At the end of the defeat against Strasbourg (1-2), President Jean-Pierre Rivère stopped in the mixed zone to speak to the press.

President, can we talk about a crisis?

We are not talking about a crisis. This is football, we are going through a bad patch: It is up to us to work in order to right the ship. There is no other solution.

What is missing from the team?

Lots of little things. That’s part of the dressing room. It is urgent to not hang around anymore, because if we talk about the matches against Marseille, Montpellier and even Lazio, we could have won, but this evening (Sunday), I think that Strasbourg deserves its victory. We had a good period, we could have equalised, but it’s not the case.

“To avoid asking ourselves too many questions”

Do we now have to look behind us?

We just need to work and, maybe to avoid asking ourselves too many questions. We are in a period of the league where there is still time. The problem isn’t about looking forward or backwards, it’s about looking at our work, to progress and to make ourselves stronger, because we are conceding lots of goals.

Is there any disappointment with the new recruits?

I am not going to speak about individuals, because the defeats are for the team. However, it’s all of the group that need to regain confidence in itself. Because, whether they like it or not, confidence is important; the little details count.

A trip to the Parc awaits you on Friday…

On one hand, you lose at the Parc, there is no surprise. This isn’t the most important of games. The most important is to win games like this one against Strasbourg. They are a good team, but we should have won.

So there is no need to be worried?

It’s not that there is “nothing to worry about”, we always need to be vigilant. The worst thing, is the loss of confidence. When you pick up defeats like that, you need to be careful and to be vigilant about it. And the only solution to get out of it, is to work.

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