Nice coach Lucien Favre admitted his team's short-comings, both collectively and individually, and discussed his decision to opt for a 3-5-2 formation...

Coach, is this worst performance by your team since you've been coach at Nice?
Yes, I think so. A lot of things didn't work out there today. Starting with our pressing game which was too disorganised. Sometimes we should have sat deeper because we know that Lyon are very good on the counterattack. We played into their hands.

You seem a little bit dazed…
No, not at all. I know exactly what has happened. The formation is one thing, and I was the one that chose it. Against Zulte, we played with another system and we also conceded 6 or 7 scoring chances. There are other issues, like finding the balance between attack and defence. But there were too many mistakes when we lost possession and that is what we need to focus on now.

Your 3-5-2 hasn't really worked so far this season…
That's true. Playing so many matches isn't easy for certain players. Like I said, we also conceded too many chance on Thursday, while playing a different formation. Because of that, I wanted to reduce the space between the lines... but it didn't work. That's my fault. I accept the criticism for that choice.

Do you think your players struggled with the change in formation?
I don't think so. We played this way a lot last season. We've also used it two or three times this season, in Rome, against Lazio, for example, where we used a very similar 3-6-1, and it worked. But today everything went wrong, especially in defence.

You were very critical of your side after the victory and qualification against Zulte…
It was good to qualify on Thursday night, but even then, our opponents had far too many scoring opportunities. They were through one-on-one with our 'keeper two or three times...

Are you worried by the absence of a fightback in the second half?
It's very difficult when you're trailing 4-0 at half-time. It's hard to bounce back. Despite that, we tried to play our way back into the game a little. We changed the formation, but then found ourselves down to ten men after a harsh red card. It's not easy to find back when you're trailing 4-0 and down to ten men...

"Defensively, we fell apart"

What can you do to get moving forward again?
We don't have any choice in the matter. We have to analyse the how and why. We lost this game in defence, but we are also struggling up front. We feel apart defensively today.

Should Nice be looking over their shoulder rather than higher up the table?
Given where we sit today, it's clearly not good. When you are down here, when you are losing games you should be drawing and drawing games you should be winning, it's not a good sign. Yes, the current situation is worrying.

You didn't play well as a team, but there were also a lot of individual mistakes...
When you suffer a bi gloss like this, obviously there are individual errors; poor positioning, poor passes... But above all, it's the team that didn't perform today.

Is it a good thing to have two games to come this week?
It's been a while that we haven't been able to work too hard in training, that we don't have too much time to prepare for matches... But that's the way it is, the games are coming thick and fast and we don't have any say in the matter.

Are you angry with your players?
No. I have to analyse what went wrong. We are already looking towards the matches against Toulouse and Metz where we absolutely have to pick up points.

Are you also working on the winter mercato that starts in a month?
I am not focusing on that. Above all, I hope to get one or two injured players back before the winter break. We need to get back on our feet, work with the players that are here, and whatever happens, we should be doing a lot better than we are at the moment.

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