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Ursea: “A lack of respect for the badge”

Angry and disappointed, Adrian Ursea spoke after the Gym’s defeat to Dijon (2-0).

Adrian, what happened?

Never mind the result, the performance is unacceptable. There aren’t tons of explanations, technical reasons, tactical or physical. If we had to look for excuses on that front it would mean that we got it wrong. No it was just about our mentality. We had a lack of respect for the badge.

How would you explain the poor mentality?

I can’t explain It especially because that’s what enabled us to be on a good run until now. That’s what made us do what was needed to get out of the difficult situation we were in. Why up until today did we have and not today? It’s very hard to understand.

What did you say to the players in the dressing room?

What I just told you here: that we had a lack of respect for the badge.

How can you bounce back?

I couldn’t tell you right now. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting that. Once more I’m not talking about the result but about the performance . It’s very tough to say, right after the game what the solutions are. I need to digest what I saw today. Once I’ve done that we’ll try to find the solutions like we’ve done until now. I simply hope that we won’t enter a downward spiral and that the players will have the pride to not give up because it’s in the club’s interests and about respecting the fans. These are crucial things, and the values on which we can build something upon. Today, that’s where we were poor.

Do you feel betrayed by your team?

I’m very disappointed. I put the staff in with myself. I don’t think that it’s about betrayal. I know the players well enough; they aren’t the type of players who betray us. I still maintain that I can’t explain the poor performance.

You took Hassane Kamara, Pierre Lees-Melou and Rony Lopes off on the hour mark. Why those three?

I could have taken quite a few off… I tried to push on to try and get level, be more dangerous down the right with Youcef, and then on the left as best we could, Myziane was still able to create some good situations. I also need a midfield that could push us forward quicker. And I wanted to reinforce the left hand side with Stanley who could bring a bit more going further with more crosses to bring money into the final 16 metres.

Do you think that your players still believe in Europe and that Marseille et Rennes winning knocked them down?

I never felt that from the team. Quite the opposite, I felt a real desire to go forward game by game until the end of the league, because that could bring something interesting. We never spoke bout Europe being a goal because we were 16th not long ago. Are yesterday’s results and the gap growing the reason the players thought it would be easy against the bottom side? I hope not. Because at this level it’s about honouring the jersey and the badge. I think that today we didn’t do that.

It’s the second time you’ve lost to Dijon this season. Is there an explanation?

No. I don’t think so. They did what they needed to. We weren’t there mentally to take control of the game and put Dijon under pressure. We could tell there was a lack of confidence for Dijon but they did what was required to open the scoring. From then on it was quite difficult for us.