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Patrick Vieira gave his thoughts on Le Gym’s first half of this season after his side’s victory over Toulouse (3-0).

The win against TFC

We had a very good first half, we produced some good stuff, we scored. In the second half, we didn’t respect the match, we made things difficult for ourselves in our attacking phases. From then on, it was quite difficult to create chances. But on the whole, I am very happy with this match.

Hicham Boudaoui

Hicham is a player who works extremely hard both in defence and in attack. He brings a lot of depth to our game. He was very good at Lyon. This evening, he showed some really excellent things. We need to continue to work with him and to help him to progress. Honestly, he was very good.

A match to use as a reference point?

I don’t know. But it’s true that we created lots of chances, we scored three of them. We didn’t concede, which is also a very good thing. We have been in good form in our last three games, and in the way we have played, there have been some really interesting things.

An identity in your play?

We have players who are a lot better physically. That’s why what we are producing is a lot better. There are links that we are beginning to create because the players are able to train and play matches together. The players put in the effort for their teammates. When you look at Hicham, Myziane and Kasper’s performances: they were working a lot. We showed a very good mentality. That’s what we need to keep going. The winter break? It’s come at the right time.

His analysis of the first half of the season

Mixed. The first half wasn’t good enough. The match this evening was very interesting, but on the whole, we weren’t consistent. There are a lot of regrets. We struggled to put in strong performances and pick up good results one after the other. We also showed that we are a very young side and there are lots of things to improve. I hope that we will be a lot better in the second half of the season.

The league table

It’s been that way since the start of the seasons there aren’t many points between fourth and 17th. We knew that to stay in the right carriage, we needed to pick up a series of good results. The last three games have been pretty positive.

An eye opener

The players realised that our performance against Le Mans was unacceptable. There are players who have a very positive attitude: it’s down to me to make them play. I always put the team in the spotlight and unfortunately, in this first half of the season, I haven’t always respected that. In terms of the performances of the team, there are lots that can ask questions of themselves. If they don’t change their attitude, they won’t have much game time.

I don’t regret my choices, because now I can use them as a lesson. I also need to analyse this first half of the season to see how I can improve the squad in terms of the work that I put in place  and the choices I make. Some have played and perhaps haven’t deserved to play. In the second half of the season, once again, some players can worry if they don’t change their attitudes. I will say it again: if they aren’t a lot more positive and don’t think about the team before themselves, they won’t have much game time.

Returning to training

We had planned to come back on the afternoon of 28 December, but we will return on 29. And the session that would have been on 28, we will catch up on it on 31 December

The injuries

Adam (Ounas) didn’t feel up to playing after the knock he picked up in training yesterday. Malang (Sarr) went to the very end, but it was impossible for him to continue. He tried, he was in too much pain. We have had a lot of bad luck in the first half of the campaign with injuries. Even in our last session, Gautier (Lloris) and Adam were inured. Once we have all our players back, we will be in the mix. But we can see those links forming between players. These are very positive things.

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