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Ursea: "We need to put in full performances"

Adrian Ursea spoke to the press following his side's defeat at Metz (1-2). 

It's disappointment that dominates your feelings this evening…

Yes, another disappointment unfortunately. It's pretty similar to the one against Marseille, with a first half where we weren't at the races. I can't explain it for the moment, so I can't justify our absence in the first half. We give away a two goal lead, we know that running after a game is always very difficult, even more so against Metz, who man mark and played with a very deep back line in the second half. The mission was difficult. My regret today is that we haven't be able to do what we discussed in our pre-match briefing, in training. We knew how to approach this match, we weren't able to do that.

Your position in the league is worrying…

We have been in this situation for a while now. It didn't change after one win in the cup, against Angers, or after two good second halves. We know that we are struggling, we are trying to correct that. We need to be able to put in full performances, so that we don't let a half pass us by and then hope for a positive result in the end.

There were some positives in the second half, but without real chances…

Yes. We were playing in and around their box. But with the compactness of their block, we needed to be a little more lucid, find the right timing and that little bit of quality. We weren't able to find the ingredients needed to create more problems for them.

What did you say to your side at half-time?

We went back over the things we needed to do. We also called for a reaction, we couldn't let ourselves go on like that. There was a mixed performance in the second half, it was more presentable. We managed to score the penalty, but unfortunately, we weren't able to make the most of the other chances to get back into the game.

Amine Gouiri was on the scoresheet once again, despite his preparation for the match being disturbed…

Yes, his preparation was disturbed. He tested positive and then had two other tests, which were both negative. Amine has been in form for a while now, he is doing his job and is bringing what he needs to bring to the team. Let's hope that he will continue.

In the next couple of matches, Le Gym will face Lorient and Nîmes who are below you in the league table. This run of matches will be very important?

There is no point in looking at a run of matches in our situation. The only thing that counts is the next match. We have been trying a lot of different things for a while now, be it tactically or mentally. We must find solutions. We need to be clearer, to have that desire to go to the very end of every move. More than anything, we need to refuse to concede goals. Today, we conceded, then we had to chase the match. It destabilises us mentally too.

You once again had several players missing, will you be boosted by the return of any players for the match against Rennes? 

We hope that Atal, Lotomba and Dolberg will all be back. We need to take a look at how they are getting on physically. Given the length of their absences, they aren't players that we can 100% rely on for the whole match. We will take a look at this in the week.