If it wants to maintain the hope of a rescue, the MHSC must regain power at home, where Losc arrives this Sunday, December 1 (3 p.m.).
“A little information. I don’t know if you know about it. If you look at the rankings from last year, at the same time, who was last? Lyon. How many points? Seven. There you go. Have a good day.” Before the reception in Lille this Sunday, Jean-Louis Gasset was a little overwhelmed by the press conference on Friday.
After the last question, the Montpellier HSC coach had a message to convey. A message of hope based on a precedent: last season’s Olympique Lyonnais, bottom red like La Paillade at this stage of the championship, had escaped, even snatching a 7th place as a bonus, synonymous with the Europa League.
One match in three won at home for four years
As he left the stand, the Hérault coach perhaps did not hear the response from one of the journalists, reminding him of OL’s winter transfer window. More than €55 million spent, a record in Europe, which helped save Les Gones. Gasset knows this, just as he already knows that he will not be able to count on the same hard and fast revenue next January. In Montpellier, the springs will be elsewhere, and undoubtedly in La Mosson where there is everything to gain. Because too much has been lost.
The number: 600
Montpellier is playing its 600th home match in Ligue 1 this Sunday. It becomes the 21st club to reach this total, the sixth in the 21st century.
“It’s not just yesterday that La Mosson is no longer scary”agrees Gasset, to whom we don’t do it at his long-time club. Since August 2020, the MHSC has only won 26 of its 80 matches on its lawn (22 draws, 32 defeats), barely one in three (32.5% victories). A starving ratio, to which the 15 goals conceded in six matches (for 8 registered) this season add to the gloom.
Success against Brest, a beacon in the night
Except that the last outing, won against Brest (3-1), awakened a buried pride. And given a benchmark to rely on at the time of the club’s 600th home match in the top flight (read elsewhere). “It’s necessary (let Brest be a click). Because we put a game plan in place, we applied it to the letter and it worked.”appreciates Joris Chotard, without deluding himself, aware “that everything hasn’t been perfect either.”
On the roadmap drawn up by Gasset, in this “positivity” that the ex-coach of OM or Saint-Étienne strives to bring back, this victory is a beacon in the night. The proof that the “a little extra effort” accomplished by Chotard and its partners can pay off. And help to attract supporters in their wake who are waiting for at least one desire at every moment.
“We have to show that if we are last, we don’t have the attitude of being last. I know a little about football and I don’t think we are in the three worst teams in Ligue 1”assures Gasset, who has not escaped the fact that Lyon had gone from the cellar to the attic at home, with 7 victories in their last ten receptions last season. An example to follow, even for a former Green. Question of survival.
