Interview

Patrick vieira: «Other virtures»

Patrick Vieira expressed his satisfaction during the post-match press conference following his third team’s third win in a week.

Patrick, are you happy with tonight’s win?

Yes, I’m very happy with the team’s performance and very happy to have taken the three points. We showed a different face tonight because we were up against a team that caused us a lot of problems. We didn’t plan to suffer in that way but we came to terms with it, and it was through different virtues that we managed to win.

Did you enjoy it?

Yes. In the last while we’ve conceded far too many goals so winning two league games without conceding is satisfying. We can’t always play well. What’s important is to understand why.

Some of the supporters expressed their displeasure in spite of the win…

When you look at the home game against Dijon, we played good football but let in four goals. Over time I think the fans will be happier with results.

Your team had trouble creating chances all the same…

In attack it’s true that we had much fewer chances than in the previous games. We set the bar quite high in the past few matches. Amiens made things difficult and you have to know how to come to terms that. We scored a goal and won – that’s enough for me to be satisfied.

"We Lost a lot of POINTS at home while playing very well. Tonight we won while not playing as well."

A word on Mario Balotelli, who we’re waiting to be liberated with a first goal of the sesason...

You know they said the same thing about Myziane a few days ago. On Wednesday he scored and tonight he was decisive for our goal. Mario did a lot of work defensively. Along with Allan, they defended a lot and in the end that helped the team give up much fewer chances.

We have the impression that your team really is better away from home…

Mathematically, yes. But in terms of content, I’ll repeat that we’ve played some good matches at home without getting a result. A match like this will do us good and help us grow. We’ll analyse it. It’s also important to understand why we didn’t control the game and why we didn’t have as much of the ball as we wanted. We lost a lot of points at home while playing very well. Tonight we won while not playing as well.

Wylan Cyprien seems to be playing better and better…

Yes, he’s gaining in confidence and has simplified his game. When our individual games are better, the collective game will be better – it’s logical. Jallet and Dante helped us with their experience. In midfield Adri (Tameze) relieved us on a lot of occasions.

You did suffer at the end of the match all the same…

I found we were better at the end by changing to five at the back. It wasn’t a great match – I agree – but the values we showed will allow us to go further.

What are they?

Willpower, teamwork, solidarity. We were maybe missing some of those at the start. At home until now we’ve really lacked defensive rigour. We had to find the balance to be better in attack. Tonight our forwards defended very well.

Do you think that finding yourselves in the top half of the table can liberate your players?

Maybe. It will give us confidence, but we know that it’s very tight and that that the table can change from one week to the next.