Patrick Vieira gave his analysis of his team's 3-1 defeat at Montpellier on Saturday.

How do you explain that game?

It's disappointing, over and above the result, the way we played was disappointing. We weren't at it. We weren't good when we had the ball, and we weren't good defensively either. We showed that there are still a lot of things to work on and improve.

You've had problems creating chances since the start of the season…

Today, we came up against a very compact side. It was difficult for us to create overloads. When you don't put any rhythm into your build-up play, it's difficult to knock a team like Montpellier off balance. We also suffered physically. It was difficult for us to create chances. We have the players to do a lot better. Why weren't we able to play better? Why didn't we manage to cause them more problems? Why did we suffer so much when we were defending? We'll have to analyse that. That's when we'll find answers. I've always said that despite winning our first two games, there was still a lot of work to be done. Today, we came up against a clinical and dangerous side that played very well on both sides of the ball. We suffered an enormous amount.

Amine Gouiri brought a lot of energy into the game when he came on late on. Was he not in a position to start?

No, he wasn't in a position to start. He came back from international duty injured. Since he came back to us, he's not trained. He took some anti-inflammatories, but it was a risk to play him. It's a risk I couldn't take and I don't regret it.

Is the fact the team kept going even when they were 3-0 down a positive to take from the game?

It was out of the question that they stop trying. I hope that will never cross the mind of a footballer, and even less so that of an OGC Nice player. That's not representative of our values. I said it before, we came up against a very good team. We didn't play well. We won very few challenges. We took too much time moving the ball round, and because of that, couldn't create overloads. We could have lost by more. We're going to keep working, there are a lot of things to improve.

Khephren Thuram came off at half-time. Why?

I could have taken off other players. I wanted to add a little more individual quality in midfield to be able to beat players, to add a little more speed.

Did you expect such a performance from Montpellier?

We expected a tough match, they're a team with a lot of quality and character. They're a well organised team. They might have lost at Rennes, but they showed individual and collective quality all the same. We had prepared for that. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to put the plan into action today. We'll have to analyse all of that and prepare calmly for the match against Paris.

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