Asked at a press conference after the success won by the Gym against Rennes (3-2) Friday evening at the Allianz Riviera, Franck Haise was satisfied with the overall performance of his men. Even if the Nice technician remains demanding of his group.
Coach, was this the homecoming game you were hoping to see?
I especially hoped that we would win, for the start of the year, to continue to have good momentum in the championship, to put Rennes at 10 points, because for me, it remains a competitor. They were armed from the start of the season, and they are even more so, to be a competitor in Europe. I prefer to have them 10 points behind us. To do it, we had to win. This is already a good thing after a few days of training and playing three defenders who had not played for 40 or even 70 days for some. I think it wasn't so bad overall, on a pitch that is very complicated to play football on.
This evening, your team knew how to act rather than react…
We always try to act, we don't always succeed. When we find a little more elements, and I hope that we will recover three or four more next week, that means that in training, there is more quality. We had between 10 and 12 professional players for a month and a half. It didn't look quite like what I expected, for pretty clear reasons. As the week progressed, we picked up a few more players because not all of them returned last Sunday for the resumption with the group. We felt over the last 2-3 days that there was something more interesting that was created in the relationships, in the intensity… We are going to hope that there will be several weeks like that even if we will quickly get into the sequence of matches. The good thing is to find density in the squad and I hope that it is not over.
We saw a great Evann Guessand this evening…
In sequences, yes. We can always do more. Lots of players, including Evann, had a pretty good match. I will always be very demanding with players, even more with those who have great potential. He must be able to leave his mark on matches even more, even if I am happy with his performance. When you want to go to the very high level, you always have to work, invest… He has done very good things, but I know his potential. From there, I would probably always be a little dissatisfied with him (smile).
He still has a particular attacking profile, with his power, his speed, his size… His range is very complete, we saw it on the goal scored by Gaëtan Laborde, what do you think?
Yes, but there are still things to improve, in the quality of his first touch, in his defensive activity at times, or his reading of defensive situations. I'm here to get the best out of players. Obviously, I'm happy with what Evann has been doing since the start of the season. I don’t think he’s ever had a first six months at this level. There are reasons, he touches on certain things that are important to achieve milestones. But I'm here to keep others coming. And not just tell him: “everything you do is perfect”.
We saw a lawn in fairly average condition, like this summer. Do you have any explanations?
I discovered it this morning when I arrived for the greening. It's not a pitch worthy of a club like Nice or a Ligue 1 club. Both teams have done quite good things on this pitch. From a distance, when I arrived this morning, I realized that it wasn't bad but when you're on it, it's a disaster. I had no explanation, and neither did the club. The ground wasn't very good before, but now it was even worse.
We have the impression that what made the difference was the energy that the team was able to put into pressing and duels. Have you felt a boost of energy thanks to the truce?
There was energy but also tactical work to manage the “3+2” on Rennes' outings of the ball, with four players on our side to be able to keep a surplus, with the help of our two central players and our two defensive midfielders, for a good part of the match. We had to manage the dives and the three opposing offensive players. Our full-backs managed the pistons, so there was tactical work different from what we have done recently, because I knew that we would defend with four at the back. There was energy in the first half, there was also energy to finish the match. Honestly, I thought some people who hadn't played in a very long time and only had a few days of practice would have a harder time finishing it. Rennes' tactical changes led to another change of system for us, to densify the heart of the game when Seko Fofana entered. There was energy, play and tactics. That’s what it takes, at a minimum, to win games.
Do you finally see the end of the tunnel in terms of injuries and squad density?
For next weekend, we should recover Jo' Clauss, who was suspended this evening, plus three players during the week: Tom Louchet, Moïse Bombito and Ali Abdi. Full-backs, central defenders, midfielders… It's already a good thing if we get these four back and keep everyone. There will certainly be other returns during February, more in the offensive area. What is certain is that this brings higher quality to training, and choices, competition, which is good for the coach that I am.
You are back to within three points of Monaco in the standings…
What matters instead is having 27 points. We will look at the ranking at the end of the season, even if at one point we were 9 points behind Monaco. It's pretty good.
