Franck Haise spoke to the press after OGC Nice’s 2-0 win over LOSC Lille at the Allianz Riviera this evening (Matchday 10 of Ligue 1).

Your side was dominated, and yet you’ve come away with a 2-0 win. What are your feelings following this game?

If I get dominated like that every weekend, that’s fine by me. We didn’t give that much away in the end. In terms of fighting for possession, we don’t necessarily have the right tools at our disposal, especially against a team of Lille’s calibre. Our aim isn’t to fight for possession but to be as solid and as watertight as possible because even though we’ve been winning matches recently, we’ve also been leaving our opponents with a lot of space at certain points. I think that we’ve really stepped up a notch in that respect because we felt solid tonight.

Do you feel as though there’s been an improvement since the Rennes game? In the second half, you attacked more often and with more ease, and you managed to score that second goal…
Yes. We conceded a lot fewer chances. Lille had shots, but they were rarely from good positions, which is a sign that we defended well. If our opponents could have even fewer shots, that would be perfect, and if we could have a few more shots ourselves, that would be even better. I think that there’s been real progress between the Rennes game, particularly the second half, and tonight’s game. We attacked more regularly and spent more time in control, although I would’ve liked us to have a bit more in the second half, but what really pleased me was our compactness, with everyone working smartly and collectively, because there’s a reason why Lille have scored the most goals of any team in France [this season, before tonight]. We kept a clean sheet and gave away very little.

Is the fact that the second goal came from the bench – with Morgan Sanson getting the assist and Isak Jansson scoring it – a good indicator of a squad that’s doing well, that’s finding itself and that’s capable of standing firm in the face of adversity, despite all of the absentees?

Yes, because we do have a lot of absentees. There are guys who have been playing a lot and who finished the game feeling exhausted. It’s important for the substitutes to perform well, and the two players who were involved in the second goal had come off the bench. Tom Louchet and Hicham Boudaoui also did well when they came on to work in the midfield, and guys like Tiago Gouveia – who was at right wing-back, where we wanted him – really stepped up by doing very well alongside Antoine Mendy and Salis Abdul Samed to close down and double up on [Matias] Fernández-Pardo, who is an excellent player. There were quite a few of those indicators on the pitch as well as positive “finishers”.

Can you say a few words about the performance of Yéhvann Diouf, who is becoming increasingly solid?
Solid, although he was protected more today than he usually is. He’s given us something extra this season, particularly in the air but also at set pieces. We don’t have the most athletic or the tallest team, and he really is a goalkeeper whose reading of the ball’s trajectory helps him to reassure our defence.

Sofiane Diop scored again tonight. What did you make of his performance? You hadn’t been very happy with his recent displays…
I didn’t say that; don’t misinterpret what I say. He’s just scored in five straight games, which hasn’t been done here since 1977. I said that you always need to be demanding with Sofiane, as you need to be with every great player. In the first half, he occasionally let some little things slide, so we can’t stop focusing on him. I’m just here to try to get the best out of my team. I’m very happy with how he’s doing, but he can still do better.

This run of four games – against Monaco, Lyon, Rennes and Lille – looked formidable on paper, but you’ve come out of those four games with 10 points. If someone had told you that a month ago, would you have believed them?
No. A month ago, we had a lot of things to fix in every aspect. The team needed to assert itself and to build itself, while our way of defending needed to improve, and we’ve made progress in those respects. It’s lucky that we did because if we hadn’t had all of those things, plus our mentality and our heart in certain games, we wouldn’t have picked up 10 points. We’ve also done so by scoring goals; we’ve scored at least twice in each of our last five games if I’m not mistaken. Even though we don’t have Lille’s control, that hasn’t stopped us from scoring two goals in each of our last five games and even three in one of them.

Can you clear up the situation regarding Jonathan Clauss?
The test that he underwent this morning is very normal. I’m not saying that he doesn’t have a problem with his knee, but the test itself is very normal. We’re expecting him to take part in team training. He trained on his own today, probably with some slight discomfort, but in the same way that a lot of players train with slight discomfort, especially given that the test didn’t show anything. As a manager, I just expect him to be on the pitch tomorrow. If the pain is too strong, we’ll try to figure out why, but we’ve taken every measure needed to make sure that we’re not ignoring anything, which is the case.

For Saturday’s game against PSG at the Parc des Princes, can we expect to see you pull off another upset like the one last season given that you weren’t expecting to get 10 points from the last four games?
If one thing’s for sure, it’s that we’ve got a lot of little niggles because, as I said, some of the players have strung together a lot of games. We’ll rotate the squad a lot, but there are positions where I can’t do that. We’ll need to be fresh because otherwise I’ll be putting certain players in danger. Paris are a lot stronger than us, even though they were held to a draw tonight. I saw that they had also made quite a few changes, which they have to do, just like every team playing in Europe does. I know that they’ll want to get back to winning ways before they play against Bayern, but we’ll go there to do what we can. I know how we won away to Paris last season: with a lot of energy and some luck. Without luck, you’ll never win away to Paris, especially not 3-1. We’ll try to go there to be organised, to fight and to play as well as possible.

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