“I’m not going to talk about psychological warfare but…”

Olivier Dall’Oglio evokes the fact that AS Saint-Étienne now has its destiny in its hands: “Of course that’s an advantage. We prefer this place to the one we occupied before. Now that doesn’t change anything in our philosophy and our approach. We know that we have to take care of ourselves first, we have difficult matches and we have to overcome obstacles. We now have comfort but we put comfort aside. (…) Now and for several weeks already, we have been looking at our direct opponents, it is logical. Perhaps I’m not going to talk about psychological warfare, but of course we’re going to observe them. (…) Yes of course Angers can put pressure on us, then if the opponent loses it could give even more ambition. We have to accept it, this time we will play later, this season it was often before, we will have to be strong on that (Angers plays this Friday at 8 p.m., editor’s note). The matches we have to get into the action and play them, we have to focus on ourselves, not think about all that.“

For the Greens coach, ASSE’s opponents will go all out, eager to add a gala match to their roster and most of them still playing something in Ligue 2: “I think whether it’s the Guingamp team or us, we need to win, both teams who are going to play to win. Being two points ahead leaves a small margin but we must not rest on this comfort. We are aware that the last three matches are complicated. The matches before were too. We are going to play teams that have things to play for except perhaps in the last match (against QRM, editor’s note). We are Saint-Étienne, even when there is no stake, we will want to beat us, we cannot cut it. The intensity will be present in front of us.”

If it wasn’t a subject before, goal difference is now one, as the coach confides: “Now goal average becomes a topic. At one time, it wasn’t essential because we had other concerns. Now it’s important, it’s a big detail now. The instructions were that even when we were leading, not conceding goals could make the difference. The instructions will be the same from now on.“

Olivier Dall’Oglio ends up explaining that the Greens have taken ownership of the project of returning to Ligue 1, which makes the difference: “Everything that is in behavior, the common thread has been essential. The plan was first to catch up with the top five, move up to third and then move up. They made this project their own. It also became the players’ project, they took ownership of this ambition, we felt that there was an assumption of responsibility on the part of the players, an awareness that they were in the capacity to make very interesting things together. This awareness has grown to become very strong in recent weeks. (…) We had a lot of collective and individual discussions. We gave a lot of feedback on the matches, we showed with the staff everything that the players could bring individually, which would benefit the collective. There was room for improvement for everyone as I said very early on when I arrived. This margin for progress had to be brought to the collective.”