Pierre Sage satisfied after OL’s victory in Lorient (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)
Satisfied with his team’s fourth victory in a row, Pierre Sage will be able to have a light mind during the break. OL are once again in the first part of the table after their success against Nantes (2-0).
OL winning 2-0 almost without trembling, it’s been a long time since that happened…
Pierre Sage : We are trying to protect you, and us too at the same time (smiles). No more seriously, the victory is deserved even if they had a few situations and Lucas (Perri) still made big saves. I think we could have scored more though. We had control but we had difficulty attacking the depth in the first half. I asked to change that in the second and it showed in the CSC and the fact that OL had more chances in the second half.
There was disappointment against OM, how did you manage to move forward?
We put a hand on the ground and got up. Against OM, there was disappointment with the result and the scenario but I was not unhappy with the content of the match in the energy, the control and the situations created. It was only the efficiency that was not there that evening. Conversely, there is a second match which departs from our good trajectory since the victory over Strasbourg (4-3, August 30), the one won in Toulouse, where we were not good, we must not hide things. We nevertheless manage to win and the strength of a team is also to manage to win when you are not at your level of collective performance.
“There is responsiveness and at the same time respect”
It seems like you have solid foundations now. The cut is happening badly?
One of the performance levers with the pace we have this season is recovery. I consider this rather good news. In addition, going to recover or going to selection while remaining on four victories, we go there with a light heart and a light mind.
Does returning to the first part of the table change a lot of things for OL?
This is a turning point for us. We considered Strasbourg as a turn to survive, we consider Nantes as a turn to be in the first part of the table and more in line with the objectives set. We managed to create the conditions to take this turn from Strasbourg and now we will have to take responsibility for getting closer to our objectives and creating others depending on how the group responds.
Are you satisfied with how players understand your tactics or are there still things to improve?
No, I like it because there is responsiveness, respect and I think we have this flexibility of mind to leave them room in there. A framework allows us to understand ourselves, but a framework allows us to step outside of it to express our creativity. This is very important for players, especially given our profiles. We agree on how we play and sometimes they take over on the pitch to bring things.
