Claude Puel spoke to the press after his OGC Nice side’s 4-0 defeat to Rennes at the Allianz Riviera on Matchday 25 of Ligue 1.

Is tonight’s loss a painful one?
Yes, although every defeat hurts. I’d say that we showed some good intent early on but that we were too easily brushed aside for the first goal and then again for the following chance. We somewhat gave Rennes the weapons that they needed in order to hurt us and to take the lead. We then saw a team that was trying to swing into action and to respond but that was struggling against a confident team that had won its previous three games and that was able to control us technically, firstly by playing tidy football and then, in the second half, by being clinical with the few chances that they got. The fact that we took our foot off the gas meant that they scored again. That’s how I’d sum up the match.

You tried using Sofiane Diop as a number nine today. What were you hoping for by putting him in that position? 
He’s played there before. In general, he has a great work rate and endurance. The aim was initially to try to galvanise the team and to start the game well. It worked pretty well in the first few minutes, but even then, we could feel that we weren’t providing enough support to the pressing system that we want to apply, which allowed Rennes to play the ball out, and that we could have had more players higher up the pitch in order to reap the benefits of the work that Sofiane Diop and Morgan Sanson did early in the game. With Kevin Carlos, too, we are trying out different situations; we also tried moving Mohamed-Ali Cho into the middle. We’re quite simply trying not to concede any chances, but not much is going right for us. Firstly, the first two substitutions that we made were due to injury, both for Kojo Peprah Oppong and for Cho, who played the final few minutes of the first half injured. There were a succession of things that we had to face during the game, and I don’t think that we had any luck throughout. We had chances that we didn’t take, and they were clinical with theirs by converting the few that they did have.

We saw Kojo Epprah Oppong suffer from a physical issue very early on but stay on the pitch. He then had some trouble with marking Estéban Lepaul and came off shortly afterwards. Could you tell us what happened during those few minutes of hesitation? Did Kojo want to try his luck?
He felt something after his first tackle, but he didn’t know if it was a knock or a muscular issue, so he wanted to keep playing. He then asked to come off, so we’ll keep an eye on him.

What tools do you have in order to turn the team’s poor form around in Ligue 1?
There aren’t any secrets; this hurts. There have been quite a few positive signs since I came back here, with good performances that haven’t been rewarded. Overall, that was the case for this performance, and not being rewarded hurts everyone. We constantly need to start again, but that’s just how it is for us in the second half of this season. We won’t be spared from anything, but we need to make luck go our way. Of course, we’re disappointed and hurt after this game, which is completely normal, and that goes for the players, the coaching staff and everyone else, but we’ll go again early next week, get our heads together, regain the fitness that we need, correct what deserves to be corrected and move forward. We know that we need to fight, and I think that the whole squad is ready to do so. We’ll lift our heads up again; besides, there aren’t a whole host of other solutions. We need to go into our next game, away to Angers, with ambition.

What can you say to the fans?
Everyone is hurt, and everyone is fighting. We need to do better both individually and collectively, but no one wants to give up, so we need the fans in these tough times. Again, there isn’t much that we aren’t being spared from, although we’re obviously at fault. When you lose by that kind of scoreline, you know that you didn’t perform well enough in every aspect, but the fans need to know that we won’t give up and that we need them. It’ll be hard until the very end, and both we and they need to prepare for that, but we all need to stick together and have the same aim, which is to do what needs to be done in order to secure our survival. Every point will count.

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