, attacking the area, being able to put pressure on through this type of play. We expect Ajorque to be called upon a lot in direct play, that there is a very dynamic attack on the surface on their part, with a team which is moving forward after a difficult start to the season. Toulouse has also been seriously underperforming since the start of the season. Brest, what they do, they do it well. They have size up there, power, strong midfield players on the second ball and capable of projecting from there. They have their own style, in which they perform well.
Last season’s 5-4 loss: More than half of the squad has changed since then. Do not necessarily rely on this in the match the day after tomorrow.
Competition for Europe: I think we can always catch up. A very strong series can quickly bring you back, but on the other hand a very strong series of 3 months is not enough, you have to do a series of 6 months behind. It’s complex. I’m not going to say that tomorrow’s match is decisive in meeting the objective at the end of the season, but it will be a very good match to evaluate ourselves and see how in this context we will be able to respond. Because for the moment on the outside we don’t have a reference match. We have already talked about it with the players. It also means that we had gaps in areas or moments of the match allowing us to perform away. I’m thinking in particular of our second half in Reims where we seriously underperformed in terms of team dynamics against an opponent who put us under pressure. We are really going to expect the players in this area on Saturday.
Being the spearhead of Brittany: We will see things at the end of the season. You, I have the impression that you are only on one match, one match, one match every time. We are not one match, one match, one match. What does that mean? That if we beat them on Saturday, we are ahead of them in the standings and we are once again the spearhead? That’s not how it happens. Congratulations to them already for their performance last season and their journey in the Champions League. This deserves to be highlighted. But then, it’s not over one season, but over several. On the other hand, it’s a derby, with what it entails in terms of commitment and intensity, you’ll have to be ready for that.
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