See what Franck Haise had to say after his team’s 2-1 win at Rennes.

Coach, finally an away win for your team, with the same ingredients we’ve seen in recent weeks and a lot of courage at the end…
Yes, especially in the second half. Along with courage, I would have liked us to show a bit more control and composure at times. But that’s part of our story. When you keep losing players from the squad, you inevitably lack certain technical qualities. For now, the squad is making up for it with a lot of heart. In the first half, even though we sometimes lacked technical precision, there were still some promising things.

Jonathan Clauss came off at halftime - what happened?
He was feeling some pain in his knee. I don’t yet know exactly what’s going on. Momo (Ali Cho) felt some discomfort in his groin during warm-up, a muscle problem. The players want to play, but when I tell them I’m resting them for a reason… well, now we see why.

Did Jonathan Clauss give you the best possible response after his red card against Celta Vigo on Thursday?
It’s always on the pitch that you have to give your response. That’s the only thing that really counts, whether you’re a player or a coach. He played well today - he’s got experience, and that matters. He’s not the same player I knew at Lens, coming from the Bundesliga 2, with a different career path from most. He’s matured. He’s able to analyse what he does well and what he doesn’t. Jo is open-minded and intelligent enough to question himself. He knows he shouldn’t have picked up that second yellow on Thursday. He wanted to respond, and he did so with his performance today during the time he was on the pitch.

Does this victory validate the rotation choices you made on Thursday?
Like the players, coaches are only right when they win, no matter what choices they make. That’s how it is - we can say whatever we want. I know why I make certain decisions because I have information that others don’t. We changed six players, and people said we lost because of too much rotation. But the opposing team (Celta Vigo) made seven changes, and their coach was right, because he won. It’ll always be that way. It’s not a big deal.

Last season, your team often cracked in the closing minutes. This year, it seems like you’re holding out better. Has something changed in the team’s mentality?
It’s never just luck, but we do need more control. It’s one thing to suffer for 5–10 minutes at the end when the opponent throws everything forward, but we suffered for much longer and didn’t have enough phases of control. The guys are doing their best with the options we have right now, but sometimes we lack the technical quality to keep the ball higher up the pitch. We didn’t pay the price for it tonight, but we weren’t far off doing so.

Did you sense that Rennes were struggling confidence-wise in the first half?
Yes, that was clear. They struggled to deal with our “3+2” build-up, and they looked unrecognisable at times. It’s not as if we were overflowing with confidence either - we’ve got the same number of points, and our start to the season hasn’t been easy, even if our momentum is a bit better. We managed to use their hesitation to press at the right moments. At 2–0, I knew they would inevitably throw everything forward in the second half. When you’re at home, in front of your fans, with some substitutions, of course, you react. We also had a height disadvantage because of some of our missing players, so I knew we could be in trouble on set-pieces and crosses, which we were.

It seems like your young defence, particularly Kojo Peprah Oppong, is managing to hold its own even without Dante…
Juma (Bah) played well off the bench, just like against Lyon. He’s been criticised a bit, and I’m here first and foremost to defend my players when they deserve it, even if they don’t do everything perfectly, like anyone else. Coming into tough matches like Lyon and Rennes isn’t easy. Like Kojo, these are young players, let’s not forget that. Juma had played eight Ligue 1 matches before joining us; Kojo had around fifteen top-flight games in Sweden; Antoine (Mendy) had never been a regular starter in Nice’s defence. We’ve basically started the whole season with these three young defenders, aged between 18 and 20. They’re learning, they’re progressing. And during that process, you make mistakes. They have made them, but they’re making fewer now, which is positive.